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Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD Pointing to three vintage rifles on display outside of the Springfield Armory museum, J. Douglas Cuillard, said the weapons were not just "objects." "They are stories," he explained. Cuillard, the superintendent of the museum, conducted a press conference on Tuesday to announce that a rare prototype rifle developed by the Armory in the 1870s had been returned to the collection. It is one of about 50 to 55 weapons that had been stolen from the museum during the ten years a private non-profit group had operated the museum. It was recovered thanks to a gun enthusiast in Pennsylvania who realized that a fellow gun collector had it in his collection. The owner returned it once agents for the National Park Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation convinced him that the gun had once been part of the museum collection. Luckily, Cuillard explained, detailed photos of the weapon had been made before its disappearance and the rifle a "trapdoor" carbine was identified from the pictures. Its value in the gun collection market would be between $20, 000 and $40,000, Cuillard estimated. The prototype rifle had been developed because the 1873 breech-loading carbines produced by the Armory jammed too easily and were blamed in part for General George Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn. The prototype rifle was displayed with the rifle it was to have replaced as well as a Winchester repeating rifle similar to the ones that had been used by Native Americans against Custer. Ranger Kevin Dube fired a reproduction of the breech-loading rifle and Cuillard explained how the spent cartridge could jam. The new rifle came with a rod to dislodge the shell. It was never manufactured because bolt-action weapons replaced them. To illustrate the stories behind the weapon, FBI Agent Michael O'Reilly, stationed in Springfield, spoke about his family's connection to the battle of The Little Big Horn. His great-great uncle was a sergeant serving with Custer and had been sent on a reconnaissance mission to assess the Native American forces. He was too late in his return to prevent Custer from engaging the Native forces and later became a police officer in eastern Massachusetts. He would have carried one of the breech-loading rifles during his Army career. Looking at the recovered rifle, Cuillard said, "It's one of those stories that came to a happy conclusion." | ||||||
