snider mk3

spent all weekend at the gun show. managed to pick up a couple of collectible air guns and a bunch of books. no one bought the Snider I was trying to sell. looks like a rifle of such historical significance would be easy to sell. Snider's were the first breech loading metallic cartridge rifle used by the British Empire forces in the 19th century. contemporary with the USA's trap door Springfield. the design was by Jacob Snider a citizen of the US. this design would probably also have been chosen for the US Army's first breechloader as well if they hadn't been so tight fisted with their dollars. the trap door Springfield was designed by Erskine S. Allin who worked at the Springfield Armoury. by selecting the Allin design there would be no royalty payments to the inventor such as would have to be paid if the Snider design was adopted. thus even though the Snider was a superior design the US Army got the cheaper design and the Brits who were willing to pay{sort of} for it got the better one.