Original British Gurkha P-1864 Snider Two Band Short Rifle with Socket Bayonet – Cleaned and Complete Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. The Two Band Short Snider Rifle was used by Gurkha Infantry Mountain troops, issued in .577 caliber and fitted with an original 26.5″ barrel secured by only two steel barrel bands. Correct short pattern includes a ladder back sight with the brass furniture, checkered wrist stock, with an overall length only 45″. These scarce short infantry rifles were issued exclusively to Gurkha Mountain units in small numbers.

This example has been expertly restored by our IMA master antique gunsmith. It is sound, with no known flaws, and has been brought back to life to appear how it must have looked the day it was issued. In the entirety of the Nepal cache find, fewer than 40 short snider rifles were ever discovered, out of 55,000 guns making this a stunningly rare rifle.

Additionally most of our Short Rifles were made to be fitted with the Nepalese version of the British P-1856 Saber bayonets. Very few were found to be issued with a socket bayonet as this is. Needless to say original brass mounted leather scabbards were very thin on the ground. This short rifle has been fully cleaned to really nice display condition and surprisingly bears few Nepalese markings, just one on the breech block and one on the bayonet.

History of the Snider-

Jacob Snider, an American from New York, developed this breech loading system for the P-1853 Enfield, the most prolific imported Percussion rifle in use by both the North and South during the U.S. Civil War. When the British Board of Ordnance appointed a Select Committee in 1864 the snider system was swiftly adopted with the first breechloaders being issued in 1865 to British forces. Improved in 1867 by the use of Colonel Boxer’s center fire brass bodied cartridge, the rifle was used very effectively in the Abyssinian Campaign of 1868. The system utilized a hinged breech block with an internal firing pin assembly that permitted the use of a self contained cartridge of lead bullet in cardboard, and, after 1867, brass casing. This highly efficient conversion system prolonged the active life of the P-1853 rifles up until 1871 when the Martini System was adopted. Snider rifles saw continued use throughout the Empire but were officially obsolete by the late 1880s.

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