chassepot

Chassepot
Chassepot rifle with bayonet
Type	Breechloading rifle
Place of origin	Second French Empire
Service history
In service	1867–1874
Production history
Designer	Antoine Alphonse Chassepot
Designed	1866
Number built	More than 1,000,000
Specifications
Weight	4.635 kg (9 lb 5 oz)
Length	1.31 m (without bayonet) 1.88 m (6ft 2in) (with bayonet)
Barrel length	795 mm
Cartridge	Lead bullet 25 g (386 grains) in paper cartridge charge 5.6g (86.4 grains) black powder
Caliber	11 mm (.433 inches)
Action	Bolt action
Rate of fire	N/A
Muzzle velocity	410 m/s (1345 ft/s)[1]
Effective range	1200 m (1300 yd)
Feed system	Single-shot
Sights	Ladder

The Chassepot, officially known as Fusil modèle 1866, was a bolt action military breechloading rifle, famous as the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and 1871. It replaced an assortment of Minie muzzleloading rifles many of which were converted in 1867 to breech loading (the Tabatière rifles). A great improvement to existing military rifles in 1866, the Chassepot marked the commencement of the era of bolt action, breech-loading, military rifles. Beginning in 1874, the rifle was easily converted to fire metallic cartridges (under the name of Gras rifle), a step which would have been impossible to achieve with the Dreyse needle rifle.^[2]

It was manufactured by MAS (an abbreviation of Manufacture d'Armes de St. Etienne), Manufacture d'Armes de Chatellerault (MAC) and Manufacture d'Armes de Tulle (MAT). Many were also manufactured under contract in England ( Potts and Hunt ), Belgium (Liege), and in Placentia and Brescia (later Italy). The approximate number of Chassepot rifles available to the French Army in 1870 was close to 1,200,000 units. Manufacturing of the Chassepot rifle ended in February 1875, four years after the end of the Franco Prussian War.

History

French soldier with Chassepot rifle.

The Chassepot was named after its inventor, Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833–1905), who, from 1857 onwards, had constructed various experimental forms of breechloader, and the rifle became the French service weapon in 1866. In the following year it made its first appearance on the battlefield at Mentana on 3 November 1867, where it inflicted severe losses upon Giuseppe Garibaldi's troops. It was reported at the French Parliament that "Les Chassepots ont fait merveille!", or loosely translated: "The Chassepots have done wonderfully!" The undisguised truth is that the heavy cylindrical lead bullets fired at high velocity by the Chassepot rifle inflicted wounds that were even worse than those of the earlier Minie rifle.

In the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) it proved greatly superior to the German Dreyse needle gun, outranging it by 2 to 1. Although it was a smaller caliber (11 mm vs. 15.4 for the Dreyse), the chassepot ammunition had more gunpowder and thus higher muzzle velocity (by 33% over the Dreyse), resulting in a flatter trajectory and a longer range, which was 1200 yards (1100 m). The Chassepots were responsible for most of the Prussian and other German casualties during the conflict.

Technology

The breech was closed by a bolt similar to those of more modern rifles to follow. Amongst the technical features of interest introduced in 1866 on the Chassepot rifle was the method of obturation of the bolt with a shielded rubber ring which was both novel and effective. This plastic breech sealing concept was successfully adapted later to artillery in 1877 by de Bange, long after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 . The Chassepot used a combustible paper cartridge holding an 11mm (.43 inch) round-headed cylindrical lead bullet. An inverted standard percussion cap was at the rear of the paper cartridge and hidden inside. It was fired by the Chassepot's needle (a sharply pointed firing pin) upon pressing the trigger. While the Chassepot's ballistic performance and firing rates were excellent for the time, burnt paper residues as well as black powder fouling accumulated in the chamber and bolt mechanism after continuous firing. Also, the bolt's shielded rubber ring eroded in action, although it was easily replaced in the field by infantrymen. The older Dreyse needle gun and cartridge had been deliberately constructed in a way to minimize those problems but to the detriment of its ballistic properties.

In order to correct this problem the Chassepot was replaced in 1874 by the Gras rifle which used a centerfire drawn brass metallic cartridge. Otherwise, the Gras rifle was basically identical in outward appearance to the Chassepot rifle. Virtually all rifles of the older Chassepot model (Mle 1866) remaining in store were eventually converted to take the 11mm Gras metallic cartridge ammunition (fusil Modèle 1866/74). About 150,000 Chassepot rifles had been captured by the German coalition that defeated France in 1871. Large numbers of these captured Chassepot rifles were converted to 11 mm Mauser metallic cartridge and shortened to carbine size in order to serve with German cavalry and artillery until the early 1880s. Others were disposed of "as is" with English surplus dealers. In most cases, the French receiver markings on these German capture Chassepot rifles were erased.

Gallery

From left: .22 Long Rifle; 11mm paper cartridge for Chassepot/Fusil modèle 1866; 11mm×59.5R metallic cartridge for Fusil Gras mle 1874

Close-up, with cartridge

Chassepot paper cartridge.

See also

• Antique guns

Notes

References

• Ford, Roger. The World's Great Rifles. London: Brown Books, 1998. ISBN 1-897884-33-8.
• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chassepot Mle 1866

• The French Army 1600-1900
• Chassepot Rifle

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