Foragers that went to Alaska

[Openirons]

Hi Folks,
I know it's said (e.g. in Flayderman's, p. 585) that the last known issuance of the Springfield 1881 foragers went to Alaska in 1906.
Is there any record of which serial numbers were issued in Alaska?

[Tom Trevor]

If its not listed in the SRS books chances are it will not be found. All the shotguns listed were sent to lower 48 units.

[Openirons]

Thanks Tom, that's good to know, albeit disappointing. If I gave you a SN, would you be able to check it out for me? Not sure on protocol for SRS lookups on the forum.

[Dick Hosmer]

A friend of mine and I are compiling a list of surviving Foragers. We now have nearly 150 numbers, from 11 to 1392, a tad over 10%. Anyone who wants to post their number - and any info they have on it - is welcome to do so. The numbers (only) will be published in the next printing of my .45-70 book, hopefully next Spring/Summer. Maybe I have something on YOUR specimen?

[Openirons]

Wow, that's great! Excited to hear more about the project! As soon as you're ready, I'll be buying a copy. Mine is SN 1348 and I'd be happy to provide any details/photos though it's been through the auction houses over the years and photographs are up on their sites still. If you know anything from SRS data, I'd sure appreciate hearing about it.

[Dick Hosmer]

That is a new number to us - thank you. I originally did not plan to include numbers in the Forager chapter, since they have their own unique series, and "are what they are", as opposed to those scarce or rare items occurring in the general sequence where the establishment of a range is of significant value. But, as we accumulated numbers I thought why not? People like to see "their" gun in a book, and, the listing helps to roughly indicate survival rate. Aside from Flayderman's comment, I have not seen anything specific re Alaska, but, I've not actually searched for it either. I'm sure he wasn't making it up, so some sort of record exists (or existed) but it may or may not have included numbers.

[Openirons]

Re: Alaska records, I guess I'm physically in one of the better places to do that on-the-ground research, so I'll poke around with some locals. Good winter project. Who knows if the base here would have records like that going back so far, but possibly, or possibly they'd know where else to look.

Sounds like the book project is a new edition to "the Scarce & the Rare" - any plans for a new edition of the ".58 & .50's" book? I've been keeping a list of known serial numbers for the type II 1870 Springfield-Sharps, and it stands at 39 right now (so just over 10% as well). Happy to share if it would ever help.

[Dick Hosmer]

I think the only record(s) extant might be in the RCOs (Annual Reports of the Chief of Ordnance). I have a few but not for that period. I think most can be read online,

"Scarce" just needs a reorganization and update - file has gotten messy (floating pictures!) with the little tweaks here and there. I do not sell many directly, so just let Amazon send out what they have, but I need to get my house in order and keep the master m/s file usable, which it is not at present.

"58/50" is a little different, it was printed conventionally and I have all of the stock, still over 1000 of the original 5000. Poyer/North Cape did the editing and publishing. I did obtain Joe's material before he passed, and have converted the text to Pages on my Mac. But, there is a size/font change coming as I want to redo it IDENTICAL to "Scarce". With the help of Fred Gaarde, and my acquisition of #62, there will be a lot more coverage on the 68/68s, plus 20 years of gleanings. It will be a true 2nd Edition.

Another, and pretty unlikely item at this point would be a third volume to round out the period, on the "standard" .45 rifles and carbines, but, that ground has been plowed (too?) many times.

Yes, I'd gladly accept your offer of the S/S serials, again something I hadn't considered (from lack of data, as well as the unique sequence thing). I see you are a new member - we should probably talk more - preferably email, I hate the in-house message system here.

[Openirons]

Sent an email your way via the system with my own email address enclosed. If that doesn't make it through, I can message it to you as well.

[Fred]

Dick, don’t forget about Forager #9 that I used to have and which is now owned by another person who’s name I cannot remember.
I do recall that it has the early lock plate with the 1873 date, a serrated trigger, an early hammer with the cut knurling,
the new owner has all of the information I gave him concerning the name of the ancestor of the man from whom I bought it and the name of the South Dakota fort that he served at.
possibly the man will see this post and will kindly chime in with this information that I can no longer remember.