The History of the Rifle, pt. III - From conversions to single shot rifles, and the emergence of repeating rifles


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^Picture of a Dutch Beaumont rifle. Introduced to the military of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1871, this was a very modern rifle and well appreciated by the soldiers. Shortly after its introduction, the Dutch entered into a long and brutal conflict against Muslim insurgents in northern Sumatra. It was given to the KNIL, or the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, who were tasked with ending the insurgency. While at first very well liked, it lost its grandeur among the soldiers very quickly as they soon realized that it was not an ideal weapon in hot, tropical conditions; it was generally too long and cumbersome. By the end of that war it was generally despised, and the later conversions to a 4 round external box magazine did nothing to change this. On the fields of Europe however it would have been an ideal weapon, and it is somewhat comparable to the Mauser M1871.

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The US Civil War was perhaps the last major conflict in the western world where most soldiers were armed with muzzle loaded rifles. By the end of the 1860s, most European militaries had some form of 'conversion' rifle. These were muzzle loading rifles or rifled muskets that had been given a 'conversion' system - that is to say, modified to become breech loading weapons. Numerous conversion systems emerged; almost every nation had their own. The Snider system was the one adopted by the British, and this was a very good system and ended up being adopted by other European militaries as well. Other systems include Tabatiere, Krnka, and Milbank-Amsler, to name only a few. With all this being said, for most nations the majority of their troops were not armed with these conversion rifles. Elite units and specialized riflemen (such as the Jäger) would often have these guns; the rest would still be armed with rifled muskets. The following decade, however, would see this change, and it would also see the converted rifles become replaced by more powerful guns designed from the start to be loaded from the breech.


The Franco-Prussian War, which broke out in 1870, saw a very interesting development in the area of small arms. The Dreyse Needle rifle, which many attributed as being the factor that enabled Prussian victory over Denmark in 1864 and Austria in 1866, had a reputation that preceeded it, and going into war with France in 1870, many Prussians still believed strongly in the powder of this rifle. The French, however, were now armed with a rifle that outclassed the Dreyse, and indeed almost every other infantry rifle in Europe at the time. This weapon was the Chassepot, functionally similar to the Dreyse Needle rifle but with a significantly stronger action, and likewise having an effective range that was significantly greater than that of the Dreyse rifles. The Chassepot, adopted by the French army in 1867, relied on an internal needle firing mechanism, a tightly sealed breech to maximize the effect of the ignition of the gunpowder, and a bolt handle, similar to the one on the Dreyse, that would be used to open and close the breech before and after firing. This rifle was the first in a line of new rifles adopted in Europe to replace the older converted rifles, and although the systems did vary the key elements of the tightly sealed breech, the bolt handle to open and close it, and the internal needle used to ignite the cartridge would be elements repeatedly seen in later rifles.


Despite France's advantage in the area of small arms, Prussia would go on to win the war and in 1871 France sued for peace. The Prussians, once again victorious in a war against a neighbouring state, now realized that the time had come to replace the Needle rifle. In the aftermath of the war with France, Prussia would unite the other German states, save Austria, into a newly formed German Empire, with the Prussian king, now 'Kaiser' Wilhelm I, as its symbolic leader. In 1871, this new 'Germany' would adopt a rifle invented and created by a now famous family and company - the Mausers. The Mauser M1871 was generally well recieved by the German military, and were liked for their high quality. More importantly, Mauser was capable of producing them in significant quantities. The Mauser brothers and their company would now become the primary suppliers of small arms to the German military, something which would not change until the end of World War II.

While the Franco-Prussian war was still being waged, the British military would adopt a rifle that would later acquire legendary status - the Martini-Henry. This rifle became readily associated with the British military and indeed the British empire. It was well liked due to its rugged design, and it could achieve a higher rate of fire than many of the rifles of its time. The Anglo-Zulu wars, a well known conflict from this era, would see it being used as the standard weapon of British forces.



In 1877, war would break out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. This time, neither Great Britain nor France would come to the aid of the Ottomans. Russia and the Ottoman Empire had fought countless wars against eachother throughout their history, and this fact coupled with the memories of the disasters of the Crimean War in 1853, as well as numerous political factors, contributed towards Britain and Frances decision to remain neutral in this conflict. Many in Europe believed that Russia's advantage in technology, coupled with the Ottoman Empire's lack of popularity in the Balkans, would mean that Russia had a clear advantage in this conflict and could bring the Ottomans to their knees in a very short period of time. Russia would ultimately win this war, and many Balkan states would gain independence from the Ottoman Empire as a result, but what is perhaps surprising is how much harder it was for Russia to achieve this victory than what they had expected. Part of this was general military mismanagement, but another factor was certain battles in which the Ottomans were able to secure unlikely victories. Before the onset of the war, the Ottomans had adopted the Winchester model 1866 to give to some of their cavalry. In one battle, the Ottoman commander kept the majority of his troops in a line, and kept the Winchester armed cavalry troops dismounted and behind this main line. When the Russians advanced into melee, the Winchester armed soldiers moved in front of the main line and unleashed a devastating volley onto the Russian soldiers, who were advancing with bayonets fixed, and many of the Russians had either spent or discarded their ammunition. The Winchester rifles relied on a lever action that would both remove spent cartridges and place a new cartridge into the breech chamber. Aside from having to operate the lever before and after firing, the user could fire multiple rounds before needing to reload the weapon; thus it was known as a 'repeating rifle'. The Spencer carbine used during the US Civil War, too, was a repeating rifle, although its operation was more complicated than that of the later Winchester rifles. Russia took note of the effectiveness of repeating rifles, and to a lesser degree so did the rest of Europe.