Russian Berdan II dragoon

[Mustang]

A few years back, I spied an odd rifle at a LGS. It was described by the owner as a "single shot Mosin". Turned out to be a fairly rare Russian Berdan II dragoon in nice shape. I also glommed two Dovitis Mauser 71's (6.5 Daudateau caliber). The Berdan seems to be all matching, including the cleaning rod.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

That's pretty cool. I'm not nearly as into the C&R stuff as I'd like to be.
Is that the Imperial Russian double headed eagle on the stock?

[Emdawg]

That is neat. A rare rifle designed by an interesting American.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

That is neat. A rare rifle designed by an interesting American.

Explain please? (Once again illustrating my woeful lack of knowledge in the C&R field.)

[Emdawg]

The rifle was desgined by Col. Hiram Berdan.

He became famous during the War Between the States for organizing Berdan's Sharpshooters: the first official "marksmen" units. They wore green uniforms and used a variety of the more accurate rifles of the period to snipe.

After the war he really got into modernization of the military. Most of his ideals took hold in Europe. The Berdan Rifle was adopted by Imperial Russia in 1869 and used until 1891 when the Mosin Nagant variant was introduced.

His other innovations include the infamous Berdan Primers as well as some less known things like a rangefinder, submarine, and a distance fuse for artillery shells.

[C&Rtrader]

That is a pretty awesome pickup. well done!

[QuarterBoreGunner]

That is awesome, thanks!

The rifle was desgined by Col. Hiram Berdan.

He became famous during the War Between the States for organizing Berdan's Sharpshooters: the first official "marksmen" units. They wore green uniforms and used a variety of the more accurate rifles of the period to snipe.

After the war he really got into modernization of the military. Most of his ideals took hold in Europe. The Berdan Rifle was adopted by Imperial Russia in 1869 and used until 1891 when the Mosin Nagant variant was introduced.

His other innovations include the infamous Berdan Primers as well as some less known things like a rangefinder, submarine, and a distance fuse for artillery shells.

[SVT-40]

Very nice! Matching with a unmessed with stock. That is rare!!

[Emdawg]

Looking at it I presume that is a Berdan II.

After further analysis:

CONGRATULATIONS!!! It's a Tula!

[Mustang]

Thanks, guys.

Emdawg...definitely a Berdan II. This is the "dragoon" model, which supposedly is the rarest of the bunch (rifle, dragoon, cossack). The "cossack" model has a weird straight trigger with no trigger guard (!).

[plumbum]

Absolutely cool.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

[Mustang]

Thanks, plum

Here's a link to some additional information about Berdan II's

http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Single%20Shot%20Cartridge%20Rifles/M1870%20Russian%20Berdan%20II/M1870%20Russian%20Berdan%20II.htm#dragoon

[Emdawg]

Thanks, guys.

Emdawg...definitely a Berdan II. This is the "dragoon" model, which supposedly is the rarest of the bunch (rifle, dragoon, cossack). The "cossack" model has a weird straight trigger with no trigger guard (!).

Very nice. And it's a Tula on top of that.

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

That's awesome! I didn't know those were available Stateside.

Is this the original .42 caliber, or is it a 7.62x54R conversion? (They found these didn't hold up all that well...)

Regards,

Josh

[gunboat]

In the late 50's I passed up buying one of these in favor of a Remington rolling block -
The berdans were selling for about $9.95, the rem for $4.95 -
They had several models available both I and II and serious amounts of them.
This was at "ye olde hunter" in alexandria Va -- the then retail outlet for Interarms.
thanks for the memory jog --