In the last few days I have purchased a Russian 107mm M1877 garrison gun dated 1889.These were used by the Imperial Russian Artillery, captured pieces of this type were used by the German Foot Artillery and Finland used this type until WW2.I do not know of others in the US or Canada.It would be nice to find a few other examples near by.
Unfortunately it is missing a few important parts such as the breech block, correct wheels and sights. The wheels pictured with the piece are US Archibald artillery wheels. I have recently manufactured a replacement 9cm Kanone C/1873 breech block quite similar to the one for this 107mm so I believe this project will give me no great trouble.That said, I would still like to have accurate technical drawings of the breech block to work from or accurate measurements and photos from an original.I am also interested in finding detailed information on ammunition and support equipment for this piece such as the limber.By the way, the Russian 107mm M1877 has no legal restrictions within the US because of its pre-1898 manufacture, so this piece does not even require registration through ATF.
I have attached a few photographs.You can see there will be quite a lot of work ahead to free the elevation mechanism, manufacture a new breech block and wooden hub wheels.Also, a correct direct fire sight will be needed.I already have the indirect fire sight which is shaped like a protractor and mounts on the three pins on the top of the breech-ring.This is the same as the indirect fire sight for German Foot Artillery service.I have wondered if the three mounting pins for the indirect fire sight were fitted to the gun after it was captured by the Germans or if it already had them in Russian service.Most likely it did already have them, considering that this is a German Krupp designed gun. The piece is basically free of rust so sand blasting may only be necessary to remove many layers of paint. This of course has to be done carefully to maintain all the markings under those layers of paint.
I will certainly add any information I find about original colors of this Russian 107mm, however, I think this gun has already been sandblasted. I can also see that it has a red oxide primer under the black pant. Red oxide would have been correct for German pieces but to me this looks to be more recent.
The most typical Russian paint color for artillery seems to be either a forest green or a lighter pea green. I am not sure what color primer was typical. Any insight here would be appreciated.
This may be a bit confusing.The gun in the photo you attached, I do not think, is identified correctly.It appears to be a German 9cm C/1873 or a Turkish C/80 not a Russian 107mm K/1877 Field Gun.Notice that the Russian guns have wooden hubs on their wheels whereas, the German 9cm C/1873 and 8cm C/80 have the metal hubs like on the gun in your photo.Also, I understand that Bulgarian forces did not use the Russian 107mm K/77 Field Gun or the 107mm K/77 42 Line Gun whereas they did use captured Turkish 9cm C/73 and 8cm C/80 guns.
The Russian 107mm M1877 I have is the 42 Line Gun which was used by heavy or fortress artillery units.The Russian 107mm K/1877 Field Gun was used Field Artillery.I believe both the 107mm K/77 Field Gun and 107mm K/77 42 Line Gun may have had steel barrels.This is an assumption I make because both guns are designed by Krupp and their German service equivalents where made of steel and fired smokeless powder.
The Finnish Jaeger Platoon web site gives good information on these two 107mm K/77 pieces: