M1852/67 Navy Landmark

M1854komplettThis is probably one of the two least scarce Norwegian Navy kammerladere (together with the M1860 Landmark) – a short, three band, 18 lødig rifle with “skiing hill” rear sight and converted to Landmark. Least scarce = common? Well – there were probably only made some 500 of this model.

As mentioned under the M1845 & M1849, setting correct model year to the navy kammerladers is difficult. I used to call this a M1854 as that was the lowest production year I’d seen. It seems the correct adoption year is 1852. Just about all of the M1852′s were converted to Landmark cartridge rifles.

This is the last model of the three band navy kammerladers, the next three models only had two bands like the army’s short models.

The mechanism of the Landmark cartridge conversion is ingenious in its simplicity. The chamber is opened as before, but tilt it further backwards by bending it over a hinge in the middle of the chamber. The cartridge is placed backwards, away from the muzzle and the all you have to do is to “roll” everything forwards again. The only part to be modified was the chamber.

The cartridge is “slightly” different from most other  cartridges. Short & fat is an understatement. A really huge 16,8 mm pointed lead bullet fitted in a large diameter and super-short casing. This cartridge is becoming very scarce and holds a high collector’s value.

You may find the M1852 in close to brand new condition like the one on the pictures and they are almost always in at least what the Americans would call “Very good +” to “Excellent”. The earlier and later models seem to have seen a lot of wear and tear.

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