Gardiner/Scott Prototype Grip Safety on an Early 1903 Springfield
Prototype & Trials Weapons
•
10m
In 1904, a man named Orlando Scott from Ontario filed a patent application for a safety device for breechloading rifles and shotguns. His idea was basically a spring loaded grip safety in the fore-end of the stock, which would have to be depressed in order to either cock or fire the weapon. His patent was approved in 1909 as number 911683, and assigned to another Ontario man, Robert Gardiner. As a way of demonstrating the patent, they purchased a 1905-production Springfield rifle from the US military (starting in 1904, the military had a policy of selling Springfield rifles to inventors for experimentation) and integrated their safety mechanism into it. We don’t have any record of military trials of the gun, but it is a neat model of a patent idea on a very scarce pattern of early Springfield.
Up Next in Prototype & Trials Weapons
-
"NATO Burp Guns" - Winchester's 1950s...
In the mid 1950s, the Winchester company designed a compact 9mm submachine gun for military use. It was internally called the. "NATO Burp Gun", and according to Winchester historian Herbert House, was developed in part (or with the assistance of) Melvin Johnson. The design was a simple tubular re...
-
Experimental Pre-WWI Ross .30-06 Mach...
In August 1913, the British War Office wrote to Sir Charles Ross requesting a sample automatic rifle for trials in the UK. Ross was able to submit a prototype on May 1914, which was tested at Enfield - but only fired 308 rounds before the test ended, suggesting that something important probably b...
-
Headspace-Operated Prototype Rifle - ...
Today we are taking a look at a very unusual prototype rifle, courtesy of Legacy Collectibles. I suspect - but have no direct evidence - that this was designed by one Francis K. Young, a man who patented several very similar systems. What makes it unusual is that it operates by having the cartrid...
