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Rogers & Spencer review

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No second place

No second place

50 Cal.
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This is not a single gun R&S review. Having owned and tested maybe a dozen R&S over the years for possible match use in NMLRA / NRA events I have never used one in an actual match. That brings to why not a R&S? It`s a .457 ball shooter, so the extra wear from the heavier caliber affects my scores sometimes more than a .36 Navy. That`s the only downside of the R&S in my opinion. Best attributes no other cap & ball can claim...Best grip, weight and balance in my opinion for one handed target shooting. Reliability of more robust moving parts. Ease of capping. No cylinder cap jams or pieces of caps locking up the hammer. No cylinder lock from fowling. About a 30% shorter hammer throw for quicker lock / firing time. Nice sight picture with a easy to unscrew and replace front sight for sight adjustment. Easiest to tune a match trigger. That`s my take on why I will always keep at least one R&S as a backup match gun and fun gun. If it were made in a .36 Navy variant it would likely be my primary traditional revolver. Just my take from a match shooters view. Only shooting round ball match loads from 12- 22 grains of Goex or Shutzen 3f at 25 and 50 yards. Corn meal filler to top of chamber on powder. seating ball just under flush with custom seating press. 1/3 beeswax, 2/3 Crisco over ball. CCI#11 caps. Please feel free to add to this thread any of you R&S experiences...nsp
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My experience with R&S is very limited ; I have only fired one shot from one.
I was offered a shot from a new reproduction model and took the X out of the 10 ring at 25 yards.
I promptly handed it back, thanked the owner and complimented him on the pistol; no way was I going to fire another shot😀😂😂
I also once passed up the opportunity to buy two near mint originals, regretted it ever since.
 
I have a stainless euroarms and I’ve only taken it out once so far and it shot great. Very comfortable and a heavy duty well made gun. As mentioned above parts are a problem, but they are rugged parts so likely to last a long time. Having worked in manufacturing for years I’m pretty sure I could probably make some of the parts if necessary, like a hand or something. It seems like a super reliable gun that you can shoot a long time and not clean the cylinder pin every couple cylinders like on a Remington. Right now with limited experience I would say it’s my favorite. Only negative to me is you can’t carry it fully loaded safely you need to carry on an empty chamber.
 
These were still being pulled out of inventory and carried during the Spanish American due to the impotent stopping power of the .38 pea shooters we gave our boys.

A .44 round ball don't care much if it's 1865 or 1898, or 2024 for that matter.

It'll do.
 
This pistol is simply outstanding! Shot 100 rounds of .454 ball and some conical paper cartridges. Absolutely 0 cap or paper jams and NO cylinder binding even after firing 100 35 grain Schuetzen BP paper cartridges!!
I only lubed the cylinder pin once with Pam cooking spray and used no lube on the projectiles. They were all fired dry and had no issues with fowling or loss of accuracy.
In accuracy order of my pistols, I put the R&S on top, followed by the 58 Remingtons, S&B and open tops last.
Distance was 20 yards aiming at the red target center. Shoots About 6”- 8” high.


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The Rogers and Spencer is a very handsome firearm, and I am sure is extremely reliable. Someone mentioned its similarity to the Remington. If I remember correctly, without looking it up, someone from Remington went to work for Rogers and Spencer, which is probably the cause of the similarity. What I am about to say may be upsetting to some, but it is in no way a knock on the Rogers and Spencer or those who favor it. For over 40 years I have been a Civil War collector. I guess maybe 25 to 30 years ago I said to myself I would never add a Rogers and Spencer to my Civil War Collection. The reason was the government accepted delivery of all 5000 Rogers and Spencers in March 1865 and never issued them during the war. Hence they were never used during the war. Again this is from memory and not looking it up now, but if I remember correctly the government paid $4.00 each and sold all or most of them to Bannerman around the turn of the century for 50 cents each. That is why so many Rogers and Spencers were found in such good condition years later. At the time I also thought to myself the NMLRA should not allow them in as issue revolver matches because they were never issued during the war. Again, this is not a detraction on the Rogers and Spencer. Collectors just have quirks like that. Some Civil War collectors collect only buttons. A number of them will not collect nondug buttons; they only collect excavated buttons because they know they "were there." Many of use mellow in our old age. I am not quite as ruthless now as when I was an army officer many years ago. I have no complaints against the Rogers and Spencer. I have always told myself if it had not been for the war they probably never would have existed.
 
Flint1 said:
The Rogers and Spencer is a very handsome firearm, and I am sure is extremely reliable. Someone mentioned its similarity to the Remington. If I remember correctly, without looking it up, someone from Remington went to work for Rogers and Spencer, which is probably the cause of the similarity. What I am about to say may be upsetting to some, but it is in no way a knock on the Rogers and Spencer or those who favor it. For over 40 years I have been a Civil War collector. I guess maybe 25 to 30 years ago I said to myself I would never add a Rogers and Spencer to my Civil War Collection. The reason was the government accepted delivery of all 5000 Rogers and Spencers in March 1865 and never issued them during the war. Hence they were never used during the war. Again this is from memory and not looking it up now, but if I remember correctly the government paid $4.00 each and sold all or most of them to Bannerman around the turn of the century for 50 cents each. That is why so many Rogers and Spencers were found in such good condition years later. At the time I also thought to myself the NMLRA should not allow them in as issue revolver matches because they were never issued during the war. Again, this is not a detraction on the Rogers and Spencer. Collectors just have quirks like that. Some Civil War collectors collect only buttons. A number of them will not collect nondug buttons; they only collect excavated buttons because they know they "were there." Many of use mellow in our old age. I am not quite as ruthless now as when I was an army officer many years ago. I have no complaints against the Rogers and Spencer. I have always told myself if it had not been for the war they probably never would have existed.
Click to expand...
And thus you have described in detail why I don't call myself a collector no matter how many antiques and repros I have. Thank you...nsp
 
Thanks for your reviews. The R&S seems to always invoke some controversy due to being so different than the common Colts, Remingtons and ROAs. The out of the box reliability of the R&S makes it the only CW era revolver made in repro I would have confidence with no tuning....nsp
 
No second place said:
This is not a single gun R&S review. Having owned and tested maybe a dozen R&S over the years for possible match use in NMLRA / NRA events I have never used one in an actual match. That brings to why not a R&S? It`s a .457 ball shooter, so the extra wear from the heavier caliber affects my scores sometimes more than a .36 Navy. That`s the only downside of the R&S in my opinion. Best attributes no other cap & ball can claim...Best grip, weight and balance in my opinion for one handed target shooting. Reliability of more robust moving parts. Ease of capping. No cylinder cap jams or pieces of caps locking up the hammer. No cylinder lock from fowling. About a 30% shorter hammer throw for quicker lock / firing time. Nice sight picture with a easy to unscrew and replace front sight for sight adjustment. Easiest to tune a match trigger. That`s my take on why I will always keep at least one R&S as a backup match gun and fun gun. If it were made in a .36 Navy variant it would likely be my primary traditional revolver. Just my take from a match shooters view. Only shooting round ball match loads from 12- 22 grains of Goex or Shutzen 3f at 25 and 50 yards. Corn meal filler to top of chamber on powder. seating ball just under flush with custom seating press. 1/3 beeswax, 2/3 Crisco over ball. CCI#11 caps. Please feel free to add to this thread any of you R&S experiences...nspView attachment 341323View attachment 341324
Click to expand...
 
I found my R&S by 'accident' several years ago. A local auction was selling off a BP accumulation and there was a tackle box with supplies in the trays. Under- neath the tray, I lift if up and here's a minty R&S, unbeknownst to the auctioneer! Of course, someone would have found it, I was just the first to do so. I got it for under $300 after tax & fees. A great find! ( Sometimes I luck out, and have been called "Gladstone" by some pals. (See: Gladstone Gander in the Donald Duck comics of old!)
 
If I remember correctly, without looking it up, someone from Remington went to work for Rogers and Spencer, which is probably the cause of the similarity.
Click to expand...

People have copied other people designs from time immemorial.

Certainly the concepts and often a different take on it.

Revolvers go way back, but Colt would have been the first to make a truly functional revolver. He still would have known about other prior work.

But what he came up with was truly and elegant design with completely practical functionality that lent itself to mass producion.
 
The R&S pistols are for me, a two-handed proposition; the hammer is so far "up", you can't one-handed cock it like with the Colt. The grip is awkward, too. This is just me personally, my hands. I still really like my R&S and am happy to have found it.
 

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