El Tigre Rifle

Tigre Rifle
Type	Rifle
Place of origin	Spain
Service history
In service	1923–1980s
Used by	Guardia Civil, Guardas Jurados, Guardia Foral, Patrimonio Nacional, Guardia Forestal, Dirección General de Instituciones Penitenciarias (prison service)
Wars	Spanish Civil War
Production history
Designer	John Moses Browning and other
Designed	1892
Manufacturer	Gárate y Anitua Cia
Produced	1915–1937
No. built	1,034,687
Specifications
Weight	2.9 kg
Length	99.5 cm
Barrel length	55.2 cm
Caliber	.44-40 Winchester
Action	Lever-action
Feed system	12 round tube magazine
Sights	Tangent leaf sights up to 1000 metres, Fixed-blade front sight

The Tigre rifle was a Spanish copy of the Winchester Model 1892 made by Garate, Anitua y Cia., an Eibar based arms manufacturer between 1915 and 1938.

Ironically, it may have been the intensive marketing efforts of the Winchester company's agent in Spain during the 1870s and 1880s that led to the Tigre's popularity in Spain. These efforts included a visit by Oliver Winchester to Spain and other countries. After exhaustive testing and many design changes, 230 Winchester Model 1873 carbines (with 22 inch barrels, metre sights, full length cleaning rod and full stock) were sold to the Spanish Military for use by the Cavalry and Royal Bodyguard in the 1870s. These are considered to be evolutionary predecessors of the Winchester 1876 carbines, most famously supplied to the North-West Mounted Police. More than 2,500 were later made under license by the Spanish arsenal at Oviedo in the 1890s to keep staff working while awaiting the arrival of modern machinery required for the production of the Mauser Model 1893. These utilised some improvements made in the Winchester 1876, but were chambered in .44-40 thus allowing a slimmer action. Carbine variants were made for the Cavalry, and the 14th regiment of the Guardia Civil. Musket variants were made for some other users, such as Military academies and sentries. After 1893 a further unknown number of carbines were sourced from Eibar based firms, but these, according to Madis, were of lower quality than the Oviedo made models.

The first models were produced by Gárate y Anitua in 1915, but production was presumably interrupted by the war. Having spent most of World War I supplying the Allies with large-framed revolvers based on Smith & Wesson designs and the 7.65mm Browning calibre self-loading Ruby pistols, the company began to market the first El Tigre rifles in 1923.

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Wikipedia