Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at RIA
taking a look at possibly the coolest Volcanic ever.
This is ... the coolest version of the Volcanic
that has had even more cool stuff done to it.
So this is a Volcanic Arms Company pistol carbine.
Which is to say it has a pistol grip to it with a detachable shoulder stock.
Volcanic made these guns as pistols and as full-size rifles, and then also decided,
"Well, you know what? Maybe some people are going to want the sight radius
and the capacity and the barrel length of a rifle, but a little more compactness.
The ability, say, to detach the buttstock and pack it all into a little nice shorter package."
So they actually offered these in two versions.
You could get them with an 8 inch barrel, which is like the standard pistol size, and detachable shoulder stock.
Remember, this is before the days of short-barrelled rifles being a legally registered or legally controlled thing.
And then you could also get the long-barrelled pistol carbine, and that's what we have here.
That is a 16 inch barrel with detachable shoulder stock.
Then someone has taken this one, and quite a very long time ago,
decided to really tactical it up with the addition of a telescopic sight. Let me show you that.
Just to kick it off, here are the barrel markings.
So the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company of New Haven, Connecticut, and patent.
And then on the underside of the receiver we have serial number 62.
Now the way the stock works is pretty simple, we've got a screw here on the bottom of the grip.
And if I loosen that up, I can just pull the stock off.
We have a plug socket here, and a second little pin just to keep the thing aligned.
That tensioning screw locks down into that notch.
So the back of the grip has holes for the plug and the locating pin.
That just sets in there, and
tighten down the screw and it holds it in place.
Alright, but I know nobody really cares about the stock, the cool thing here is the scope.
So, how was this scope mounted?
First off, this is a typical of the 1800s sort of a very simple brass, very long, tube scope.
Unfortunately, the optics are pretty much destroyed.
I can see light through it, but I can't see a reticle or make out an image.
So, unfortunately, I can't give you a view through the scope, because there isn't anything to see on camera there.
What we have though is a really cool mounting system.
So, elevation and windage adjustment of the scope are done right here.
So if I loosen this screw,
like so, I can then adjust the scope up and down. So that's my elevation adjustment.
(Tighten that back up.) And then our windage adjustment is
this other wheel.
You can see that there is a threaded screw body coming out there.
And as I adjust this I'm going to
take the scope mount, which is directly connected here,
and I'm going to lift it away from the receiver when I do this.
Or pull it back in towards the receiver. So that is adjusting my windage in and out.
Both of these adjustments don't have set ... amounts, they don't have notches, they don't have clicks.
This is just, "I'm off a little to the left, so I'll turn that screw a little bit."
Now on the Volcanic we have a section at the front of the barrel that actually rotates around the barrel's axis
so that you can open up the loading gate here to reload the gun.
The front sight is mounted on a fixed collar that doesn't move with this front of the magazine,
and the scope has been attached to that same collar, basically next to the front sight.
So there's the scope's front attachment.
That is what allows the scope to stay in a fixed position, but still allows you to actually reload the gun.
So you know that accessory that everybody puts on scopes today, the flip-up scope caps to protect the glass.
Well, guess what? 150 years ago it wasn't any different.
This has this really cool little brass lens protector on it,
that's got a little peg sticking out there. And I can push that out,
and it reveals the rear lens of the scope so that I can actually use it.
And then when ... I'm done using it and I want to protect the scope, just close that right back up.
That is a really cool little extra accessory on the gun.
It's kind of funny, one's initial impression might be that you have to offset the scope
so that you have space for empty cases to eject out the top.
However, keep in mind this is a Volcanic. This uses Rocket Ball ammunition
which is caseless and there is nothing to extract.
Although that being said, if you have a misfire or something, the only way to get
access to the chamber and to take a dud shell out would be through the top.
So not all that surprising that you would want to offset the scope.
That also allows you to retain the original iron sights
in a position where you can still use them.
So, there you go. People have always tried to tweak with things like guns,
and, well, any other mechanical product, to try and get just the perfect set of features in it.
Here of course, we have the long barrel with all the capacity
and a shoulder stock for accurate shooting from the shoulder.
But you can take the shoulder stock off so that the thing packs down a little tighter.
And for those tricky shots you've got a magnified telescopic sight on the thing.
So, very cool. I wish we knew more about who had actually built this gun, or had it built up for them.
Unfortunately, we don't, but it remains I think the coolest Volcanic I have ever seen.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.
[ sub by sk cn2 ]