Excellent depiction of the Spencer repeating carbine

Jonas Steele (Stacy Keach), secret service agent and Union Army captain, accepts the present of a spencer, 7-shot repeating carbine from President Lincoln. During the Wildnerss Campaign of 1864 we see Steele using the spencer carbine effectively as he shoots down three Confederate soldiers coming at him through the dense brush and woods. He uses the spencer correctly. He has to lever the carbine to load a round then has to cock the hammer. The spencer, unlike the Henry repeating rifle, required two steps to load and cock the weapon. The spencer carbine was far more numerous and common than the spencer rifle. The Union Army purchased 80,000 spencer carbines but only something like 14,000 spencer rifles. After the war, many veterans purchased their spencers. The U.S. Army continued to issue the spencers for the Indian frontier wars. France purchased a large number of spencer carbines for use in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. That is why few old spencers are around today. But reproduction spencer carbines are available, for a hefty price. The weight of the iron spencer carbine is a weighty nine pounds, placing it on a par with the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle of WWII.