John H. Blake of New York constructed his rifle in response to the fact that very few domestic designs were submitted to US Army rifle trials (1890–93). The rifle used a unique, 7-round rotary magazine. It was unique because it was detachable, whereas other rifles at the time using similar type of feed used non-detachable rotary magazines (Savage M1892). As such the detachable magazine was often described as a packet, or en-bloc clip, due to the lack of a more proper term at the time.