Spencer 1860

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Spencer Model 1860 Carbine - .56-56 Spencer rimfire

The Spencer Repeating Rifle/Carbine or Spencer 1860 is an American lever-action rifle, an early example of the lever-action design. Designed in 1860 by inventor Christopher Spencer, the Spencer 1860 is chambered for the proprietary .56-56 Spencer rimfire cartridge and holds seven rounds in an integral tube magazine. Like other lever-action firearms, it operates by working a lever near the trigger to extract a spent casing and feed a new cartridge from the tube magazine in the buttstock. However, unlike later lever-actions, the user would have to manually pull back the hammer after cocking the lever. Cartridges are fed into the action via a spring in the magazine, which would have to be removed first before loading new rounds. Cartridges could be loaded one at a time, or the user could use a Blakeslee tube, a type of speedloader that consists of a tube pre-loaded with seven rounds each.

Although Christopher Spencer presented his rifle to the American military right before the outbreak of the American Civil War, the military denied adopting it for standard use. Military officials stated that soldiers would waste ammo through inaccurate rapid fire (a sentiment that would be echoed by multiple armed forces in the later half of the 19th century when repeating and bolt-action rifles began to appear and supplant the use of single-shot muskets). Moreover, the US military felt that it would be impossible to expand logistics and supply trains enough to keep thousands of soldiers supplied with enough ammunition to effectively use their Spencers, as Army supply chains were already strained by the task of supplying tens of thousands of soldiers across the vast North American continent. The fact that the rifle cost several times more than a standard Springfield 1861 muzzleloader did not help, either.

Despite this, the Spencer became a popular and well-liked weapon during the American Civil War, sometimes issued in an official capacity or more commonly privately purchased. The Spencer, along with other breech-loading carbines of the time, were very popular among cavalry forces. The Spencer had a rate of fire of around 20 rounds a minute, giving it a significant tactical advantage over muzzleloading rifles. Its strategic value, however, was limited as tactics had not yet evolved to accommodate weapons with high rates of fire, like the Spencer.

Christopher Spencer's company went bankrupt in 1869, with production of the Spencer 1860 ceasing after over 200,000 rifles were manufactured. The Spencer would later see use in the wars against Native American tribes in the late 19th century, the Boshin War, Paraguayan War, and the Franco-Prussian War. .56-56 Spencer ammunition would be commercially manufactured in the United States well into the 1920s. Today, modern replicas of the Spencer Carbine and Rifle are available from Chiappa Firearms and Taylor's & Company.

The Spencer 1860 and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors:

Specifications

(1860 – 1869)

• Type: Rifle

• Caliber: .56-56 Spencer rimfire

• Weight: 10 lb (rifle), 8.25 lb (carbine)

• Length: 47 in (1,200 mm) with 30" barrel, 39.25 in (997 mm) with 22" barrel

• Barrel length(s): 30 in (760 mm), 22 in (560 mm), 20 in (510 mm)

• Capacity: 7-round internal tube magazine (may be reload with speedloader)

• Fire Modes: Lever Action

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Film

Title	Actor	Character	Note	Date
Dzhulbars	Ivan Bobrov	Abdullah		1935
The Sons of Great Bear (Die Söhne der großen Bärin)	Hannjo Hasse	Pitt		1966
	Helmut Schreiber	Ben
	Walter E. Fuß	Theo
	Jozef Adamovic	Tschapa
		US soldiers, mercenaries, Lacota warriors
Apaches (Apachen)	Fred Delmare	Doctor Klein		1973
	Gojko Mitic	Ulzana
	Milan Bosiljcic	Johnson
High Noon Part II: The Return of Will Kane	Lee Majors	Will Kane		1980
	David Carradine	Ben Irons
Unforgiven	Morgan Freeman	Ned Logan		1992
	Clint Eastwood	Will Munny
Mulholland Falls			mounted in rifle rack	1996
The Quest		Dobbs' men		1996
Last Stand At Saber River	Keith Carradine	Vern Kidston		1997
	Suzi Amis	Martha Cable
Cold Mountain	Natalie Portman	Sara		2003
	Ray Winstone	Teague
3:10 to Yuma	Christian Bale	Dan Evans		2007
Appaloosa	Corby Griesenbeck	Charlie Tewksbury		2008
6 Guns			Seen in Stevens' house	2010
Cowboys & Aliens	Clancy Brown	Meacham		2011
	Sam Rockwell	Doc
		Gang members, Apache warriors
John Carter		Union Cavalry Soldiers, Apache Indians		2012
Killing Lincoln	Jesse Johnson	John Wilkes Booth		2013
	Seamus Mulcahy	David Herold
	Paul Stober	John Lloyd
The Salvation	Susan Danford	Mrs. Whisler		2014
Hostiles	Jesse Plemons	Lt. Rudy Kidder		2017
	Ryan Bingham	Sgt. Paul Malloy
	Stafford Douglas	Corp. Molinor
		US Cavalry
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs			Seen in the gun storage	2018
True History of the Kelly Gang	Earl Cave	Dan Kelly		2019
		Gang members
Badland	Kevin Makely	Matthias Breecher		2019
News of the World	Gabriel Ebert	Benjamin Farley		2020

Television

Title	Actor	Character	Note	Date
Mail Call	R. Lee Ermey	Himself		2002-2009
Lock 'n Load With R. Lee Ermey	R. Lee Ermey	Himself		2009
Return To Lonesome Dove	Timothy Scott	Pea Eye Parker		1993
NCIS - Season 3		Civil War re-enactor	"Silver War" (S3E04); found in coffin	2005
Hatfields & McCoys	Kevin Costner	William Hatfield		2012
Godless			Seen among the guns in La Belle	2017

Video Games

Title	As	Mods	Date
Red Dead Revolver	"The Owl Rifle"		2004
History Channel: Civil War - Secret Missions			2008
Red Dead Redemption	"Repeater Carbine"		2010
Fistful of Frags	"Spencer Carbine"	Added in 2017 update	2014
Red Dead Redemption II	"Carbine Repeater"		2018

Anime

Title	Character	Note	Date
The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots		on the stand with guns	1969
Undead Girl Murder Farce	Shizuku Hasei		2023