Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today
at Galerie de Mars in Paris, taking a look at
a number of very interesting French rifles.
And what we have today
is an experimental rifle from the 1870s to 1880s.
During this time the French ... military
spent quite a lot of time looking at all sorts of different magazine systems.
Basically this was the heyday of the repeating rifle.
Which is to say a manually operated rifle that has some sort of magazine.
And the French weren't alone in this, everyone on the planet,
every military power out there, was
really interested in all ... this just plethora of new repeating systems that were coming out.
So the United States went through trials looking at dozens of different rifles.
The French did the same, there were ... at least 40 different systems
that were tested by the French military or by the French arsenals during this time period.
And they include basically every combination you can think of,
of box magazines, gravity fed hoppers, tube magazines, you name it.
What we have here specifically is basically a version of the Gras
that has been adapted to use a Vetterli system.
So where the Lebel did use a tube magazine, that was the
Kropatschek style of tube magazine, the Kropatschek patent.
Where this is more like a King's patent, which the Vetterli used.
Where you have a loading gate in the side,
instead of opening the bolt and loading the gun through the top.
So, let me come in a little closer, show you some details of the rifle,
and also how that loading system worked.
Alright, so if we look at this up close, the receiver is substantially different from the Gras.
So this isn't just a Gras that was converted
to have this sort of King's gate/Vetterli style of loading system.
Our receiver markings here, we have Henry.
Which I believe is in fact the same Henry as the American lever action rifles.
And then we have Manufacture de Saint-Étienne,
so this was made by the Saint-Étienne Arsenal based on Henry patents.
We have the H in a circle there, which is Henry's kind of marking.
Now normally we would expect on a standard military rifle
to have the serial number and date and various information on the back of the barrel,
this doesn't have any of that.
Although it does have what is clearly a Gras style of rear sight.
It is an 11mm rifle. The exact calibre isn't ... specified anywhere,
I assume it is 11mm Gras, but I could be wrong on that.
It's interesting to note that the handguard and magazine tube are held in place by a cross bolt.
This is not what would ultimately be used on
... the Kropatscheks that the French adopted, or on the Lebel later on.
This is very reminiscent of what you would find on a black-powder revolver,
a Colt revolver, holding the barrel assembly on.
So ... again, this isn't just a conversion of an existing tube fed gun,
it is parallel but separate development.
Now the way this would actually work is that, just like on a Swiss Vetterli,
as long as this lifter is in the downward position, which means when the bolt is closed,
you have an opening here that leads straight into the magazine tube.
And you can push cartridges in, one at a time.
Now this does not have a gate covering that opening,
and it doesn't look like it was ever meant to.
And that would certainly explain why a rifle like this would be rejected at trials.
However, it is clearly missing a lever that was here,
which I believe would have told you when the magazine was actually full.
Now if we open this up.
What would normally happen is when the bolt got to the end of travel,
you'd be able to pull back and lift this elevator.
And that's a system that was used on the Kropatschek and also later on the Lebel.
On this one you can see some of the parts in here are quite heavily pitted.
This gun hasn't been restored, and I suspect
it has a broken or frozen linkage inside, unfortunately.
But normally when you pull the bolt all the way back that lifter comes up,
and presents a cartridge to feed into the barrel here.
When that was in the up position
this loading gate would be cut off, you wouldn't be able to load it.
And then when you close the bolt, that pushes the lifter back down
and opens this up for loading.
We have a floor plate here that would allow access to some of those parts.
But, again, this rifle hasn't been restored or messed with by its owner, and
I don't want to be the guy who tries to take that screw out,
and discovers that it's just going to shear off, so.
The muzzle end of the rifle is very much like the standard French military pattern.
However, it has a clearing rod on the bottom.
Typically that was not done on the French tube fed guns
because, well, there's a magazine tube in the way.
And in this case what the designer did was mount the rod all the way
basically below the stock, instead of in the stock.
So where the French Kropatscheks have rods on the side, this guy has it on the bottom.
However we still have a standard bayonet lug, which I presume fits a Gras bayonet.
That would be the natural thing to use at this time.
Unfortunately, I don't have any details for you
on exactly when this model was made, or how its trials went.
Ultimately, none of these systems were adopted,
the French would adopt the Kropatschek style rifle made by Steyr in 1878,
and updated by the Châtellerault Arsenal and eventually turned into the Lebel rifle.
But of all the dozens of different systems they tested,
none proved to be really satisfactory for a variety of reasons.
Some of them economical, some of them performance based.
Very much like the United States tested dozens of different systems,
both for new repeating rifles, and also for conversions
of existing single shot rifles into repeating systems.
And none of them turned out to be satisfactory, so.
Anyway, this is a really cool example of just one
of the very many systems that were being experimented with.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
A big thanks to Galerie de Mars for giving me the opportunity to show this one to you.
Thanks for watching.