This is a beautiful example of an extremely scarce, Remington-Keene bolt action carbine. This design was Remington's first attempt at producing repeating rifles to compete with Winchester's lever actions. It was designed by John W. Keene (d. 1880) of New Jersey in the 1870s. They were entered by Remington in the 1878 and 1881 magazine rifle trials. A total of 5,000 were manufactured in multiple variations in 1878-1883. This example has a shorter barrel than any of the standard variants and appears largely unused. It has a blade front sight fitted in a dovetail on the front barrel band, notch and ladder rear sight, "E. REMINGTON & SONS. ILION N.Y./PAT. FEBY 24 MCH 17. 1874. JAN. 18/SEPT 26 1876. MCH. 20 JULY 31. 1877." on the top of the bolt, "45/70" and magazine cut-off switch on the left side of the receiver, and smooth stock with a casehardened carbine buttplate with a trap compartment (empty).

Excellent with 95% plus original blue and casehardened finish, mostly bright bolt and lifter, few dings on the sides of the barrel and magazine tube, and minimal overall wear consistent with storage and limited handling. The stock is very fine has several minor bruises and scrapes, a couple small flakes by the buttplate tang, splotch of varnish on the comb, and mild overall dings. Mechanically excellent. This is a very interesting and high condition example of a lesser known early bolt action design.