Blake Rifle: Blake Video

Blake

This one's not truly a rotary magazine. It has a cylindrical cartridge carrier that is part of a magazine system; a rotary en bloc of sorts.

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Blake Rifle

The Blake Rifle was one of a number of designs submitted to the US Army’s 1892 rifle trails which sought a replacement for the venerable Springfield M1873 ‘trapdoor’. Designed by John H. Blake the rifle was one of only a handful of American-made rifles offered for the trials. Chambered in a rimless .30 calibre cartridge called .30 Blake which was a rimless development of the .30-40 Krag round. The rifle fed from a 7-round rotary magazine. The rifle was patented by Blake in May 1893, but the patent was not granted until July 1898.

The rifle’s action cocked on opening, much like a Mauser action, and was locked by four lugs at the front of the bolt which seated into the receiver and was one of a number of bolt-action rifles submitted to the trial. Blake’s rifle was one of the more promising private designs submitted with many others being single shot trapdoor designs with little improvement over the M1873. The Blake rifle faced competition from a number of other designs including the tube-magazine fed Chaffee-Reece which had been rejected during trials in the 1880s and several lever-action Savage rifles and the Danish Krag-Jorgensen which fed from a side loading rotary magazine. By 1892, the US Army was seeking a bolt-action repeating rifle which could be single-loaded while a magazine could be held in reserve. As such the Savage and many other designs were discounted immediately.

Compared to some its competitors the well balanced Blake rifle was promising. However, its most interesting feature was its downfall. The 7-round rotary magazine contained an aluminium 'spool’ which was inserted into the magazine through a hinged door in the bottom of the receiver (see image #6). It was intended that troops would carry a number of pre-loaded spools much as chargers and clips were later carried.
On the left-hand side of the receiver the rifle has a magazine cut-off lever which was marked “SINGLE” to “RAPID”. When 'Rapid’ was selected the cycling of the bolt after firing rotated the spool and brought the next round into the chamber. When 'Single’ was selected the lever moved the magazine spool to a position between two cartridges and disconnected the spool rotating pawl. Sadly the rifle board decided that the rifle was unfit for service because of its unusual feed mechanism. Instead the less complicated rotary magazine of the Danish Krag-Jorgensen was selected and adopted as the M1892.

Several years later in 1894, Blake submitted his rifle design to US Navy’s rifle trials however, his rifle lost out to James Paris Lee’s box magazine design which became the M1895 Lee Navy.
While the Blake Rifle was not adopted by the US Army it was produced commercially in limited numbers. It was offered in a number of calibres including 8mm Mauser and 6mm Lee. Production ended in 1909, with well under 1,000 being made.

Sources:

The Rifle Story, J. Walter, (2006)

The Blake Infantry Rifle (source)