M1891 Remington carbines

I’ve always found the 8 mm Remington Carbines to be the most uncharming and boring long-arm used by the Norwegian army. No brass, no really exciting mechanism, no fancy markings – just all plain – and it even looks like an inexpensive children’s toy gun (well, the 1888 is even “cheaper” in appearance than the M1891, but almost completely impossible to find as just about all were converted to the M1891). The picture at the top shows a sorry looking engineer carbine and a rather nice cavalry with the strap

As with the kammerlader carbines, the Norwegian Remington carbines should never have been made in the late 1880’s. If they had come in the late 1860, it would have been something. Norwegian forces had repeating arms already in 1876 and the army had a bolt action repeating rifle in 1884. Why then suddenly turn to an ancient design from 1867 when designing a new carbine? The first Krag Jørgensen smokeless repeating carbine came only four years after this M1891. Most of the M1888 were converted to the M1891, that is way the M1888 are so difficult to find.

One interesting thing about the M1891 – they were actually used against the Germans in 1940. A large number of the carbines were stored near Gjøvik and were put to use against Germans with their MG34 and MP38′s. No wonder Germany won that battle….

I used to have two, one rather good M1888 cavalry and a fairly pitted and really rather shitty M1891. Then I swapped away the M1891, completely forgetting that the M1888 also had gone in a deal earlier (the price of having a fairly large and and locked down collection). I was without any Norwegian Remington carbines for more than 20 years! Now I have tree, but all are M1891’s and only one in decent condition.