Why do we know so little about this gun? With firearms and weaponry expert, Jonathan Ferguson

Edit - correction, this is NOT a "Monte Carlo" stock, it just has a cheekpiece. The Monte Carlo comb sits proud of the butt itself, so has a step down near the buttplate. My friend Danny at the Cody Firearms Museum has pointed out something I missed, which is that the bolt arrangement is eerily similar to the George W. Morse patent 15995 of 1856. A possible inspiration, in which case the story COULD go Morse-This Thing-Jovanovich.

It's weird, overly complex, chambered for a very short lived cartridge... Makes my German heart spark with joy.

Feels like an episode of Forgotten Weapons. That's a compliment.

The barrel seems to be the key to identifying the provenance of this mystery rifle. It looks like an unfinished production part mated to an engineering shop prototype receiver and action. My wild guess is that it was a prototype made in the H&H factory using that particular barrel and cartridge because they were available as surplus parts. It may have been an "off the books" project by some H&H employee who knew of the Pedersen-based designs of self-loading rifles and wondered if he could make a self-loading rifle using the firm's facilities and no-one would notice if a spare barrel for their unpopular 0.375 Nitro Express rifle went missing. If you can track down any existing 0.375" Nitro Express rifles in collections or period literature and cross-compare the barrel shape and sight block layout that might give you another line of enquiry.

It's worth noting that the performance of the cartridge was deliberately made significantly lower than what was theoretically possible because it was a British cartridge for big game in Africa loaded using cordite powder which was exceptionally sensitive to heat. Generally a maximum pressure of 47k psi was allowed with cordite to give enough safety factor, but with newer flake or ball powders which don't see such drastic increases in burn speed (and thus pressure) the maximum would be up around 62k. So it wasn't exactly a slouch, despite being over a hundred years old it was right up at the limits of what would be allowed even today when using a brass case (which is 65k after safety factor).

I love these oddball dead end designs. Thanks for sharing this one. With regards to not disassembling the guns to frequently, had the armory considered getting a good 3D scanner so that when one is taken apart accurate scans can be taken along with photos? It would be great from a research accessibility standpoint but also to allow recreation of various parts or entire guns.

Jonathan Ferguson and Ian McCollum are the best source of firearm related facts and interesting concepts

I've heard that a common concern among big game hunters was the risk of being charged by an animal they'd wounded. Hence why some big game rifles have two barrels, and also the original development of 'howdah pistols'. This might have been intended as a way to allow hunters to take quick follow-up shots at charging animals.

In parts of the British Empire that restricted what caliber weapons could be used to hunt certain game, .375" was the minimum specified for shooting elephants. Also, I was seeing 'Express' style folding leaf sights still being fitted to brand new rifles into the mid-1970's from companies like Steyr (Mannlicher) and FN Browning

You know, based on the cartridge, this might have been a first attempt at a semiautomatic big game stopping rifle. The .375" diameter projectile been a popular choice for african big game hunting, and maybe the inventor was looking to break into that market. It's definitely a curious piece!

"You see, when a spring loaded mouse trap and a self loading rifle get really, really drunk one night in a motel..."

A quite fearsome recoil with all those large lumps of metal hammering around - also a great finger dicer if you let go of the wrong bit at the wrong time.

A general comment here. Have you thought of using x-ray florescence as a NDT method of cataloging firearm metallurgy? I was using this method last summer at work and found it very revealing. Especially as it regards to "purity" of composition of metals. For instance using the Star-Trek like pistol and shooting a piece of "pewter" showed expected lead, antimony, and zinc. But it also revealed uranium, mercury, silver and gold content. With enough data one would be able to determine what furnace made what, if a particular manufacturer had a material specification, etc. Perhaps the rifle here may have steel(s) from an Italian, Czech or German plant. Just a thought.

The very roomy trigger-guard could be for use with heavy gloves similar to the FAMAS

Jonathan, I am a Brit living in Wyoming. We used to have a firearms law but nobody used it. Been here 20 years and it has been great to pursue my hobby. I reload my 7.62x51. I am a convert to 1911 and 45ACP for my pistols. I am an amateur gunsmith in that I had mechanical engineering training in my teens. Love this program and Forgotten Weapons. Are these broadcast in the UK? The country is very anti-gun mainly driven by ignorance. I have visited the Leeds museum many times in the past.

Brilliant. The ingenuity of gun designers and builders is second to none. It starts with an idea 100% of the time based on something else. Guns shaped society, both good and bad. It needs to be understood not feared.

That looks like an iteration of the C98 Mauser, one of Germany's first forays into self-loading rifles back in 1898. The elongated trigger guard and square magazine are nearly identical. The C98 was also a flap-lock design. Wonder if a Brit decided to do a little patent infringement...

You and Ian should have done a collab on this one. The knowledge you both have would surely be amazing to hear.

I only discovered this channel about a month ago. I've got to say that the content is excellent and this video is a great reminder of just how many unusual designs there must have been to get us to the tried and true mechanisms we know and rely on today. Simply brilliant.

Jon... Ian would LOVE this thing...