{"id":29282,"date":"2026-04-10T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/simplified-warner-revolving-rifle-caught-by-colts-patent\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:00:55","slug":"simplified-warner-revolving-rifle-caught-by-colts-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/simplified-warner-revolving-rifle-caught-by-colts-patent\/","title":{"rendered":"Simplified Warner Revolving Rifle: Caught by Colt\u2019s Patent"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mejs-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"autoplay\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RwLhDDBQY5k?controls=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>James Warner was a gunsmith and owner of the Springfield Arms Company. In the 1850s he produced a series of revolving rifle designs which are interesting, but poorly documented. Only a few hundred of each were made (at most) and they appear to have begun as with a design intended to sell when Colt\u2019s patent was supposed to expire. This used a single-action mechanism with an open frame, and had to be changed when Colt was able to extend his patent. A new model followed which was much simpler, probably trying to compete on price since the patented elements remained protected. <\/p>\n<p>This simpler system was manually indexed and used a simpler receiver and side plate design than before. It also eliminated extraneous features like the loading lever. These are all roughly .40 caliber, six-shot guns and usually have 22-23 inch barrels (this example was shortened at some point).<\/p>\n<p>A final change in design took place around 1856 when Warner moved to an enclosed frame design, before moving away from revolving rifle designs entirely. There are a few records of Warner revolver rifles in the Civil War, and these were most likely the latter enclosed frame type.<\/p>\n<p>Video on Warner\u2019s single-shot breechloading carbine from the Civil War:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/C7lIjY-UYZU\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/C7lIjY-UYZU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The best firearms reference books: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Warner was a gunsmith and owner of the Springfield Arms Company. In the 1850s he produced a series of revolving rifle designs which are interesting, but poorly documented. Only a few hundred of each were made (at most) and they appear to have begun as with a design intended to sell when Colt\u2019s patent&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/simplified-warner-revolving-rifle-caught-by-colts-patent\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Simplified Warner Revolving Rifle: Caught by Colt\u2019s Patent<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}