Hotchkiss Portative Saddlery

[tombear]

Dear all
my apologies for being away for so long but unfortunately life caught up with me and I had no time for the finer things.

Anyroad I thought you would be interested in project I have been able to assist my friend Rod Woods over in NZ with.

Although it isn't quite finished I thought a preview would be of interest.

Rod is a gunsmith and keen collector and recently aquired a Hotchkiss Portative fitted with the steel AFV butt assembly. However partly through the happy accident of finding a copy of a 1920s D.D.(E.) for a alteration to the wooden (cavalry) butt asembly and some thorough research Rod has been able to make a exceptional replica of the extremely rare unaltered wooden butt



It is nearing complettion, since sending that pic he has fitted the leather holder for the spanner.

However what may be of more interest here is that he has also aquired a example of the saddle bucket for the Portative and has had it refurbished by a sadler (who I believe can now produce accurate copies, having made patterns from it).



Rod already has the Hotchkiss gunners bandoleer and the saddle wallets for the magazine/strips , which I believe I have already put up pics of.

Once the gun is finished I am hoping that he will arange a photo shoot of the equipment fitted to a Great War vintage saddle and be able to reproduce this picture,



I will put up more picture/details when they are ready, personally I am very excited about this, but then I am a sad LMG nut!

Rod is also working on a accurate replica of the spindly bipod which is a varriation of the original American M1909 one.

ATB

Tom

[Larry Emrick]

Tom: Nice to hear from you again. What an outstanding contribution and thanks for posting it. I am always left wondering how the trooper was able to mount and dismount. Larry

[Pat Holscher]

Dear all
my apologies for being away for so long but unfortunately life caught up with me and I had no time for the finer things.

Anyroad I thought you would be interested in project I have been able to assist my friend Rod Woods over in NZ with.

Although it isn't quite finished I thought a preview would be of interest.

Rod is a gunsmith and keen collector and recently aquired a Hotchkiss Portative fitted with the steel AFV butt assembly. However partly through the happy accident of finding a copy of a 1920s D.D.(E.) for a alteration to the wooden (cavalry) butt asembly and some thorough research Rod has been able to make a exceptional replica of the extremely rare unaltered wooden butt



It is nearing complettion, since sending that pic he has fitted the leather holder for the spanner.

However what may be of more interest here is that he has also aquired a example of the saddle bucket for the Portative and has had it refurbished by a sadler (who I believe can now produce accurate copies, having made patterns from it).



Rod already has the Hotchkiss gunners bandoleer and the saddle wallets for the magazine/strips , which I believe I have already put up pics of.

Once the gun is finished I am hoping that he will arange a photo shoot of the equipment fitted to a Great War vintage saddle and be able to reproduce this picture,



I will put up more picture/details when they are ready, personally I am very excited about this, but then I am a sad LMG nut!

Rod is also working on a accurate replica of the spindly bipod which is a varriation of the original American M1909 one.

ATB

Tom

I have to remark on the nice job of making a reproduction butt for the lmg. Remarkable. And very nice wood. I'm guessing it looks a little nicer than the original!

[Pat Holscher]

Tom: Nice to hear from you again. What an outstanding contribution and thanks for posting it. I am always left wondering how the trooper was able to mount and dismount. Larry

It does look like a rather awkward load.

[Tom Muller]

Tom,

very nice, thanks for sharing! What's on the off side to counter balance the load? An ammo box maybe?

Tom

[tombear]

Hi All
heres the pic of the otherside, its a better version of the one in the manual.



On that vague note I have jpgs of the 18 page manual for the Hotches pack saddle, for which the gun bucket was a subsidiary part. If any one wants it (and the three plates that I found in the Old MoD Pattern Room library, one of which wasn't used in the manual) drop me a e-mail and i'll send it down the wire. Then if someone wants to put it up everyone can see it, if its not up already somewhere.

Yup it's a bit of a mystery how you were meant to get your leg over but it does mention that most of the time the gun would be on the packsaddle in its case rather than on the gunners horse. It really needs someone who understands the horsey parts to read the text, which covers assembly and use.

And yes the butts better made than all the wartime guns I have examined, I'd guess up to the standard of the pre war ones.

Once completed i think it will look stunning fully set up on a horse with rider dressed correctly.

More when i have it.

ATB

Tom

[tombear]

Before I forget, heres the other related bits Rod has, the bandoleer and strip wallets.



If folk are interested I'll ask him for pics of the markings.

ATB

Tom

PS also got pics of a extant Hotch' pack saddle, or parts of one, the pannels and tree, I'm not sure where they are from though, is it from the forum?

[tombear]

Heres the text, plates to follow

[tombear]

And heres the plates, don't say I don't give you owt! ;-{D)

ATB

Tom

[tombear]

Oh and I stand corrected there is a sadlle bag to go opposite the gun bucket, see page 9 and plate 5!

ATB

Tom

[Pat Holscher]

British cavalryman using a Hotchkiss:

http://www.gwpda.org/photos/coppermine/ ... p?pos=-292

[Pat Holscher]

Bump.