Nathaniel C. Nash Rifleman
feature By: Leo J. Remiger | March, 25
We begin our article with the following letter, which N.C. Nash wrote to the Massachusetts Arms Company. It was consequently used as a testimonial in the 1886 booklet/catalog titled, The Maynard Rifle.
Massachusetts Arms Co.:
Gentlemen, having used the Maynard Rifle for over a year, and during that time given it a very thorough test, I take great pleasure in expressing my appreciation of the merits of this arm. A little over two years ago I commenced rifle shooting at the 200-yard range. I have owned a number of different makes of rifles with which I have made some very good scores, but my best work has been done with the Maynard Rifle and I attribute this improvement very largely to the excellence of this arm. I have never seen a rifle which suited me so well as the Maynard.
Yours respectfully,
N.C. Nash
This interesting and rare catalog provided a short history of the Maynard rifle, Massachusetts Arms Company and a series of short sketches on noted riflemen that used Maynard rifles during their shooting careers. N.C. Nash was included in one of the sketches of Maynard Riflemen:
N.C. Nash purchased one of his first Maynard rifles in January, 1885. Enjoying the rifle and the ability to add barrels of various calibers, it wasn’t long before he had barrels from .22 caliber up to the larger bores, all of which provided excellent results. The 32-35 Maynard was introduced in the 1884 Massachusetts Arms Company Supplement flyer. Soon after he purchased the 32-35 barrel he began to enter regular competition in the Massachusetts Rifle Association matches conducted at Walnut Hill. On January 31, 1885, he made the following score on the Creedmoor Target at 200 yards, offhand:
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 = 50
Following this score, he continued to make high scores such as 48 and 49s out of a possible 50 on the Creedmoor Target at 200 yards, offhand. At the spring meeting of the Massachusetts Rifle Association in 1885, he entered the Boston Herald Cup Match, a seven-shot match fired offhand, and shot the following score:
The Rifle, Vol. 2, No. 3, July 1886, described N.C. Nash. “Mr. Nash is 24 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds, has brown eyes, and is in excellent physical condition. He has a large collection of firearms which includes rifles by all the prominent manufacturers.”
Among his collection of Maynard rifles, we are aware of two multiple-barrel outfits. Ron Peterson has this beautiful N.C. Nash rifle in his extensive collection of single shot rifles.
Before we mention the other Nash-attributed rifle, take a look at the sights on this rifle. It was common to remove the sights when transporting the rifle to the shooting range. In the case of shooting at Walnut Hill, the riflemen arrived by either train or trolley car and were then transported in a horse-drawn wagon or carriage to the range to shoot. The Walnut Hill range was 11 miles from Boston and two miles from Woburn. The ride from the station house was one half mile to the shooting house on the range.
Additionally, on this multiple barrel outfit, there is only one front sight, as can be seen by the other barrels having only the base for the windage adjustable globe front sight mounted in the dovetailed barrels, while the actual sight is on the barrel selected for shooting.
Of special interest is the Patent Midrange tang sight. The pinion has been removed and fitted with a threaded insert to allow the elevation to be controlled by a thumb-screw and not the pinion and rack of the sight. N.C. Nash has apparently experienced the same phenomenon that I have when shooting with these sights – before you loosen the eye piece, you better read your settings as that pinion can cover a lot of real estate in a hurry if you’re not careful. His solution was the threaded insert and an elevation adjusting thumb-screw. Not only was N.C. Nash a phenomenal rifle shot, he was clever too!
The engraved rifle in the photograph to the left is on display in The Coors Connection II Maynard Rifles display case at the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyoming. It is readily identified by the engraving pattern. A close examination of the medals and ribbons N.C. Nash is wearing in the photograph indicate the following:
Upper Left: (Nash’s right shoulder)
• Gold, First Prize: Mammoth Rifle Gallery, December, 1884.Scores: 47-47-47-47-47, Light Blue Velvet Ribbon.
• Bar and Octagon Shaped Medal with MRA Emblem Gold, First Prize: Walnut Hill, 1884-1885, Scores: 47-47-50-47.
• Unable to positively identify the lower medal and ribbon, but it certainly looks similar to the Silver and Gold with Green Ribbon, Best Team medal won by Samuel Merrill, Globe, October 11, 1886.
Upper Right: (Nash’s left shoulder)
• Cannot see the ribbon clearly enough to identify it.
• The three medals in line are probably “Member Badges” for high scores and may indicate “gold,” “silver,” and “bronze”.
• The lower ribbon cannot be seen in enough detail to identify it.
• The dark ribbon and medal is a Victory Medal. This one appears to be Bronze with a red ribbon. The Victory Medal was established in 1881. N.C. Nash won the gold Victory Medal in 1891.
N.C. Nash typically used a single cartridge case which he loaded with powder from a flask. He tapped the powder down and placed a blotting-paper wad over the powder and pressed it down about 1⁄8 of an inch. He dropped the bullet into the chamber and seated it in the bore with a bullet seater.
He seated the bullet in the bore slightly ahead of the cartridge case containing the powder. No mention is made of what he used or how he de-primed and primed the cartridge case. We can only presume he used a George W. Hadley “implement for capping and uncapping cartridge shells.” G.W. Hadley received patent 310583 on January 13, 1885, for his unique re-decapper. After making the shot he cleaned the barrel with a wet Fisher cleaner brush. Then he wiped the bore with dry patches using a slotted cleaning rod.
In the following photograph we see the “hip-rest” position adopted by N.C. Nash. It is unique for multiple reasons. Ongoing to the firing point, he buttoned his coat and then placed the butt stock of his rifle, which had a Swiss butt plate, under the coat with the butt plate fitting around the forward parts of his shoulder. The left arm was brought as far to the right as possible in order to receive support from the muscles, and he rested his elbow on his hip.
(Editor’s note: The “Nash” position, using the coat or vest as artificial support, was ruled out by many Schuetzen organizations in later years and is currently illegal under Wyoming Schuetzen Union rules. This is for good reason, as placing the buttstock under the coat materially steadies the rifle, much as using a sling would.)
The rifle barrel rested on the palm between the first and second finger with the other fingers grasping the barrel. His right hand grasped the small of the stock with his index finger lying alongside the receiver. His thumb was placed over the tang, just behind the Vernier tang sight base. He pressed the trigger with his second finger.
Riflemen and spectators who watched N.C. Nash when he was shooting declared, “There was no bracing or tightening of the muscles, but on the contrary when he assumed his shooting position, he achieved almost a complete relaxation which permitted him to fire almost an unlimited number of shots without fatigue.”
N.C. Nash was present at the Walnut Hill Range practically every shooting day when he was active in the sport. Riflemen remarked when “assuming his unusual shooting position he would actually slump down and proceed on most occasions to fire 100 consecutive shots without showing the slightest weariness. When once settled down for a steady hold, he would await the propitious moment before squeezing the trigger. The wind on the range would sway the barrel of his Maynard, but not in the least disconcerted he would wait until a lull permitted him to resume his hold. And the results he obtained would seem to indicate that there was some value in his methods.”
There are many entertaining anecdotes regarding N.C. Nash. One of my favorites is when his son turned four in 1891, Nash obtained a life membership in the Massachusetts Rifle Association for him, making him one of the youngest “life members” of the organization.
Not only was Nash a competitive rifleman, he was also a very active member of the Massachusetts Rifle Association. Nash and Lucius L. Hubbard paid for the die made to strike the MRA Seal Medal and presented the first medals to the organization. The medal itself has a target on the front of a shield, with a rifleman on either side. Above the shield an arm and a saber, below the shield is the motto “Oculis Anamoque Sagaci”, which I believe means, “With eyes and a keen mind.” However, I may be wrong; my Latin, as well as my math, have never been close friends. The medal was available in Gold with a red and blue ribbon, Silver with a red and blue ribbon, and Bronze with a red and blue ribbon.
To win one of these medals took some serious shooting:
Offhand Scores:
• Gold: 10 scores of 85 or better.
• Silver: 10 scores of 80 or better.
• Bronze: 10 scores of 75 or better.
Rest Scores:
• Gold: 10 scores of 115 or better.
• Silver: 10 scores of 109 or better.
• Bronze: 10 scores of 104 or better.
Shooting and Fishing Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 17, Feb. 19, 1891, ran the following article on the Massachusetts Rifle Association Seal Medal.
Gold Seal Medal
Walnut Hill, Mass., Feb. 14: Mr. N.C. Nash finished his 10 scores in the seal medal match and won the first gold medal in this match:
Gold Seal Medal won on the following 10 scores of 85 or better by:
N.C. Nash 85, 87, 86, 89, 86, 86, 85, 86, 88, 85
The last anecdote I will mention involves the story behind this photo below.
N.C. Nash and his hunting guide “Fast Eddy” were hunting in the vicinity of Chesuncook Lake, Maine.* During the end of the trip, the larder was running low on fresh meat. Nash and Fast Eddy left camp about 5 p.m. and paddled up a small river. Heavy mist had settled over the river and as they paddled slowly up the river, they heard noise from around the next bend. Fast Eddy thought it might be a deer. As they paddled closer to the bend Fast Eddy remarked that it must be a moose, as it was making too much noise to be a deer. They quietly paddled a short distance further when Fast Eddy whispered to Nash, “There he is, don’t you see him?”
It took a short while before Nash saw the moose. Initially, he was looking on the wrong side of the river. Finally, he made out an object standing near the bank of the river. However, the mist was so heavy and the outline of the moose so indistinct he was unable to determine whether it was 50 yards or 200 yards away.
Nash said, “Can you paddle me any nearer?”
Fast Eddy replied, “I am not certain. Can’t you hit it from here?”
“I can try,” responded Nash.
The moose, as it turns out, was standing head on, and all that could be seen was its head and the light fur on its breast. Nash took aim at the “vest”, as he called it, and thought he had taken a bull’s-eye hold. After the thunderous report, smoke hung about the canoe, and when it cleared away, the moose had turned, and was making for the brush that grew along the sides of the river. In the meantime, Nash had loaded another cartridge into the chamber and as he was about to fire, the moose disappeared from view. Nash and Fast Eddy approached carefully to the spot where the moose disappeared.
When they arrived at the spot and followed the sign, they found a magnificent bull with an unusually fine head. Nash’s shot had struck exactly in the center of the breast, had passed clean through the heart and liver making a hole through the heart as large as a fist. They failed to find the bullet and presumed the bullet had fragmented into shreds.
N.C. Nash’s gun was described as a .45 caliber Lee rifle. It was converted from a military rifle to a sporting rifle and re-chambered to take a shell that held 90 grains of powder. No mention is made of the bullet weight. In additional hunting stories concerning N.C. Nash, the gun is called a Winchester 45-70, so it’s possible that it was a Winchester Lee Navy converted to take the 45-90 grain cartridge – or the other stories may have dealt with an entirely different gun; we will probably never know for sure.
In 1891, N.C. Nash was elected president of the Massachusetts Rifle Association. The same year the new clubhouse was finished at Walnut Hill, which cost $3,000.
A special thanks goes to Ron Peterson for allowing us to use his N.C. Nash Maynard rifle, Nathan Williams for the photographs and especially to Diane for dealing with my email traffic and coordinating all my requests.
* Chesuncook Lake is a reservoir in Piscataquis County, Maine, within the North Maine Woods. The lake was formed by the damming of the West Branch Penobscot River by dams built in 1835, 1903, and 1916, respectively. With a maximum depth of 150 feet it is the third-largest body of fresh water in Maine.
Sources:
1. The Maynard Rifle, Massachusetts Arms Company, Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, 1886, PP 28-29
2. America’s Crack Rifle-Shots – N.C. Nash, The Rifle, Vol. 2, No. 3, Boston, Massachusetts, July 1886, PP 175-176
3. Gold Seal Medal, Shooting and Fishing, Vol. 9, No. 17, February 19, 1891, Page 335
4. Thirty Years Ago On The Firing Line, No. 2 – N.C. Nash, Arms and the Man, April 7, 1917, Page 27
5. The Myth and Legend of Nathaniel C. Nash, Robert Summa, The Massachusetts Rifle Association – Walnut Hill, MRA Publishing, 2000, PP 2-14
6. Nathaniel C. Nash 2nd, Robert Summa, Tales of Walnut Hill, MRA Publishing, 2004, PP 31-32