Picked up my Remington Model 58 shotgun today
Objekt
thorough disassembly and cleaning, learning a lot about the gun in the
process. The barrel was absolutely filthy inside, especially at the ported
section. I got all of the light rust that I could see off the outside of
the barrel, but will probably take another pass when I clean it after
Sunday's skeet shooting.
I found out that the funny-looking doodad on the end of the barrel is a
Cutts Compensator, marked with "Patents Pending" #1773260 and #2098617. My
curiosity resulted in a historical expedition of sorts. A search at the US
Patent & Trademark Office website revealed details of what this device is
and what it does. Patent #1773260, granted 19 August 1930, applies to the
compensator itself. Patent #2098617, granted 9 November 1937, is for a
"Spreader Tube," which appears to be a refinement of some sort to the
compensator design. In my case, the "spreader tube," which seems to act as
a choke, is marked "Lyman" and "M.C. 725," which probably stands for
"Modified Choke," though I have no idea what the "725" means.
The compensator itself was patented by a Richard M. Cutts, the spreader tube
by a Richard M. Cutts, Jr. - presumably, the former's son. A brief web
search revealed that Richard M. Cutts, the inventor of the Compensator, was
also a US Marine officer. The above-mentioned Spreader Tube patent was
apparently applied for by and granted to the junior Cutts a few years after
his father's death in 1934. There was also a Brig. Gen. Richard M. Cutts
III, USMC, who died in 1973 and is buried next to the first Cutts, but I am
not sure whether there is any relation. No word on the fate of Cutts Jr; he
may well still be alive.
The Compensator seems to have been a rather big deal at the time of its
introduction. Perhaps it was the inspiration for the modern muzzle brake?
For the curious, I found the death information on the Arlington National
Cemetary website: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rmcutts.htm. The brief
biographical sketch there mentions that Cutts Compensators were used on
rifles, and adopted by unspecified foreign governments. I get the
impression that Colonel Cutts was either formally educated in mechanical
engineering or just really good at learning vibrational mechanics on his
own, as the Compensator appears to rely on vibratory phenomena unfamiliar to
me.
One thing I find curious is that the stamping on the Cutts compensator
refers to the two patents as "Pending." Since the gun was manufactured no
earlier than 1958 and, by my uncle's account, fitted with the Compensator
some time in the early 1960's, one can infer that either 1) the gunsmith
used parts nearly 30 years old or 2) whoever made Cutts parts never bothered
to update the stamping to reflect the granting of the two patents.
If any of you know more about this device or its inventor, I would like to
know about it. I look forward to your comments.
Objekt
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Learn about rec.guns at http://www.recguns.com
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Tony
# Thing looked like it hadn't been cleaned by anyone, ever. I performed a
# thorough disassembly and cleaning, learning a lot about the gun in the
# process. The barrel was absolutely filthy inside, especially at the ported
# section. I got all of the light rust that I could see off the outside of
# the barrel, but will probably take another pass when I clean it after
# Sunday's skeet shooting.
#
# I found out that the funny-looking doodad on the end of the barrel is a
# Cutts Compensator, marked with "Patents Pending" #1773260 and #2098617. My
# curiosity resulted in a historical expedition of sorts. A search at the US
# Patent & Trademark Office website revealed details of what this device is
# and what it does. Patent #1773260, granted 19 August 1930, applies to the
# compensator itself. Patent #2098617, granted 9 November 1937, is for a
# "Spreader Tube," which appears to be a refinement of some sort to the
# compensator design. In my case, the "spreader tube," which seems to act as
# a choke, is marked "Lyman" and "M.C. 725," which probably stands for
# "Modified Choke," though I have no idea what the "725" means.
#
# The compensator itself was patented by a Richard M. Cutts, the spreader tube
# by a Richard M. Cutts, Jr. - presumably, the former's son. A brief web
# search revealed that Richard M. Cutts, the inventor of the Compensator, was
# also a US Marine officer. The above-mentioned Spreader Tube patent was
# apparently applied for by and granted to the junior Cutts a few years after
# his father's death in 1934. There was also a Brig. Gen. Richard M. Cutts
# III, USMC, who died in 1973 and is buried next to the first Cutts, but I am
# not sure whether there is any relation. No word on the fate of Cutts Jr; he
# may well still be alive.
#
# The Compensator seems to have been a rather big deal at the time of its
# introduction. Perhaps it was the inspiration for the modern muzzle brake?
# For the curious, I found the death information on the Arlington National
# Cemetary website: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rmcutts.htm. The brief
# biographical sketch there mentions that Cutts Compensators were used on
# rifles, and adopted by unspecified foreign governments. I get the
# impression that Colonel Cutts was either formally educated in mechanical
# engineering or just really good at learning vibrational mechanics on his
# own, as the Compensator appears to rely on vibratory phenomena unfamiliar to
# me.
#
# One thing I find curious is that the stamping on the Cutts compensator
# refers to the two patents as "Pending." Since the gun was manufactured no
# earlier than 1958 and, by my uncle's account, fitted with the Compensator
# some time in the early 1960's, one can infer that either 1) the gunsmith
# used parts nearly 30 years old or 2) whoever made Cutts parts never bothered
# to update the stamping to reflect the granting of the two patents.
#
# If any of you know more about this device or its inventor, I would like to
# know about it. I look forward to your comments.
#
# Objekt
#
#
<Snip interesting history>
The Cutts Compensator is indeed a recoil compensator. In fact, it
was the first, here's the story.
As early as 1910, and possibly before, recoil became an issue
with the U.S. Army and anything which would reduce it was to
be welcomed. During and after WWI, experience confirmed the need
that something be done. What was done was that the army started
using reduced loads. (We consider these loads to be pretty much
standard, so the earlier loadings were pretty stout indeed. But
the story of 30-06 ammo for rifle and machine gun is a tale in itself.)
In any event, in the years between the wars, there was keen interest
in recoil reducers of any sort. Many designs were tried and all were
found wanting. Some were found to reduce recoil by 20% or so, others
even less. What must have been very frustrating for army was the
constant parade of inventors making claims for their devices which
simply did not hold up under measurement. This situation went on
for years with no result. In fact, many of the early designs are
on display at the Springfield Armory Firearms Museum, indicating
how much work went into this effort. Eventualy, Cutts
advanced his design for testing. Some of us think Cutts pulled a bit
of a fast one here. Knowing that the testers were sick to death of
devices which did not live up to stated claims, Cutts deliberately
lowballed his estimates and claimed 30% reduction. This was still
high enough to get attention as it could be a useful device. In
testing, the device proved in at a whopping 45% reduction and
handily exceeded claims, which impressed the testers no end.
The Cutts Compensator first entered service in WWII on the
Thomson .45 Submachinegun. It was quickly realized that by
reorienting the slots, the device could also compensate for muzzle
rise in this weapon, and many were issued in this variation as well.
Thomsons so equipped are featured in *lots* of John Wayne movies,
so it's not hard to get a look at one. After the war, the Cutts went
on to a civy career on 12 Ga. shotguns, marketed by Lyman. The "spreader"
you have is indeed a choke. If memory serves, some models allowed for
changing the chokes, anticipating the modern day of barrels with
interchangable choke tubes. One would guess that the 725 marking
is 0.725" dia., indicating the choke constriction.
To answer your short questions, the Cutts *was* a very big deal.
It is/was big on rifles, has been at least tried on everything
imaginable up to and including artillery and aircraft machine guns.
It is not the inspiration for the modern muzzle brake.
It *IS* the modern muzzle brake.
Cheers,
Tony
Gary A Williams
silencer or fullauto weapon ? Anybody still making those spreaders ? How
are they mounted to the barrel permanently or removeable ? Any pictures
you could share ? as ever
Enjoy Life
Willi
On Sat, 2 Aug 2003, Objekt wrote:
> ...
Ralph Wardlaw
"Gary A Williams" <wi...@columbia.edu> wrote in message
news:bgkahn$95e$1...@grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
| Is the spreader legal to own without the same paperwork required for a
| silencer or fullauto weapon ? Anybody still making those spreaders ? How
| are they mounted to the barrel permanently or removeable ? Any pictures
| you could share ? as ever
| Enjoy Life
| Willi
|
|
Well the only Cutts compensators I'm familiar with are those once used on
shotguns. They were popular with the skeet shooters, and many others,
because they not only reduced recoil, but also allowed changing the choke of
the gun.. This was back in the days before shotguns came with choke tubes.
Shotguns then had fixed chokes.
The Cutts came in two parts, a slotted tube permanently attached to a
cylinder bore barrel, and a choke tube which srewed into the end of the
slotted tube. The choke tubes were available in various chokes. The
'spreader' choke tube was the Cutts equivalent of the skeet choke, slightly
more open than Improved Cylinder.
I have a Rem 1100 20 ga shotgun with a factory Cutts on it. That is, Rem
once offered the Cutts as an option on new guns. It's easy to tell, because
there is no choke marking on the barrel,.which is otherwise a regular Rem
barrel. Aftermarket Cutts installations were common, but the barrel would
still show the oiriginal choke marking. I also have an original Rem parts
list showing the Cutts barrel.
I have the spreader and modified choke tubes, using the spreader for skeet
and quail. I've found that the Cutts helps in pointing the gun, because it
is larger in diameter than the barrel and you are more aware of where you
are pointing. There are no legal issues, as it is basically the same as a
new shotgun with changeable chokes and ported barrel.
RW
Stan Schaefer
# silencer or fullauto weapon ? Anybody still making those spreaders ? How
# are they mounted to the barrel permanently or removeable ? Any pictures
# you could share ? as ever
# Enjoy Life
# Willi
#
#
Nothing illegal or magical about it, you can see the items in the 2nd
or 3rd edition of the Lyman Shotshell Manual. Brownells still has new
tubes for sale, search on "Cutts", Gun Parts still has oddball parts
for them, too. Every so often a guy will have a box at a gun show
table, anything for a buck, there's usually tubes in there and the
wrenches you need to get them in and out. These are about the first
commercially sucessful choke tubes for shotguns. There was also a
variable choke you could add onto the beast that added about 2" or so
to the length. The spreader tubes were just a very short choke tube
with a flare on the end, looked like a midget blunderbuss, that
screwed into the end of the Cutts cage. I have no idea whether they
worked or not, I'd have to pattern one.
I personally don't think there was much of a recoil-reducing effect
with the shotgun Cutts, the gas pressures are pretty low. The
advantage is there's a little extra weight at the end of the barrel,
that helps with follow-through, and the interchangeable chokes, of
course. And, like a lot of today's gun gadgets, a lot depends on the
shooter, if he believes that the gadget is going to improve his
shooting, he might shoot better. Particularly after laying out
$50-$100 in '40s or '50s dollars to get the thing attached.
Stan