Bullard Large-Frame Lever Rifle
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- Опубліковано 31 гру 2024
- The Bullard company was one of the lesser-known firearm manufacturers during the late 1800s, producing both single-shot falling block and lever-action repeating rifles. This particular example is a .45 caliber large-frame sporter. It was originally a very fancy, high end version of the gun, and saw quite a lot of use in the last 130 years...
www.forgottenwe...
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A gun that has been heavily used yet taken care of is the best kind of gun
Much like my fleshlight.
@@ILikeToLaughAtYou lmao
Nothing more beautiful than a rifle that has been heavily but respectfully used.
Thanks for the opportunity to view this excellent example of Bullard's
craftsmanship.
Totally agree: I love a high quality machine that's actually been bought to use and shows that honestly without touch-up or restoration. Doesn't matter whether it's a gun, a camera, a motorbike or anything else.
so glad the title sequence was wrong and it's this beautiful piece of art work and not the Ladies home companion again!
This is probably the Rolls-Royce Phantom of 19th Century lever rifles. Completely impractical from a business standpoint, but still such a good rifle.
Thanks!
That is a beautiful piece of engineering. Cobrays and Khyber Pass pieces are amusing for sure, but ones like this are just fascinating. Glad to have the chance to see it in detail!
Your RIA videos have been a really interesting look into a lot of manufactures I'd have never otherwise heard of. Great idea on somebody's part!
Just sat down to relax on a Friday evening and now I have something to Google until way past my bedtime. Absolutely beautiful rifle.
Thre is so much history behind all of these weapons, it's amazing. I swear I can't wait till I can start collecting. Great videos, and lots of great info.
One of the features of the bottom loading is that if the operating lever is not pulled back to its limit, the lift gate stays in position so it can be single loaded without bothering the cartridges in the magazine tube. Pointed bullets are practical for us handloaders.
I just wish my teacher had done some revision! your mini lectures rock some wonderful arms!
That's actually a really, really good looking gun.
Ian, I note the similarity to the Remington Rolling Block action. In fact it appears Mr Bullard essentially designed a beautiful 'mechanisation' of this via lever, thus obviating all manual operation that the Remington required. The evident result is an action as strong as the rolling block with the speed and ease of a rack-and-pinion lever gun. Sweet.
I noticed that familiar silhouette in the receiver too! And you're exactly correct about the action. Rack- and- pinion(or a creeper gear similar to the action design of the 1860 Colt Army ramrod).
Looks like an ambidextrous design that might be a little more handy than something like a Henry, which loads from the muzzle end. Pretty cool rifle.
A very unique, well designed, and beautiful lever action rifle. If only!
My name is Jake Bullard and so naturally I love this rifle.
Ian, this might be my favorite episode. I love guns like this.
It has an incredible patina , awesome piece , love history
2:25
"An extraordinary piece of wood"
I like this phrase so much, it sounds like a such cute insult.
There’s also a joke in there, although I’m not quite immature enough to make it.
Surprised you did not demonstrate the gearing creeper that makes the action so strong and smooth?
I´m always impressed by these old gunmakers, so thank you for uploading !
WOW That piece had to be beautiful originally! I never cared for opulent engraving etc, but workmanship and wood oh yes!
same
I was disappointed you didn't get into how the action worked. No description of the locking mechanism. :(
Excellent presentation.
This is easily one of the top 10 coolest lever guns ever made. Could you get these chambered for modern smokeless cartridges?
Nope, they were out of business before introducing any rifles that were safe for smokeless loads.
+Forgotten Weapons not saying I would be stupid enough to shoot smokeless in this but could this action built with modern steel handling smokeless because as a lefty this manual of arms would be awesome
A beautiful gun. This is one of those rare weapons I sometimes see on this channel that makes me want to take up gunsmithing, so that I can build replicas of them.
Must've been an absolutely beautiful rifle when it was new. Still a nice looking firearm, but I really would like to see one brand new.
My late Uncle and Godfather George a WW2 had a gun catalog I believe from 1952 with a yellow jacket, anyways they did a story on the Bull-ard they had Mechanical drawings etc and I fell in love with it but never actually saw one. The Large Frame and small frame.
So is that style loading gate pre "modern" set up shotguns or does this rifle pre date it
Hi Ian, Thank you for a good and informative video.
Well made rifle with some honest wear. Nice find Ian.
Would like to see the insides of the gun as well as some shooting.
That's a tang sight, not a receiver sight.
Forgotten Weapons The intro title card said Cobray Lady's Home Companion. Just a heads up.
Speaking as a masters degreed mechanical engineer, while I find the Bullard lever action rifles to be mechanically interesting, I don't think they were superior to say the 1886 Winchester in strength or reliability.
I've been looking through the US245700 and US345058 patents.
The Bullards are certainly smoother in operation mostly due to the lever forcing the hammer back through an internal linkage, and also due to close tolerances, and a very long receiver and bolt. But that long receiver and bolt certainly added to the weight of the rifle compared to an 1886 Winchester.
Basically, Bullards were lever action rolling block rifles with a reciprocating bolt to feed and extract cartridges from a magazine. It must've required some careful fitting of parts to get a proper headspace.
A rack and pinion mechanism was used to amplify the motion of the bolt so that the lever throw could be kept to an acceptable amount. Just a couple pine needles could probably jam things up.
The cartridge lifter was only a minor improvement over that of the Henry rifle, and the 1866, 1873, and 1876 Winchesters.
The Bullard was certainly the Rolls Royce of lever actions. But the market was looking for Fords and Chevys.
That gun looks remarkably like the "Brush Gun" a .45-70 lever action rifle from fallout New Vegas. It even has comparable weathering and wear.
beautiful rifle but I'm disappointed that you never told how it locked. I see a large lug between hammer and bolt similar to the Winchester 94. When you operate the lever the locking lug rotates like a Remington rolling block. Awesome rifle.
Truly beautiful rifle.
Interesting title screen on this one Ian, I didn't know Cobray was in business in the 1800...
How much of this stuff do you know off the top of your head and how much do you need to read up on right before doing the video?
I was wondering the same thing!
He has a rather extensive library, he does the occasional book-review on this channel, so I bet he has quite a few reference-books.
I bet it's 50/50 tho, he sees a gun he likes and knows a little about, grabs the ref-books and reads a little (and googles), and does a video.
Jesper O
It's a mixture - some guns I know well and some I need to read up on a lot before doing a video. Even on the ones I know well, though, I always try to go back to my reference materials beforehand to avoid getting details like dates wrong.
Forgotten Weapons Well thank goodness. After watching a bunch of these videos, I was just sitting here thinking, "Well. Shoot. I don't know this much about anything!"
I wish there was a good repro of guns like this, or the Whitney-__________ repeating rifles. It's a shame that these designs have been so forgotten.
Do you have a Wieger 940 ? This extremely rare rifle from the DDR . Looks similar to an AK
Yes, a Wieger! That would be something. But I don't think there are a lot of them outside of Germany, Bundeswehr destroyed most of them and kept only a handfull for special use. Maybe some survived in India.
Why does the title card say "Lady's Home Companion"? Could hardly be a less similar weapon . . .
Is it wrong of me to want to buy this and then use it because the person who originally bought this made it to use it so I think I'd be doing a service to the previous owner but that is a sexy lever action seems really well built even compared to some of the more modern lever actions
The old intro wow it's been a while.
It's a beautiful rifle.. Need more appreciation for workmanship such as these. Firearms like this should be seen more as an art piece, living history, rather than what people think about them these days.
Ian forgot to mention that this is one of the few true ambidextrous leveraction rifles.
Thanks for the vid sir.
Very nice looking gun.
A fine rifle for the last days of the Old West. The stories it could tell...
Holding the rifle and using the stock rear sight seems like it would be very awkward. Although the elevated sight does seem removable.
I have one of these. Not sure where to take it to sell it
mr ian is john browning of firearms mechanism explanation.
I was waiting to see you explain how the rifle worked( how the rifle locked up and functioned), but you never got to that part. :(
You can look up the original patent online, it is #245700 It uses basically a rolling block at the back but a rack and pinion to control the movement of the bolt
@@micahreid5553 awesome thanks!
To me this looks like the gun of a professional. Someone who would either be a villain in a classic western, or a Quigley type of character.
Am i correct in assuming you can't have a +1 capacity, since you have to work the lever, and therefore ejecting the chambered round, before you reload?
I see that it loads differently, but is the lockwork still the same as a Winchester?
With the mag spring at the end of the tube, I don't see how you fed the rounds in from the elevator recess. What stops the round from pushing itself out?
Looks like a high quality weapon that was owned by someone who used it heavily, but gave it the TLC it needed. Maybe owned by someone who ate and made a living by the game he hunted? If so, maybe that rifle was his income, so, he treated it accordingly.
Sort of like how a working photographer will spend $2,000 on a camera and $2000 more on a good lens. By the end of photographers use, those items will have minor Nicks and scratches on them, but the important part, the image quality of that camera and lens, will still be there.
This was different rifle but how long was the barrel and what was the twist rate?
I love this action!! Beautiful rifle and shame still not around.
gorgeous rifle
How does the action work? Is it strong ? how is it locked up?
Dose it still work and can you still buy 45-85 cartridges ?
I'd love to know the history behind that rifle
does it eject the round or just pull it out and up (I can't tell)
He doesn't explain how the bolt locks/or how it differs from other *contemporary lever-actions... (although he says: "let's take a closer-look at how it works".)
That sight looks like it would get in the way of properly gripping the rifle
What could be, if these could have been cost effectively mass produced? The way the action is designed is really superior to what Win was producing off the Browning patents.
*...it kinda looks like it has a falling-block behind the bolt that closes-up behind it in the last movement of the lever. However--- you can see that instead of a vertical block-movement to lock it; that bolt-locking-block pivots/'rocks' forward a little less than 90°...
*i REALLY would have liked to hear/see, [preferably with guts exposed for close-ups], how that exact type of lever-action works--- as it's different from all the others i know well.
*ESPECIALLY if that action can reliably handle .45-70, .45-80, and the rest of the weirdo, high-power cartridges it was chambered for, at the time period it was invented.
The block behind the bolt is like on a rolling block rifle. When you begin to open the under lever, it pushes back on the hammer so that the block is unlocked. Then the block rotates back out of the way as the bolt comes back. Kinda complicated compared to an 1886 Winchester. I would also guess that a regular Remington Rolling Block rifle was stronger than the rolling block components of the Bullard.
The patent showing the internals is US245700.
The patent for a Bullard single shot rifle is US345058 for comparison.
@tomp7141 thanks for the reply!, and patent-info... *all these years later
any idea how much this sold for?
It's almost like first company to distinguish itself in the manufacture of repeating rifles (Winchester) was be able to dictate the course of development of repeating rifles while all others fall to the wayside regardless of whether their products are good or bad, they can be bought out or go bankrupt
That was nice!
What is the locking mechanism for this rifle? I looked at the patent drawings but cant make out anything obvious. Edit, I see that it is a toggle lock but wouldn't that be to weak for 45-70 as seen with the 76 winchester? Also, wouldn't it have been patent infringement on the winchester/Henry's design?
I imagine the extra "tab" at the back infront of the hammer strengthened the action
Someone on Reddit posted a request to identify a rifle held by Teddy Roosevelt in this picture: i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/4f/17/dd4f178265c449bbc9fb7a91bed71673.jpg From his writing in the book "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman: Sketches of Sport on the Northern Cattle Plains" I discovered that he owned a 6 shot Bullard express rifle. I had never heard of one before, but could not match the gun pictured with any lever gun I knew about. It was quite nice to search Forgotten Weapons and find this exhibition of a Bullard large frame rifle. No wonder Teddy liked it!
aside from it's good construction, how is this lever action stronger than other toggle-link designs?
Here's link to a picture of Bullard's patent so you can see the rather simple and strong action www.oldammo.com/BullardPat.jpg
Very Browning BLR like, neat
how much did they used to cost? 40 bucks?
Do you think this rifle can be reproduced and sold somewhat at a cheap price.
Nick Latham
Most likely.
Very cool.
i actually came here looking for a Ballard rifle=( very scarce wiki on it like "it was a rifle".
is anyone doing modern reproductions of these?
How did the bore look?
Because of the heavy use of this gun, I would imagine it would be 45-70. Since I would think that would be a much more common to find bullet.
hashbrown1969 I'm not sure about this one, but at this time it was very common practice for "squeeze" or pliers type hand relaoding tools to be included with a rifle, so even in what's now a total wildcat it still may have seen that use
Look's very good and stronger than a Winchester
Yeah but I like it when you tell us how the lock works.
That's a beautiful piece.
One of my favorites I think.
I could never own one because I would shoot it.
Even the old rimfires can be hand loaded if you're willing.
Dude over at “the Cinnabar” just posted a video on this
My grandpa found one in the middle of knwowher in Utah
either he is small or old guns were really big
Lol , some of the old guns were big. The old timers loved loong barrels. 28-30 inches was the norm. Just handle a 76 Winchester sometime...the actions are huge. Then add a 28 inch barrel and you got a real cannon.
What an awesome rifle, and indeed what a shame.
BUT YOU DIDN'T DISASSEMBLE IT AND SHOW US HOW IT WORKED?!?!?
Yes, a shame he didn't explain the workings...but they are a bit complex and he probably wasn't allowed to take it apart.
Another lever action design that does not chew my thumb up when loading that never made it. This would be a good candidate for reproduction though. Modern production methods would make it cost about the same as any other lever action from what I can see. I doubt anyone will bother though. Everyone knows the Winchester and Marlin action and stick too it for the most part. Seems to be the same problem back in the day too.
Better than a Winchester and a Marlin? Well I'll be...
I believe I am related to the family
Should have been in Red Dead Redemption 2.