This is an exceptional rare and very unique Greene breech loading "bolt action" rifle as manufactured by the A. H. Waters Company circa 1859/60. This rifle was the very first "bolt action" rifle ever purchased by the U.S. Ordnance Dept. It is really a very interesting percussion rifle in that it used a black powder paper cartridge with this very modern and certainly forward thinking bolt action mechanism, that was developed prior to the Civil War. The U.S. Ordnance Dept. purchased approximately 900 of these rifles with very few being actually used. After the Civil War a large quantity was sold to various state militias by the Boston company of William, Reed and Sons. This rifle actually has "dual locking lugs" that are used on the turn-bolt design. Instead of having a firing pin in the bolt it employed a pusher rod to seat the paper cartridge with a underhammer percussion cap mechanism. The rifle has a 36 inch barrel that uses a oval bore with a very shallow rifling method developed by Charles Lancaster, a London gunmaker. This shallow rifling was probably the most effective for black powder shooting as it would spin the bullet/ball sufficiently to provide good accuracy, but not so deep that it caused a lot of powder fouling. Certainly a rifle that was way ahead of its time, and probably the reason why the Ordnance Dept didn't use many of them. The only markings on the rifle are on top of the upper tang which reads "GREENE PATENT/NOV. 17 1857". There are no U.S. inspectors proofs or marks so its assumed this maybe one the rifles sold to a State militia. It has the all blue parts with a color casehardened hammer/ring mechanism. The rifle has a full length walnut stock with two barrel bands and the original steel cleaning rod. The butt-trap compartment contains an original soft-bristle bore brush.

Very fine with 95% of the original blue finish with the only wear being some flaking of the blue on the barrel bands, trigger guard and lower tang. The hammer/ring retains 60% of a subdued case colors overall. The stock is in excellent condition with a nice original medium brown color overall showing minor handling marks and scratches on the sides. A really high condition and certainly very unique breech loading bolt action percussion rifle.