Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at
the Musée d’Armes in Liège, part of a larger
museum complex here in the centre of Liège.
And they have a tremendous selection
of very interesting firearms, including this
Model of 1854 French pinfire open-bolt single-shot rifle.
How's that for an interesting set of characteristics?
This was ... named the Treuille de Beaulieu
(or something reasonably similar to that,
my French pronunciation isn't quite up to this one yet),
designed by a General of the same name in 1854.
And this is right at the beginning of when everybody is starting to experiment
with the new technology of metallic-cased cartridges.
So this, like some of the other guns that were just this early,
was actually originally used with copper-cased ammunition.
Copper is not as good as a cartridge case, as an obturator, as brass is.
And copper would fairly quickly give way to brass
as the cartridge case material of choice.
But this is one of those few guns
that was actually used with copper cases at the beginning.
And it was also used with pinfire ammunition.
So a pinfire cartridge, if you are not familiar with it,
is basically ... think of a rimfire cartridge plus it's got its own built-in firing pin.
So there is a priming compound on the inside of the brass case,
and there is a little pin, brass or (earlier) copper,
... that sticks out the edge of the case where the rim would be.
And ... to fire the cartridge you hit that pin,
it slides up into the body of the cartridge,
hits the priming compound and detonates the cartridge.
This was one of the early forms of self-contained metallic cartridge.
And you'll find them typically in revolvers, but they did see use
in rifles and shotguns as well, like this one.
So this used a 9x46mm pinfire cartridge, black powder of course.
A ... not particularly powerful cartridge.
But, this is a rifle that was submitted for French military consideration.
There were a bunch of experimental rifles being looked at at this time period,
and this is one that actually saw a little bit of adoption.
So before we talk about who actually used it,
let's take a look at how this thing works, and how you get an open-bolt pin-fire rifle.
So the basic mechanical function here is a ... rising block.
And if we look at the bottom, what looks like a trigger here is actually a cocking lever.
The trigger is this guy right there.
And the trigger guard actually doubles as a firing spring.
So to use this, we're going to grab this hook and pull it down,
and that is going to lower our breech block,
right like that.
The sear is very simple and external.
This ledge on the trigger locks into that notch in the bolt lever.
There is a second safety notch down here,
... if this gets bumped and the trigger remains engaged,
this will stop the bolt just before it actually fires the cartridge.
Once you have the bolt open, you would then go ahead and insert a cartridge.
Now I said this was a pinfire cartridge, but it also
has a brass or copper loop coming up over ... at the top of the base of the cartridge.
So that loop sits in these two little cutouts there.
And that loop allows you to extract the cartridge by pulling it out after it's been fired.
Now you can see this slot in the bottom of the chamber.
That is where the ... basically for a pinfire system we'll call that the hammer travels.
You can just barely see the hammer right above my finger there.
When you close the bolt, we can see that hammer right there.
You can see it right there.
That is going to hit the pin in the pinfire cartridge, and detonate it.
So if I have this in this position, that's our safety catch.
That stops the bolt coming up just before the hammer would hit the cartridge pin.
And if I disengage the safety there by pulling the trigger,
that lifts the rest of the way, and right there it fires.
... So this is an open bolt gun.
The actual firing process is like that.
So open the action, pull out your empty cartridge if there is one in there,
load a new cartridge.
There is no manual safety, so don't load it until you're ready to fire it.
And then pull the trigger.
At the end of its travel here the ... hammer hits the pin,
that fires the cartridge.
This locking block of course can only travel up and down,
so it seals the back end and prevents the cartridge from coming out.
And that's all there is to it. It's mechanically a pretty clever and simple system.
The downside to it is that, like all other open bolt guns, it's difficult to shoot accurately,
because you have a bunch of material that is moving.
You have a relatively long lock time,
the ... time between when you actually pull the trigger and when the gun fires.
Because this of course has to travel all the way up before it actually fires the cartridge.
It's not a particularly powerful round.
It is a black powder round, and it fouled the guns relatively quickly.
We do have a rear sight that can lift up for shooting
out to a maximum of 450 metres there.
We have a centre slider, right there, that you can move to change range.
Or just use your basic battle sight.
We have no significant markings except for a few little
proof marks here on the right side of the barrel and action.
And overall this is a very handy, svelte, lightweight, small, little gun.
Brass furniture.
And a relatively elaborate, large nose cap here with a bayonet lug.
There's our front sight.
We do have a serial number 24 on the front sight, at the end of the barrel.
These were only made for basically a hundred man unit,
so, of course, production was very small.
The bayonet is really actually a sword.
So if you're going to use this as a sword,
you actually hold it upside down compared to how it mounts as a bayonet.
We have a muzzle ring here in the handguard.
And a locking groove and catch on the back of the, well, what would be the pommel.
And a straight bladed, literally one metre long, sword blade.
So when fitted on the rifle this just locks in like that.
And this was done, of course, primarily for display.
The Cent-gardes are largely ceremonial troops, and they want to look impressive.
And what better way to look impressive than by having a really ridiculously long bayonet
on what is otherwise a fairly short carbine.
Now I said this was the Model of 1854, that's because Napoleon III
actually chose this as one of the weapons to arm his Cent-gardes, or his Hundred Guards.
This was a small elite unit of men who are tasked with
basically escort and personal protection of the Emperor.
And ... he wanted them to have a gun that was high tech, cutting edge.
And this new metallic cartridge technology certainly met that requirement.
Now on top of all that, it also got a metre long bayonet,
because this is a relatively short gun and it doesn't look particularly imposing.
So, what's the best solution? Stick a sword on the end of it, why not?
So I have this displayed here with the bayonet separated
from the rifle because it is way too long to fit on my table.
But let's take a quick look at how that actually goes onto the end of the gun.
That bayonet's even taller than me,
and I'm probably taller than the typical French soldier of the 1850s.
The bayonet is a metre long, the rifle itself is just a hair under a metre long.
So you're looking at ... actually several inches in excess of six foot.
I'm 5'10", so that is a very long combination.
Take the bayonet off and now you have a significant sword.
Actually a nicely balanced, well-made sword.
And a little lightweight carbine.
Well, a big thanks to the Liège Arms Museum for
giving me the opportunity to take a look at this Treuille de Beaulieu.
(I'm still butchering that name, it'll be years before I get that one right.)
But they have a very nice selection of both civilian and military firearms
on display here from a wide variety of time periods.
The modern, going all the way back to probably the 1500s.
And some very interesting and unusual technological examples,
because of course Liège has been a centre of firearms
development and manufacture for hundreds of years now.
So if you find yourself in Belgium, definitely take the time
to get down to Liège and take a look at the Arms Museum.
Hopefully you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.