Chassepot

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Chassepot
Chassepot rifle with bayonet
Type	Breechloading rifle
Place of origin	France
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	NA
Sights	unknown

The Chassepot, officially known as Fusil modèle 1866, was a military breechloading rifle, famous as the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and 1871.

It was so called after its inventor, Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833—1905), who, from 1857 onwards, had constructed various experimental forms of breechloader, and it 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. The event was reported at the French Parliament with a phrase that attracted mixed reviews : "Les Chassepots ont fait merveille!". A statement translatable as : "The Chassepots did marvelously well ! ".

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 faster muzzle velocity (by 33% over the Dreyse), resulting in a flatter trajectory and a longer range. The Chassepots were responsible for most of the Prussian and other German casualties during the conflict.

close-up, with cartridge

The breech was closed by a bolt similar to those of more modern rifles to follow. Amongst the technical features of interest was the method of obturation of the bolt with a shielded rubber ring which was quite effective. It was similar in principle to the de Bange obturator for artillery. 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 did accumulate in the chamber and bolt mechanism after continuous firing.

In order to correct this problem the Chassepot was replaced in 1874 by the Gras rifle, which had a center fire metallic cartridge, and virtually all rifles of the older model (1866) remaining in store were converted to take the same ammunition (fusil modèle 1866/74).

1 Trivia
2 Notes
3 Reference
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Trivia

During the Franco-Prussian War, Captain Battreau as a young private was issued a Chassepot with serial number 187017, which he returned at the end of the war. In 1891, in the jungles of Dahomey, Battreau, now an officer in the French Foreign Legion, captured a rifle in a skirmish. It was the same Chassepot he had used in 1870.