The Colt New Magazine Rifle,[1] commonly known as the Colt-Burgess, was an American lever-action repeating rifle designed by Andrew Burgess in 1880 and produced by Colt's Patent Firearms from 1883 to 1885. Colt's only foray into the lever-action market, the Colt-Burgess was Colt's short-lived attempt to enter the repeating rifle market.
History[]
The original design for the rifle was designed and patented by Andrew Burgess in 1880.[2] Around that time, Colt was seeking to manufacture a weapon that could compete against the Winchester Repeating Arms Company's line of repeating rifles;[3] to do that, Samuel Colt decided to employ Burgess into his company to design a new firearm that could compete against Winchester's offerings.
Both Winchester and Colt were in intense competition at the time, from trying to beat each other in their respective markets from revolvers to rifles and even shotguns. By 1883 however, the public relations battles between both companies got very heated; it appears that Colt had enough and decided to manufacture what would be known as Colt's New Magazine Rifle along with the Colt Lightning to cater to the rifle market, while Winchester began importing Webley revolvers from the United Kingdom.[2]
Production of the new rifle began in July 1883; the rifle would have been a fine competitor to the Winchester rifle if not for its abrupt discontinuation in 1885. The reason as to why the Colt-Burgess was discontinued remains unknown, although legend states that Colt and Winchester both signed a "gentleman's agreement" of sorts so either company would not enter their respective markets. This story has not been fully verified.[4][5] Within its short sixteen-month production run, a total of 6,403 were manufactured; within those 6,403, there were a total of 3,810 rifles and 2,593 carbines manufactured. Some 2,556 were manufactured with octagonal barrels.[2]
In recent years, the weapon has re-entered production, with replicas produced by Uberti.[6]
Design Details[]
The Colt-Burgess' action is extremely similar to what is used on the Winchester rifle; the rifle incorporates a toggle-link bolt which operates like a knee joint. This knee joint is flexed when the lever is pulled down, pulling the bolt back and pulling a fresh round from the tube magazine and into the ejection port; the action is then closed by pushing the lever back into position. After the weapon fires, pulling the lever again causes the cartridge carrier to move up, aligning a fresh cartridge with the ejection port and throwing the just-fired empty cartridge out of the gun; the gun does not have an ejector.
Of note is that when compared to the Winchester, the Colt-Burgess uses a shorter toggle lockup, which made the action stronger.[5] The Colt-Burgess also used a sliding loading gate instead of the King-patent leaf sprung loading gate of the Winchester, and is also noted as having a slightly stronger receiver while being lighter and shorter than the rifle it was supposed to compete against;[2] when compared to the Winchester Model 1873, the Colt-Burgess would have been the superior design.[1]
Ammunition[]
The Colt-Burgess accepts .44-40 Winchester ammunition, the same caliber as used in the Winchester Model 1873 which was considered the "darling" of the lever-action rifle segment.[2] Modern replicas tend to be chambered in more modern calibers such as .45 Colt instead.[6]
Variants[]
Both carbine and rifle lengths are available on the Colt-Burgess.[2]
References[]
- ā 1.0 1.1 https://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/79698712857/colt-burgess-the-colt-burgess-represents-colts
- ā 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 https://www.rockislandauction.com/blog/colt-burgess-rifle/
- ā Boorman, Dean K., The History of Winchester Firearms, 2001
- ā Waters, Ken, The Rifle Magazine, 1983 issue: "Classic Rifles: The Colt-Burgess"
- ā 5.0 5.1 https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2010/9/9/burgess-rifle-greatness-shortlived/
- ā 6.0 6.1 https://www.ubertireplicas.com/product/1883-burgess-lever-action-rifle-carbine/