I Have This Old Gun: Chassepot Rifle
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By the 1860s, many military powers were experimenting with and adopting breechloading rifles as standard military arms. France, in the mid-1860s, took a revolutionary leap forward with the development of the Chassepot, which incorporated a bolt-action mechanism similar to the designs seen on bolt-action rifles today. Watch our "American Rifleman Television" I Have This Old Gun Segment above to learn about this seminal firearm design.
"So, the mid-19th century is an interesting time for the development of the infantry rifle. Most militaries in the world at that point had figured out that percussion rifle muskets are not the way to win on the battlefield," NRA Publications Editorial Director Mark Keefe said. "So the French developed a rifle, named after, well, its inventor, Antoine Chassepot, and it's an early bolt-action rifle, but it's not a bolt-action rifle like we think of a bolt-action rifle."
In addition to having a single locking lug on the shoulder of the receiver, the Chassepot also used an innovative paper cartridge containing the powder, primer and projectile, all of which was consumed or blown out the muzzle upon firing, leaving no cartridge case for a shooter to extract.
"To fire it, you actually had a cocking piece, you had to cock the piece of the back of the bolt," American Rifleman Field Editor Garry James said. "It was just a single lug of the bolt, by the way, for locking. Then you move the bolt up, put the cartridge in, closed it, and the gun was ready to fire. For gas seal, which was always a problem with these self-contained, semi-combustible cartridges, this had a rubber gasket, and it gave complete obturation. There was absolutely no gas leakage with the Chassepot."
While the Chassepot was a step forward in the evolution of firearms, it was not the first military rifle with a bolt-action mechanism to see military service. In the 1840s, Prussia, and other German states, began adopting the Dreyse needle rifle. However, despite testing and trials by other nations, the Dreyse remained in service only in German hands.
"The 1866 model Chassepot rifle really marks the beginning of the shift from muzzleloading, external-hammer, shoulder arms to a real bolt-action rifle," American Rifleman contributor Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas said. "And this really came about with the French realizing that their arch-enemy, the German states, not Germany at that time, but the various German states, most of them had adopted the Prussian Dreyse needle gun as early as 1841, which had a bolt and had a separate cartridge."
Despite sharing many similarities with the Dreyse, the Chassepot improved upon the handling and design of the Dreyse in several ways. Notably, the Chassepot used a much shorter firing pin that didn't penetrate through the entire powder column inside the cartridge, as it did on the Dreyse. This significantly increased the service life of the Chassepot firing pins and made the design much more user-friendly. The simplified design of the Chassepot also allowed it to transition to the metallic-cartridge era.
"The interesting thing about the Chassepot and its successor, the Gras, was that the inventor of the Gras realized that, you know, governments don't like to spend a lot of money, so if he could devise a firearm that fired a self-contained metallic cartridge that could be converted from the earlier Chassepots, that would be ideal, and that's exactly what he did," James said. "Hence the Gras rifle, which was a superb rifle in its own right."
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
Пікірлер: 10
The Chassepot (and the Dreyse!) DO NOT use "combustible cartridges". The paper in the cartridge does not burn. It is blown out of the barrel along with the primer by a bubble of high pressure gas created behind the nozzle on the bolt head. There is a specific reason that needle guns require you to cock the gun before allowing the bolt to open. In a needle gun, the needle penetrates the primer rather than striking it. This is actually a more reliable method of initiating explosives however if there is a misfire, you end up with the needle stuck in the primer. Opening the breech without withdrawing the needle would cause the needle to be pulled back through the primer, potentially causing ignition in an unlocked breech! Metallic ammunition did in fact exist when the Chassepot was adopted, however the French authorities ( allegedly Napoleon III himself) did not want to be dependent on factory made ammunition. France had widely dispersed colonial forces and they wanted to retain the ability to make ammunition locally by hand.
@laurentdevaux5617
Ай бұрын
Yes, metallic munitions already existed then, and even since quite a long time. As such, our Imperial Navy used the model 1858 Lefaucheux revolver, firing a pinfire, full copper casing metallic cartridge. If I'm not wrong it was the first revolver of this kind ever adopted by an army. We also had quite a few converted old percussion muskets using the "snuffbox" system, but only the rear part of the cartridge was made of copper, the rest being made of cardboard, and the caliber was still the huge original 18mm. In fact, the first metallic cartridge rifle the French army used was the Egyptian Rolling Block our National Defense Government bought in big numbers after the fall of the Empire in september 1870, as our army needed rifles since many had been captured by the Germans as it has been said. A very fine rifle, much appreciated and that would probably had been adopted sooner or later by the French army, as Napoléon IlI noticed its qualities during the Paris 1867 World Expo and recommended its adoption. But at that time, the scale production of the Chassepot had been fully launched... And as you said, the design of the Chassepot's paper cartridge (which we don't see here, I don't know why... You can still rather easily find original ones, at least here in France for something like 20-30 euros) was easy to make nearly everywhere, even in a small family workshop. The fate made us finally using the Rolling Block, but not as the Emperor intended it...
My favorite rifle of that era and also fun to make ammo and shoot with. I have three of these
I love the Chassepot. Defnititely one of my favorite possessions. This gun is pushing the law in Germany, where we can only own guns that were manufactured or ressemble a gun that was manufactured up until the 1st of January, 1871. My Chassepot has been built in 1870 and got it's repair in 1876. This is basically the last gun we are legally allowed to own here without a permit. 🙂
@dominic6634
2 ай бұрын
My condolences on you situation. Move to the U.S we love Germans!
What kind of grief you give the french
Yep and the paper cartridge IS NOT combustible. The paper usually flies out after you shoot
The French had a superior rifle in the Franco-Prussian war but lost regardless. Better weapons is no substitute for better tactics, commanders and logistics, qualities possessed by the Prussians but largely lacking among the French
@ChodaStanks
6 ай бұрын
Prussias breech loading Krupp cannon also had alot to do with it. After Prussia realized their advantage, the French infantry couldnt get close enough to use the Chassepot because of the Krupp cannon. French cannons were silenced easily because they were outranged and Prussia artillery owned the battles
the problem with these kind of videos is that they say stuff without explanation.