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The Remington Rolling Block, introduced in 1866, was one of the most prolific single shot military rifles in the world. The combination of aggressive marketing, low cost, and an excellent design led to Remington selling literally millions of Rolling Block rifles to a huge number of military forces for several decades.

By 1914, the era of the single shot military rifle was pretty much over, and Remington had ceased production of all their centerfire models of the Rolling Block. Until the French called, that is. France needed a reliable but inexpensive simple rifle to arm rear echelon troops like drivers and guards so that the modern Lebel and Berthier rifles could be concentrated on the front lines of the repidly growing First World War where they were needed most.

The French had bought black powder Rolling Blocks during the Franco-Prussian War, and were familiar with the gun. The ordered 100,000 new Rolling Blocks in late 1914, chambered for the 8mm Lebel cartridge. These would be the only single-shot rifles manufactured entirely new for use in WWI, and Remington would follow this contract with another (less successful) for Mle. 1907/15 Berthier rifles.