POTD: Good Enough For Annie Oakley – The Remington Beals Rifle
Sam.S 08.24.23
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Not many Remington Beals rifles were made – just around 800 between 1866 and 1872. Designed by Remington’s first gun designer, Fordyce Beals, the Beals had some neat patents from the mid-1860s. Its sliding breech was pretty innovative for the time. When you lowered the lever, the barrel moved forward to open up the breech for loading those early .32 and .46 rimfire rounds. But the small calibers really only worked for small game, and folks were still getting used to breech loaders. Famous exhibition shooter Annie Oakley had a rare engraved .32 caliber Beals rifle that she used in shows. At just 24 inches long, the Beals rifles were on the short side. They didn’t catch on hugely back then.
“It has a dovetailed front sight, adjustable folding rear leaf sight, “BEALS PATENT JUNE 28, 1864 JAN. 30, 1866/E. REMINTON & SONS, ILION, NEW YORK.” marked on the top of the barrel behind the rear sight, brass frame, and finely varnished buttstock with brass crescent buttplate.”
Lot 1161: Extremely Rare Remington Beals Brass Frame Single Shot Rifle. (n.d.-f). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved August 23, 2023, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/77/1161/extremely-rare-remington-beals-brass-frame-single-shot-rifle.
