Red Star pics

[JGaynor]

Just out of curiosity does anyone know for a fact how Remington packed newly produced rifles?

TM 9-1270 indicates 03's, A1'a, A3'a and A4's were packed in "containers" of 10 rifles. The same manual speaks of three grades preservatives - Oil for short term, Light preservative compound for longer term storage and Heavy preservative compound (cosmolene ?) for dead storage.

Its always seemed to me to be sort of pointless to have put rifles in cosmolene if they would be shipped right to Camp Swampy and put in the hands of new recruits who would then have to take the godawful stuff off!

On the other hand I can see that some of the crates may have gone on an ocean voyage and even been stored outside until issued. Certainly all of the rifles surplus from WW1 would have been put up in cosmo or something like it.

Also wouldn't the factory shipping crates have contained brackets or braces inside to prevent adjacent rifles from banging into each other in transit?

Any rate if anyone knows it would be another piece of the puzzle.

Regards,

Jim

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[Terry Hawker]

Jgaynor,

Can't really comment on Remington's shipping crates, other than to say, that judging by the evidence of old, previously sanded dings in the butts, directly under the fresher dings, I would think it quite possible that Remington packed them in a very similar fashion to that employed by the Brits when they sent them back.

The Brit method in this case, was two rows of six rifles per row, on top of each other, the two rows separated by two wooden dividers which were kept in place by slots down the sides of the crates. The six rifles in each row were arranged by alternating muzzle to butt, up and down, next to each other, with nothing but a bit of wood shavings and grease to keep them apart.

Terry

[John Beard]

Just out of curiosity does anyone know for a fact how Remington packed newly produced rifles?

TM 9-1270 indicates 03's, A1'a, A3'a and A4's were packed in "containers" of 10 rifles. The same manual speaks of three grades preservatives - Oil for short term, Light preservative compound for longer term storage and Heavy preservative compound (cosmolene ?) for dead storage.

Its always seemed to me to be sort of pointless to have put rifles in cosmolene if they would be shipped right to Camp Swampy and put in the hands of new recruits who would then have to take the godawful stuff off!

On the other hand I can see that some of the crates may have gone on an ocean voyage and even been stored outside until issued. Certainly all of the rifles surplus from WW1 would have been put up in cosmo or something like it.

Also wouldn't the factory shipping crates have contained brackets or braces inside to prevent adjacent rifles from banging into each other in transit?

Any rate if anyone knows it would be another piece of the puzzle.

Regards,

Jim

Remington rifles were packed 10 rifles/crate. The crates were made from wood and obtained from an outside supplier. The crate design had to be approved by the Army Ordnance Dept.

Although I have not knowingly examined a Remington crate, I very seriously doubt that Army Ordnance would have allowed the rifles to bang together.

J.B.