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| Article by: Jamie Mangrum |
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I
dream of times long past, long before I was ever born. Although I work with
technology as my job I think I may have been born a hundred years...too late.
I am a romantic at heart. No, I am
not suffering from a midlife crisis. I have had these same feelings for
most of my life. Let me explain.
I crave things that
test a man more than the mundane challenge of racing
day after day (in heavy traffic) to my job. The
prize I win? Sitting in a small office and staring at a
computer screen, day-in and day-out. When my work day
ends I get back
in my vehicle and make the journey home. While I sit
vegetating in my sealed capsule of
sanctuary, in stop-n-go traffic, I look over at all of the unhappy people
making the
same pilgrimage as me and it makes me feel very sad. I wonder to myself, what have we become?
Have all the frontiers been conquered?
Since I was a little kid I have craved
adventure. Throughout my life I have had a good share
of adventure. Even so I still find that I have a thirst that is impossible to
quench and it never seems to go away. I do many things to
supplant the need. Collecting military rifles is just
one of many. I read every single
night before falling asleep. I have read many great
books about adventure,
stories about
the endurance of the spirit of man and what great feats
we are capable of when put to the test.
One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey is one of
my favorite books about Richard Proenneke who went into the
wilderness of Alaska intending to build a cabin as an
experiment to try and live a subsistence living for a
short period of time. Over thirty-five years later he finally left his
beautiful cabin (in his eighties) because age had finally brought his
experiment to a conclusion.
I also watch
movies like
Farewell to the King, starring Nick
Nolte, about an American soldier during WWII trying to
escape the war. He escapes Japanese occupation of
Corregidor Island and lands on the Island of Borneo.
Oddly enough he ends up becoming king of several head
hunter tribes. British
commandos parachute in and bring the war back into his
path. I saw this movie in the theatre when it first came
out. In my opinion this is a very highly underrated film
and I would recommend it to anyone that loves war movies
and mil-surp rifles. This panoramic
adventure is on par with great epics directed by Sir
David Lean such as Lawrence of Arabia. The story line will bring you back to Kipling like adventure stories of
your youth. Something very lacking in today's video game
world. It is the type of movie that makes you want to
stand up and say with a great big uncontrollable grin, "I will
do it! I will do it for king and country!"
You may ask yourselves what is the point of the above
diatribe. This brings me to an
email I received from a friend of mine. He said that he had a
couple of Enfields in stock that had been converted to
.45-70 caliber by Gibbs Rifle and that I should come
down and take a look. The .45-70 is a caliber from a
romantic era when men still embarked into the unknown
frontier and made their way and fortunes out of nothing
but hard work and determination. A .45-70 Enfield is
something very unique. I have seen Arisakas and Siamese
Mausers converted to this caliber and my curiosity has
always been piqued. Not enough to actually buy one, but
I have always wondered what it would be like to shoot
one. I was very intrigued and made the trip down to his
store and had no choice but to buy one.
Although Gibbs no longer makes the
Gibbs Summit Frontier carbine periodically you can find used and
new specimens at firearm dealers for around $275 to $400
depending upon condition and availability. |
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I have many Enfields. In fact
it is one of my all time favorite bolt action
military rifles. Give me an Enfield
No. 1 Mk III or a
No. 4 and I am a very happy man. Until now,
all of my
Enfields have been in the original caliber of
.303 British. In my opinion there are few
military rifles finer than the Enfield. The Enfield is
the complete package when you consider the:
- speed and smoothness of the action;
- wood and metal fit and finish;
- and over-all accuracy.
It is really difficult to find anything
negative to say about an Enfield. |
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To build the Frontier, Gibbs started with an
Enfield No.1 Mk III
SMLE receiver. They then installed a 21 inch
heavy .45-70 caliber barrel. The barrel has a
set of excellent
Williams Gun Sights installed. For the
furniture they used
an SMLE stock set
including the butt stock with a traditional brass
butt plate and a modified fore stock. The butt
and fore
stocks both have
a sling swivel stud installed that allows for
the "quick detach" style commercial slings. |
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The fore stock has
been shortened so that it has a snappy sporter
style look. As you can see in figures 2 and 3 the
fore stock was
inlet quite a bit to facilitate the much larger
dimensions of the .45-70 barrel. Then the
furniture was finished in a hand rubbed
oil finish. The carbine has no hand
guards.
The overall fit and finish of the
metal is excellent and comparable to a high-end
commercial hunting rifle. |
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looking down the huge .45 caliber bore and the
Williams rear sight. The rear sight is
adjustable for both windage and elevation. The windage
and elevation adjustments are made easily using a
small flat blade screw driver. The sight picture
is exceptional. |
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The .45-70 was the military
cartridge for the U.S. for the years 1873 to
1892. I wanted to start out with a not-so-hot load. The specs on the Gibbs carbine state
not to exceed SAAMI specifications for the load
and you should be alright. This means it should
be safe to shoot most commercial ammo in the
Frontier. |
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What is SAAMI? |
| The Sporting Arms and Ammunition
Manufacturers' Institute is an
association of the nation's leading
manufacturers of sporting firearms,
ammunition, and components. Since being
founded in 1926, SAAMI has been actively
involved in the publication of industry
standards, coordination of technical
data, and the promotion of safe and
responsible firearms use. SAAMI
currently publishes more than 700
voluntary standards related to firearm
and ammunition quality and safety.
Web Site:
http://www.saami.org/ |
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I also did not want to
start out reloading a cartridge I had never even
shot before so I sought out a commercial load.
PMC makes a suitable reproduction of the
original military load using smokeless
powder.
You know it really makes me smile when I think about shooting
a 405 grain flat nose cast bullet down range at
a velocity of 1250 feet per second. Shooting an
accurate cannon comes to mind. |
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PMC .45-70
vs. .303 British Ballistics Chart |
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Caliber |
Weight (Grain) |
Muzzle Velocity |
Muzzle Velocity
100 Yds. |
Energy
100 Yds. |
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45-70 Gov. |
405 |
1350 |
1193 |
1280 |
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.303 British |
174 |
2400 |
2216 |
1898 |
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| The magazine is full
when loaded with three .45-70 cartridges.
Figure
5 shows the standard 174 grain FMJ .303 British
cartridge at the very bottom with three of the
405 grain .45-70 cartridges sitting above.
What monsters!
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I like the look of the nickel plated bolt and trigger, but I
think it would be an even better looking
firearm if Gibbs had used stainless steel. But
hey! They were working with original components,
I should stop being so critical.
The bolt functioned as well as you would expect
of any typical
Enfield, but the trigger was a little stiff.
It was a little much to pull. It measured a stout 9 lbs on the
trigger pull
gauge. The only modification I would consider is
adding a
Huber Concepts Enfield trigger. It would
greatly improve performance. |
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Recoil was not what
I expected it to be at all. I had anticipated
that even with
the slip-on recoil pad the carbine would thump
the living day lights out of my shoulder. It did not.
Figure 7 shows my friend Tony shooting
from the rest and you can see, in the animated
graphic, the plume of smoke
and the minor rise of the muzzle when
fired. I can say from both an off hand shooting
position and from the bench it was comfortable
to shoot. |
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One important thing I have to comment on: I swear!
When the bullets
hit the target you could hear a loud smacking
noise. Every single time. Talk about positive feedback! My friend
Tony noticed the same thing. So it was not
my over active imagination playing tricks on me.
This little carbine was a blast to shoot! I
have not had this much fun shooting in a while.
Figure 8 shows three magazines (9
rounds) shot at 50 yards in the off hand
position. I am not very good with off hand
shooting but that is because I don't practice
off hand shooting. |
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The only problems I experienced
with the carbine were: 1) It was a
little difficult to load from the top of the
receiver.
2) The trigger was stiff.
3) The last or third cartridge was
difficult to chamber and required some working.
This happened every time. I examined everything involved with the process
of feeding and could not figure why.
Figure 9 is a three shot group shot
from the bench at 50 yards. Note that this is a
small 25 yard target and not the typical SR-1
target center. Also note the huge holes! |
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All right...I feel my desires or cravings are placated enough for a little while.
Now I have another tool in my arsenal of things that
keep me smiling and wondering what frontiers are
next to
be conquered. I know that the Gibbs carbine did not ever
actually exist in production a hundred years ago. But it is the kind
of firearm I can imagine carrying into Africa or Alaska
long before they were overrun by modern man. I am
talking about a period of time just before
the end of the 19th century. Imagine....stepping off a steamship
with your pack and carbine looking for the next big
adventure. Any adventure! And then you grin
uncontrollably and utter.. the words:
"I will do it! I will do it for king and country!" |
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Adobe PDF
Downloadable Version of Article |
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| Article by: Jamie Mangrum |
