For those of you who owns G. Layman book on military RB, the Nagant patent breech (firing pin retractor) is visible p96 on a Nagant made Dutch Carbine or rifle.
It is significantly different from the one on 67/89 Swedish gun.

As the Nagant RB guns were made circa 1872, it gives an idea of how advanced were the Nagant brothers on the other european Rolling Block licencees (namely Swede/Norway and Denmark).
This also help dating (sort of  ) Smokepole's gun.

Thank you all for the great comments guys. I would like to ask for your opinion on how common this rifle would be if you wanted to buy one.

I have some decisions to make in regards to this restoration project and I need you opinions because it is not a inexpensive journey. As it turns out, all the brand new old stock Swedish RB block parts I have will not fit this Nagant block. Maybe the firing pin will fit. So that means they will all have to be hand made.Add to the above costs the fact that the barrel will most likely have to be bored and relined and the cost just keeps rising.

I have looked around on the net trying to find a Nagant made rifle such as this being sold to have a reference on what my rifle might be worth once repaired/restored. The only reference I have been able  to find was a auction in Germany last fall but the auctionier did not list the sale price. It was a nice looking rifle but it had a different rear sight. 

What would you gentelmen consider the rough value of a rifle such as this restored??? Not refinished, just made whole again.
I know one persons perspective will not match that of another and would not ask this question of you if I did not believe that the restoration cost might very well exceed the value of such a rifle repaired.

Another question to consider if I continue down this road is caliber. I don't believe the barrel is big enough to change the caliber to .45 so something near 10.6 will most likely be the flavor of the day. Should I try and return it to its original cartridge chambering if that can be determined or turn it into something more common like 43 Spanish???

I like opinions so please give me yours to help me make some decisions on this 150 year old rifle restoration/repair.

Those are exactly my concerns. The chances of finding original replacement parts for the block would be like winning the lottery.
Maybe if I lived in Europe I could possibly find a junk rifle to rob parts from but even then the chances of removing such parts from a junk RB block without damaging them would not be good.

So it seems like I have no good options....

I bought one of those Papal Rolling Blocks about 10 years ago for $175 to get the action. It had been totally reblued and had perfect wood, but collector value was ruined. A friend saw it before I could strip it down, and begged me to sell it to him. So it went away to him as a shooter. He loves the accuracy, and has actually taken deer and antelope with it.

marlinguy wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2020 at 4:47pm:


Did it have the Tiara (the keys of Vatican) on top of the action?

Do you remember if it was a Westley Richards made one or a Nagant?

I was pulling the stock off the action to prepare for barrel removal and noticed this serial number stamped into the under side of the tang. Does this throw this receiver into a military range group??

to the best of my knowledge, there is no record of RB serial numbers from Nagant.
However, as this is clearly belgian made (Liege proof marks on all parts) and a Nagant model, it is almost certainly a civilian version made on behalf of C. L. Witte who marked the gun with his name to sell it.
The number (01048) relates to all the other parts (partial number 104), so the gun seems "matching numbers". 
Being able to deterine the exact caliber would be interesting (but quite difficult in its current state)

I am thinking it may be chambered in this cartridge....