Is this a military saddle ring carbine, or a Sporting Carbine? If it's a military carbine it's more common, but if it's a Sporting Carbine it's extremely rare.

I will add a picture when I can. May be a week or so.

One possible origin of the "buffalo carbine" name is that some white men, like some Indians, preferred to kill their buffalo from horseback.  Perhaps they found the rolling block action much easier to load than the Springfield when galloping along.  The noticeably slimmer Remington carbine was also about 4" shorter and  8 oz. lighter, and some considered the .50-70 a better "killer" at close range.

Another grossly speculative name source is that surplus Remington carbines were the guns initially issued to Black cavalry units, popularly known as "Buffalo Soldiers".

Bill Lawrence

To a professional buffalo hunter a large caliber Sharps was a necessity; very reliable and properly powerful for on site killing. Riding a horse was out if the question if one intended to kill and skin the numbers it took to run a proper camp. The vast majority of mass slaughters were done on foot by hunters that knew how to kill without disturbing the remaining herd using a proper buffalo rifle.

Consider also that by the time the .45-70 arrived on the commercial market the buffalo hunting was near it's end. So prior to that the .50-70 was a very commonly found chambering, and being used for buffalo hunting by a number of hunters. So it only makes sense that if someone used a carbine in this cartridge they might call it a "buffalo carbine".

  This is the first place I have ever seen the 30-30 Winchester called anemic.

MrTipUp wrote on Dec 13^th, 2021 at 10:54am:

Various guns were used on the buffaloes back in the day. Buffalo Bill got his name using a Trapdoor 50-70 shooting from horseback. Some claim the Trapdoor killed more buffaloes than any of the other makes but how that is proven is beyond me. The Sharps still is the go to rifle when all the necessities are counted and values placed. Looking back no era in America can be found where a rifle made in so little numbers did so much to earn a name, for Sharps it’s the ‘buffalo rifle’. JMHO.

So when General Sheridan decided that the buffalo needed to be killed to thwart the Indians he had a good supply of needle guns and furnished them to civilians. More importantly he also furnished ammo and after the adoption of the 45-70 in 1873 the army had plenty of 50-70 ammo to give away. Why buy a Sharps and pay for ammo when you could get a rifle and ammo from the government for free?

Maybe I missed it. But did the OP confirm its a .50-70?  Remington did make .50-45 carbines too.

oneatatime wrote on Dec 14^th, 2021 at 5:12pm:

Just to clear up few misfigures, the Sharps was chambered in capable buffalo rounds in 1869 and the model 1874 was first produced in 1871.

Although we are way off original question, the carbine is .50-2 1/2'. I believe that is .50-90.

Thanks for the update Nimrod.  A .50-90 carbine will be quite a thumper.  That is much lighter than the 30" barreled Dixie Gun Works heavy rifle.  I once had an original .50-70 Sharps conversion carbine. With full load .50-70s, it thumped pretty good.  Can't wait to see photos of yours.

Looks like an 1873 to me?
My dad always said the best use of a pistol in a battle was to fight your way to a rifle.

Steve   

The remains of the rifle action (with his name inscribed on it) have been measured and have confirmed it is a 1866 Winchester Yellow Boy.

Also the 1873 never had a brass receiver.

It is well documented the rifle he held in the photo had a brass receiver.

In 1883 hide hunters were having trouble finding their prey. 
Hunts were fruitless the next year. 
Buffalo were found dead — but they hadn't been shot; they'd simply collapsed and died.
Ten federally listed diseases of concern for buffalo conservation in North America that originated from cattle.

anaplasmosis
anthrax
bluetongue
bovine spongiform encephalopathy
bovine brucellosis
bovine tuberculosis
bovine viral diarrhea
hemorrhagic septicemia (outbreaks have occurred in the past)
Johne’s disease, and
malignant catarrhal fever

Of these, hemorrhagic septicemia and malignant catarrhal fever pose the most immediate threats to buffalo.

From Wikipedia.

Jerry Potts Firearms:

The last rusty remains of Jerry Potts Firearms came from the Fort Whoop Up rifle collection.

Many people believe Jerry Potts had a Henry Rifle but the pictures of Jerry with the rifle show it had a side loading port. The Henry Rifle did not have the side loading port. Jerry Pott's rifle was a 1866 Winchester Lever Action YellowBoy. The last remaining 1866 Winchester rifle part (with Jerry Potts name on it) was chambered in .44 Henry (Rimfire).

Jerry Potts also had a Top Break Auto Eject Revolver. It was a Smith & Wesson Double Action Frontier Model chambered in .44-40 Win.

Interestingly, the rifle in the photograph with it's prominently raised side plates on the receiver, appears to be an 1873 Winchester. This rifle would also fire the .44-40 cartridge, same as his revolver.

Look at the side plates and the gun's scale.  The rifle in the photo is a Model 1873 (and not a Model 1876).

Bill Lawrence

For your new barrel you may wish to select the correct length bullet for your new barrel twist.

Here are the gyroscopic stability factors (Don Miller Sg formula) for 50 caliber bullets for each barrel twist:

Bullet                    Weight        Length      1:36      1:34      1:32      1:30      1:28      1:26      1:24      1:22      1:20
                                    Grains Inches                                                      
BACO JIM512450           480      0.970      1.80      2.01      2.27      2.59      2.97      3.44      4.04      4.81      5.82
BACO JIM511500 FN      500      1.010      1.69      1.89      2.13      2.43      2.79      3.23      3.79      4.51      5.46
BACO JIM512515           540      1.100      1.46      1.63      1.84      2.10      2.41      2.79      3.28      3.90      4.72
BACO JIM511600 FN      600      1.220      1.22      1.37      1.55      1.76      2.02      2.34      2.75      3.27      3.96
BACO JIM511650 FN      650      1.300      1.11      1.25      1.41      1.61      1.84      2.14      2.51      2.99      3.61
BACO JIM511670M1 Money      670      1.515      0.75      0.84      0.95      1.08      1.24      1.44      1.69      2.02      2.44
BACO JIM511695C1 Creedmore 695      1.450      0.88      0.99      1.12      1.27      1.46      1.69      1.98      2.36      2.86

You need enough spin to stabilize a bullet so need an Sg of at least 1.4 but 1.5 is preferred.
Bullets overspin after an Sg of 2.0 but long range shooters select bullets up to 2.4 to overspin bullets to compensate for drag over a 1,000 yards.
Excessive overspinning is believed to affect accuracy.

Do not discard the bent barrel.
It can be straightened by a good barrel maker and someone may wish to have an original barrel.

Very nice rifle, Dave!

Yours still looks original. Looks good.

The .43 Spanish had an extractor for a .640" rim.

Where did you find a narrower extractor for a NYS for the .608" rim of your new .40-65?

With the split trigger on the NYS you cannot replace the trigger spring with lighter piano wire spring.

I tried to make piano wire springs for the split trigger but it resulted in too much trigger creep.

To lighten mine I made new flat trigger springs from hack saw blades and still had to angle back the sear and reharden it.
The middle is an original spring - and I narrowed the roughed out springs until I found a pull that was acceptable.

The NYS receiver is different than the other No. 1 Rolling Blocks.

Has he ever done a NYS Rolling Block?

Their split overlapping trigger is quite a bit different than the majority of Rolling Blocks with one piece triggers.

I'm sure Curt can get your trigger to a great trigger pull.  He does meticulous work, some of the best in the business.  When it leaves his shop, it will be right.

You can replace the trigger spring with a piano wire spring on a NY contract action, though.  This came up a few months ago, people insisted it wouldn't work, so I made one for George Babbits and sent it to him to prove it could be done.  I think it only took me one prototype and one working spring before I got it to work.  It had a bit of creep to it, not too bad.  I could eventually figure out how to make the spring non-progressive, and to work on the split sear uniformly, to remove that creep, but for as few of these actions as there are out there, I doubt I'll ever mess with it.  I have a few of these actions, and a rifle built on one, I used a wire spring in mine 20 years ago when I built it.  I took it apart after I made the spring for George, and I had done it a different way; didn't even remember I had put a spring in it.   

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