Dave DeLaurant
Member
My wife's been having a rough week and I've been stuck at home keeping one eye on her. My other eye has been looking around for something useful to do, so I decided to do some more research for a project on military 7.5-8mm revolvers and cartridges of the late 1800s. I own five of the things (so far), and if I'm not careful there's a danger of them turning into a collection.
While rereading Medlin and Huon's book Military Handguns of France, I spotted a weird reference to something called the 'Buffalo-Slave Carbine' that was supposedly chambered for the 8x27 French Revolver cartridge.
Evidently this single shot rifle was a product of "MANUFACTURE FRANCAISE D'ARMES ET CYCLES DE SAINT-ETIENNE" or Manufrance. In addition to the Buffalo-Slave 'Carabine' (which I understand actually means rifle in this context in French), the action was offered in Buffalo-Lebel, Buffalo-Hubert and Pistolet Buffalo configurations (and probably others), and in it's various guises was chambered for 6mm Flobert, .22 rimfire, .22 WCF, 32-20 and '8mm Armee'.
As weird-sounding as the name was, a Google image search proved the rifle's design to be just as strange. The bolt handle is integral with a collar that caps over the breech end of the barrel and locks using an inverted arrangement of lugs inside the bolt and outside of the barrel. In this way, the locking surfaces are actually positioned in front of the breechface. The rear portion of the bolt assembly has a long guide rod running below the feedway. The extractor design also seems a bit loopy, moving in the same track in the receiver as the bolt guide. There is no ejector as far as I can tell.
I've never seen one of these things, but if I did I might be tempted to buy one just for the extreme novelty. There's a French-language book about the 'systeme' that I'd also happily buy if it was still available. Maybe the book would explain why they named the rifle 'Slave'!
For now, the best information in English I could find is at this website:
https://www.rifleman.org.uk/Lebel_training_rifle.html
While rereading Medlin and Huon's book Military Handguns of France, I spotted a weird reference to something called the 'Buffalo-Slave Carbine' that was supposedly chambered for the 8x27 French Revolver cartridge.
Evidently this single shot rifle was a product of "MANUFACTURE FRANCAISE D'ARMES ET CYCLES DE SAINT-ETIENNE" or Manufrance. In addition to the Buffalo-Slave 'Carabine' (which I understand actually means rifle in this context in French), the action was offered in Buffalo-Lebel, Buffalo-Hubert and Pistolet Buffalo configurations (and probably others), and in it's various guises was chambered for 6mm Flobert, .22 rimfire, .22 WCF, 32-20 and '8mm Armee'.
As weird-sounding as the name was, a Google image search proved the rifle's design to be just as strange. The bolt handle is integral with a collar that caps over the breech end of the barrel and locks using an inverted arrangement of lugs inside the bolt and outside of the barrel. In this way, the locking surfaces are actually positioned in front of the breechface. The rear portion of the bolt assembly has a long guide rod running below the feedway. The extractor design also seems a bit loopy, moving in the same track in the receiver as the bolt guide. There is no ejector as far as I can tell.
I've never seen one of these things, but if I did I might be tempted to buy one just for the extreme novelty. There's a French-language book about the 'systeme' that I'd also happily buy if it was still available. Maybe the book would explain why they named the rifle 'Slave'!
For now, the best information in English I could find is at this website:
https://www.rifleman.org.uk/Lebel_training_rifle.html
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