Shooting the M1866 Chassepot needle-fire rifle

[LarryHoosier]

Some have asked for a look at my effort at making paper cartridges for the M1866 French Chassepot rifle in response to my posting last week of this old warhorse.

These pics show the tools, materials, and my general approach. If you want a video go to Youtube and search for "Chassepot paper cartridge" and there are 2 or 3 good ones, the same ones I used, basically!

Here are two takes on the final result, one glued to paper tube and one paper-patched and tied to tube.

The OAL for my rifle with a Buffalo Arms swaged lead .460" 400 gn bullet is 73mm. The tied ones look more authentic but my results shooting were the same with each. I have to state that this is a work in progress for me because my ignition results were only about 65% and I really haven't even tried for any accuracy yet! I was just happy to get some to fire! My problems could be from several directions, weak spring, old musket caps (these are pretty old), or any number of self-inflicted errors in construction. I will post again if and when I get more consistency and some accuracy. Here is me loading and shooting.

That bayonet object on the rifle is a Magnetospeed chronometer and my 75gn of Pyrodex clocked at 1150fps.

 

[Disposable Heart]

400 grainers going over 1100 fps?! That's still pretty stout, even in today's standards!

 

[87iroc]

Nice! I think they made cartridges for something like that on one of the episodes of sons of guns or something...anyway, glad to see its do-able by someone w/o a TV crew watching!

 

[lon]

Very neat. I never realized some paper cartridges have caps embedded.

 

[UncleNorby]

In my family we have a similar looking rifle that dates to 1874 as I recall. Also, think it is a standard cartridge rifle as opposed to paper. Have the bayonet and all. It appears perfectly sound, would be fun to load and fire. I did read somehwere on the internet that cases can be made from 348 Win brass. Will have to look into it in more detail some day.

Great job with that old gun.

Just looked up our gun, it is a Mle 1874 Gras rifle, best I can tell.

 

[blue2golf]

Extraordinary project there. French infantry slaughtered Prussians by the thousand with that rifle back in 1870. (Still managed to lose the war )

Would you happen to have a Dreyse Needle Gun as a companion?

 

[mac45]

Very cool!
Thanks for posting.

 

[Cerberus]

Extraordinary project there. French infantry slaughtered Prussians by the thousand with that rifle back in 1870. (Still managed to lose the war )

Would you happen to have a Dreyse Needle Gun as a companion?

Shouldn't this be in purple? Because the Germans managed to kill about 4.6 Frenchmen for every fatality they took. The French got a hard fast lesson in 1870 about how to properly fight a modern war.

 

[blue2golf]

Shouldn't this be in purple? Because the Germans managed to kill about 4.6 Frenchmen for every fatality they took. The French got a hard fast lesson in 1870 about how to properly fight a modern war.

Purple text? Hardly. The French did indeed slaughter Prussians by the thousand in battle after battle. They just managed to lose the war through infinite corruption, fecklessness and incompetence.

 

[Cerberus]

Purple text? Hardly. The French did indeed slaughter Prussians by the thousand in battle after battle. They just managed to lose the war through infinite corruption, fecklessness and incompetence.

The Germans captured their King and Army within a few weeks. Yeah they were incompetent, and the fact that the Germans managed to slaughter 4.6 Frenchmen for every German the French slaughtered didn't help the Frenchies. Wow, the KIA numbers are easily located.

 

[williamnewman1]

loved reading your post, loved learning about the Chassepot

 

[blue2golf]

The Germans captured their King and Army within a few weeks. Yeah they were incompetent, and the fact that the Germans managed to slaughter 4.6 Frenchmen for every German the French slaughtered didn't help the Frenchies. Wow, the KIA numbers are easily located.

What I have said is fact and yes, look up the KIA numbers. Thousands of Germans dead. I never said more Germans than French. I never said the French won the war, or even a single battle of that war.

As you said, WOW! Let's invent something I never said, then try to use it as a club to hit me over the head. And for what? I was expressing admiration for a gentleman bringing a historic weapon back to life....and you're here starting a fight?

Go away dude.

 

[Redskinsfan]

Very interesting project, thank you for sharing your work.

 

[Cerberus]

What I have said is fact and yes, look up the KIA numbers. Thousands of Germans dead. I never said more Germans than French. I never said the French won the war, or even a single battle of that war.

As you said, WOW! Let's invent something I never said, then try to use it as a club to hit me over the head. And for what? I was expressing admiration for a gentleman bringing a historic weapon back to life....and you're here starting a fight?

Go away dude.

Cant handle a little historical debate? Is your ego bruised. Sorry douche.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Don't ruin an awesome thread about someone's awesome work with historical neckbeard-ery...

 

[blue2golf]

Don't ruin an awesome thread about someone's awesome work with historical neckbeard-ery...

Yup.

To the OP: I apologize for feeding the troll. Henceforth, my remarks shall limit themselves to the topic you started.

 

[LarryHoosier]

UncleNorby, what you have there is the French adaptation to metallic cartridge by re-chambering to 11mm Gras and redoing the bolt to a firing pin rather than needle. I also load and shoot the Gras and I'd like to tell you that my Gras carbine is more accurate than the old paper cartridge weapon. However, my M1874 artillery carbine shoots about 18" high @ 50 yds. so right now I'd trust my life to the Chassepot!

 

[Disposable Heart]

UncleNorby, what you have there is the French adaptation to metallic cartridge by re-chambering to 11mm Gras and redoing the bolt to a firing pin rather than needle. I also load and shoot the Gras and I'd like to tell you that my Gras carbine is more accurate than the old paper cartridge weapon. However, my M1874 artillery carbine shoots about 18" high @ 50 yds. so right now I'd trust my life to the Chassepot!

Bump in the night? Grab the needle gun!