Howard's Thunderbolt: A Remarkably Compact Carbine
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
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Designed by brothers Charles and Sebre Howard and first patented in 1862, this is a single shot lever action produced by the Whitneyville Armory between 1866 and 1870. It is a really neat compact design that is all contained within a tube. The system was made in rifle, sporting rifle, and shotgun configurations, with a total production of not more than about 1700. The rifle pattern guns, like this one, were chambered for .44 Rimfire. A prototype military configuration example was tested unsuccessfully by the US military in 1867.
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It's basically the gun I'd imagine would look like when I see a gun-shaped stick as a kid.
Lol thats the most accurate description of this thing🤟🤘🤙👍
Man were those the days lol
Looks like Lego frontier town come to life. Can anybody point out the portal they came out of? I think I will go through.
That's a weird sentence.
The most gun like gun in history
Looks like something you would find in star wars with 15 different scopes on it
Picturing the sand people here....
Or in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom - series of novels.
@@onsesejoo2605 Ah! Truly a man of culture!
@Roderick storey At the same time, this would not look too weird in the 17th century.
Deep breathing in tusken raider
This is the equivalent of a Sten in lever action. A tube with a gun in it.
"Lever action sten" sounds astonishingly cursed.
Tuche!
@@steirqwe7956 I have a feeling someone is going to bubba a sten now
I have a h&r 20ga topper and they really are simple guns, sometimes a tube is all you need
@@elmerjfapp5730 I used to hunt with a borrowed 20gauge double barreled shotgun made by H&R. Circa 1976. That's all that was needed. H&R made many simple, very affordable firearms, from revolvers to shotguns to rifles. My grampa, born and raised on an Indian reservation in northern Idaho, back about 1912 onward, starting when he was six, would go out hunting black tailed (jack) rabbits with a single shot .22 rifle and .22 Short ammunition. I'm sure back then law enforcement didn't care since his dad was the deputy sheriff and Indian agent on the reservation, lol! Final conversation I had with my grandfather was how to hunt and aim when hunting black tailed rabbits! Some of his last memories in an exciting and productive life (I was his favorite grandson, no hiding it). Shoot on the downward arch, BTW. A gun matters less the more courage in a man.
My grandfather had one of those. He took me out in the yard of the farm one afternoon to shoot it at a dead possum (yeah, I know . . . )
. . . I remember distinctly the lever snapping open when it went off and my getting fingers pinched in the subsequent mechanics. Earliest memory of shooting a gun. It was a decade some before I got near a trigger again.
. . . Thanks for reviving that memory. Grandpa was a fine old son of a German immigrant farmer, a decent man. He just picked the wrong piece to show his grandson the joys of shooting at dead possums.
. . . Stay safe & healthy, amigo.
Does he still have it
@@bluffkirschman599 Grandpa Schreiber passed away back 1957. His house is gone, the barn is gone & the foundation filled in. Almost everything he had at his passing is gone. And then my sister stole my collection of Morgan silver dollars that I got from him decades ago. So no, that piece ain't around any more.
I'm sorry to hear that. I also got my grandfather's gun collection stolen out from under me. My uncle took them and sold them all. He had some pretty neat pieces in his collection too.
@@haramanggapuja sorry to hear that.
It's crazy when you think about the fact that this gun would have probably been a huge success if it'd have been made 5 years earlier.
Slap a sub 150$ price tag on in and offer it in multiple calibers and I’m sure it would do well today
@@DeeDee-bm9hr if it was below 150$ I would hope there’s no laws against amassing weapons
@@DeeDee-bm9hr agreed; it'd need a lighter barrel and some fixes to the locking mechanism, but there's a helluva market for something like this, especially if marketed with newer and/or younger shooters in mind.
@@DeeDee-bm9hr looks like a great candidate for 3D printing ;)
@@DeeDee-bm9hr so basically something like Baikal MP-18 :-)
Nothing inspires confidence like an action that you have to hold shut with your fingers.
The swoopiness reminds me a Jezail.
I wonder if it can fire out of battery if you close it too forcefully, considering how the firing pin is exposed and pressed against the cartridge as you're closing it.
or 16th-17th century arquebus.
I trust my fingersm nevermind
Im pretty sure my 90yo granny could hold that closed if it was only .44 Henry
It reminded me of a Jezail too
That stock is *gorgeous*
That's what she said
yes it is, It has a beautiful line to it.
Nothing like waking up to a fresh forgotten weapon to start the day :)
Waking up to a really odd forgotten weapons vid
Maybe your still asleep and the gun was just a dream....
@Stupid Bitch reach under your bed and pull your full auto fg42 and your Beretta 96......if that worked your still dreaming
It helps get me moving.
“Just a tube with a gun in it” is one sentence that describes most of the sub machine guns developed during and immediately after ww1
Absolutely love the minimalist internal design.
That rifle had all of five parts.
Surplus firearms were also sold to veterans upon discharge from the army. My uncle still has a Smith's carbine that my great grandfather bought for eight and a half dollars prior to his travel to the Dakota territory to homestead.
wow
I think you need to really dig into that indie-gun manufacturer.
A place like that must be an absolute treasure trove.
7:49 gotem
Deeeeeez
Deeeeeez
Sleek and sexy. Someone needs to remake these.
I’d like to see a modernized version of this thats takedown with a fluted or light barrel
Ultra tiny survival rifle
Yeah, but, centerfire with an improved locking system. Bet it would be fun in a 9mm.
Yeah, it’s a zip gun.
@@TheSchmed go google zip gun
@@timbaskett6299 if the barrel was kept the same thickness on a reproduction you could probably chamber it for some rifle cartridges too!
This is what people draw if you throw water in their faces at 3am and shout at them to draw a cowboy gun
I tried that once... I wound up with a 1911A1 shoved up my nose.
10/10 would recommend to a friend (then post the resulting video on YT)
@@henryrodgers7386 honestly, fair reaction..
@@henryrodgers7386 bit to young (don’t say that about a 1911 to often) to be a cowboy gun but he did draw it pretty quick
Three years from now Ian is still sitting here trying to get the thing back together 😂
When Ian says it's FUNKY you know it is going to be good.
Wow, never seen a lever action like that. Great video!
"I don't know where thunder bolt came from'
Me looking at my phone and therefore the gun sideways....um its literally bolt shaped 🤣😂
It looks like ⚡ yes.
No it doesn't...
IKR, its literely the first thing that comes to mind when you see it sitting on the table lol. Especially with that stock also having sharp edges just like a bolt really fitting name indeed!
As Ian was saying he has no idea where the name came from, I was thinking, the shape of the gun is perfect.
@@cooliobob1274 I noticed it before reading the comment, so I’d say it does ;)
You know it's gonna be a good one when Ian starts off with "we've got a funky one for you today."😁👍
I acquired one of these a year ago , and after some study of the parts, made up some new internals in centerfire and have been shooting it . It actually shoots quite accurately, low recoil, (it's basically a pistol round) and no problem with it kicking open.
That Ian, is one of the prettiest guns I have ever seen!
It is pretty neat!
That's the most graceful gun I've seen since the Whitney Wolverine.
A true bit of design elegance - the barrel morphs seamlessly (literally!) into being the receiver.
Ian truly sparked my interest in this kind of weapon, I find the mechanisms of the early breech loaders so damn interesting and imaginative !
and this tubular one is a beautiful one, in part beacause of its simplicity
I've been looking into picking up hunting recently, and by far the coolest gun I can think of going hunting would be a modern take on the single shot breech loader. The simplicity, the absolute demand of good accuracy, the lightness of the gun, it really appeals to me.
It helps that the laws where I'm at limits hunting rifles to be 4+1 capacity, so having to fill the gun with a magazine and bolt or automatic action is mostly excessive weight and engineering. Give me an elegant single shot gun.
This is the most satisfying action reveal I think I've ever seen.
Pretty in its simplicity of shape.
Just a thought but an easy way to make the locking system stronger would be to extend the hand guard and have the little locking lug present in it already be a larger spring loaded catch that holds the lever in place whenever you close it. That way you would just have to use your fingers already in the lever to press back on it whenever you want to unlock the gun then cycle it like normal.
Thanks Ian for teaching me something I didn’t know I wanted to know
Can you imagine how cool hip firing a shotgun version of this though.
"So, what should we send to military trials?"
"Haha Tööb"
I've been watching your videos for quite some time now. Very informative and extremely interesting. All quality no filler style of video.
A couple of years ago I saw a shotgun version of this. It was about 20 gauge but sadly had been damaged at some point in the past. The opening lever was broken off with just enough left you could make it open. Otherwise it was identical except it did not have sights.
Absolutely beautiful minimalistic design. Love it! Wonder, if the Howard brother's did some sidearms too?
Ian, have you heard of the MK-74? It was an experimental Mosin-Nagant chambered in 7.62x39 developed in the mid-40's. It even had a 10-round double-stack magazine. It would be awesome to see a video covering such an interesting arm!
Wonderful, relatively simple design, when I began randomly buying firearms several decades ago (I never really gave a thought to being a collector)I was utterly uninterested in anything not cutting edge, semi auto, state of the art, etc, then purchased my first non automatic handgun and that kind of opened a door for me to other possibilities, today I'm completely enamored of single shot firearms, Thompson Center so far, and am looking at falling block and rolling block rifles and I find this to be a beautiful handy little experiment, I imagine the issue with pressure forcing it to open could be addressed, seems ke it would be a fun plinker
The Lighting shows the Name..looks like Lightning in the right light. The shine on the Profile Barrel to Buttstock.
This is such a beautiful design. Naturally steam punk!
Absolutely
Steam
Punk........
I'm fairly certain I saw this in a
Wild Wild West show in the 60s....
A really well designed pipe gun
With a bit of refinement on the lock-up, a perfectly useful plinker today.
I like the little notch in the barrel/action for the screw head on the lever.
Beautiful little rifle. Thank you Ian!
That system with a better lock up in .22 that can be stored in the stock would be a good survival rifle.
Any manual machinists here that see these goofy designs and just become overwhelmed on a mental level?
I'm certain a great many of us amateur and professional machinists are looking at a lot of the stuff here and going "hmmm... how do I set up my machines to make one of those?" I know I do.
That's a good looking rifle. I like it.
Wow, that rifle could've been the design inspiration behind Numrich's "Hopkins & Allen" underhammer muzzle-loaders of the '50s and '60s. I remember being intrigued by the pictures in the Shooter's Bible.
I have one of those and was struck by the similarity. I love how it handles and think it would be fun to recreate this design with a bit of improvement on the breech-lock.
Maybe in .45 Colt.
It’s kind of like a “Liberator” rifle.
That's incredibly slick and classy looking. I really like it.
2:44 I thought this was an internet address at first, lol.
Thanks very much for this video! This is the first time I've seen one of these being handled, and I've been fascinated with them for some years. The few pics of them online and in the books just aren't the same.
The thing has beautiful shapes, lovely.
Someone else probably mentioned it already, but if you look at it with the muzzle on the bottom and the stock on the top, you get a lightning bolt shape across the barrel and stock of the gun.
Last time I was this early General Custer and his men were making their last stand with some of these rifles.
I know it's a joke, but I will never miss an opportunity to blab about something I've really studied. There was a wide variety of guns at the Battle of Greasy Grass. The soldiers mostly had 1873 springfield carbines and revolvers, but some of them (esp officers) had some personal rifles (Sharps, custom built officer's Springfields). Scouts working for the US Army had a variety of guns including some lever actions. The Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho had everything from hammers, axes, lances, muzzleloaders, lever actions, and some well-earned 1873 Springfields. You've got everything from cutting edge lever action tech to bows and muzzleloaders, but the really wild thing is that they all have some big advantages in different ways. Springfields and sharps had great range and stopping power, lever actions brought an incredible rate of fire, bows and muzzleloaders were easier to resupply when you were far from any traders (some said they'd just use less gunpowder per shot if they were running low on powder). As for lances and hammers and such, they work pretty well from horseback when the soldiers fled the field.
@@itsmannertime Muzzleloaders are capable of knockdown without ball or powder.
That heavy barrel could do it too.
Very good video, I did not know it, when I saw the silhouette I thought of some kind of underhammer muzzleloader
From the image and title, I was actually kind of expecting it to be some sort of crazy bullpup where the chamber in the stock and a corved barrel, like that one weird shotgun he showed once.
That trigger is absolutely adorable
It's butiful and I wish there were more available
Got to love that streamlined design. Looks great for such an old design.
So slim, I love it
Thanks for taking it apart 😁
Such a minimalist design. I've seen BB guns with more bulk to them. Must have been a nice to carry while hunting, compared to heavier guns of its day.
I love it! So sleek and unadorned. At first sight I was really wondering how it functioned. Never seen anything like it. Say Ian, have you ever taken something apart and then realized you didnt know how to put it back together? Do you take notes when opening something new to you? I've taken pix to make sure I can reverse the process. You too?
I wish I loved anything as much as Ian loves weird guns
I think, at least it looks that way, if you took that second internal nut out with a long tool that can get a hold of the two grooves in the nut, you might be able to take that striker sleeve off the back end of the bolt stem, which at this point is narrow enough to just lift out the bottom of the gun with the lever handle attached.
That would also explain how the connecting screw for those pieces is somehow inside the tube and completely inaccessible.
Ian, thank you for the video. Great, as always!
Thank you , Ian .
When a break action is just too simple and easy.
That is super cool. In .22 or .17 it would be an awesome pack and plinking rifle. I love the tiny elegant rifles of long ago.
Very nice. I agree its commercial failure was due to competition with all of those mil surp rifles. Kind of like what happened in the 1950's to 1960's when all of those old Springfields and Mausers came onto the market. I bought my first '03 for $30 in 1965.
Nice looking piece! Thank you!
quick on the draw
quickest draw in the west
That... is quite the tube!
It's an elegant weapon...for a more civilized age.
I wonder what will happen on the day ian takes one of these 200 year old guns apart and cant figure out how it goes back together....
He'll be proper screwed. Because the only time that happened to me, I watched forgotten weapons to see how to put it back together!
I forget what gun it was but it was at the Cody museum where Ian couldn't figure out how to take a gun apart that was broken and he accidentally fixed it.
When Ian says it's funky..it's real funky🤣😂😁
og Star Wars material
**wild Tusken noises**
@@vaclav_fejt Urrrhhg urhhhg urrgh!
The truest definition of “an angry tube”.
I really enjoy sport shooting. I would love to try this out.
It is beautifully made .
The light that you used is a golden touch please use it more often very nice to see!
Looks a proper "Bang stick" Ian.
Looks like this design would make a lovely, slender .22 rf
This gun is absolutely adorable!!!
Straight up thought that was a walking stick of sorts.
Imagine an elderly 80 year old man walking on the street with his cane, only to be surprised by a thug, and he pulls out this thing...
I'm gonna conjecture that the lever's pivot is a removable lug held in by something removable in disassembly.
I could see this design being reworked into a survival rifle...
Besides the simplicity, it's a very beautiful designed gun.
Just love the lines of it
That bore looked hexagonal. Im surprised Ian didnt mention this. 2:30
It looks like a really sleek racing-broom from the Harry Potter universe :P
it would be a broom in an ancap version of harry potter
Quidditch just got more interesting
Some hunters in Germany say "Knallstock" to a rifle or shotgun (usually to that present atm) - which would be literally "boomstick"/"bangstick"... But is pronounced knalʃtɔk and got the emphasis on "made out of wood."
... Well,... Can't imagine any gun more knallstockingly than this..
Streamlined beauty.
This design would make a perfect single fire paintball, BB, airsoft, nerf gun.
you know, something like this could be a fun little single shot PCC today for something different. If you could solve the "pop open" problem.
Aesthetically from a design perspective its a very beautiful piece of hand made gunsmithing. Think its the less is more factor with that elegant simplicity
It reminds me of on of those 1920/30s BSA air rifles that don't have much woodwork on them except for the very thick barrel.
I want this so irrationally much. It has that Afghan Jezail vibe, but in a decidedly Eli Whitney kind of way. Also my mother grew up a stone’s throw from where the Whitneyville Armory was. The Eli Whitney Museum & Workshop is there now
Ah the old finger locked breech system, right up there with the face delayed blowback.
Perhaps not very impressive in its function (for the time), but certainly a remarkable piece of design art. The form seems like a design by Colani, 100 years ahead of his time. Thanks for showing that!
Another gun that should be used in a science fiction film.