These rifles are based on designs by General J. N. Reece (often misspelled Reese) and Reuben Chaffee, and approved for production and field use by the Ordnance Department in 1882 for testing alongside the Lee and Hotchkiss bolt action magazine rifles. Only 753 were manufactured at Springfield Armory in 1884, making this model one of the rarest manufactured by the armory. The rifles were sold as surplus after trials. Many were damaged and simply sold as scrap. Boxed script "SWP/1884" inspection cartouche stamped on the left of the butt.