[laplata]

Thanks.

I’ve never heard an explanation as to why Custer wasn’t issued repeating rifles. But I haven’t researched it, either. I can imagine some Quartermaster took the heat. But Custer should have seen to it.

There are conspiracy theories such as Grant and other top brass set Custer up for failure.

[Yo-Yo]

I’ve never heard an explanation as to why Custer wasn’t issued repeating rifles. But I haven’t researched it, either. I can imagine some Quartermaster took the heat. But Custer should have seen to it.

It's a very simple explanation. Custer wasn't issued repeating rifles because the U.S. Government never bought any repeating rifles.

It was the Army's opinion that the lever action rifles of the time, that used the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, were inferior to the Trapdoor Springfield firing the .45-70 rifle cartridge.

[Boogieman]

“I’ve never heard an explanation as to why Custer wasn’t issued repeating rifles.”

I’ve heard that some people in the Army command were resisting switching to more modern rifles, because they thought that soldiers would just waste ammunition firing willy nilly, instead of carefully aiming their shots. I believe it wasn’t until the Spanish-American War that that line of thinking was completely uprooted.