According to the disappointing results of the Crimean War, the Russian command hastily began to equip the troops with rifled small arms. Already in 1856, a 6-line muzzle-loading rifle was developed. Its design was based on the Russian 7-linear percussion primer gun, in which the smooth 7-linear barrel was replaced by a rifled 6-linear one. For greater ease of loading, the barrel was shortened by 15 cm; gun weight without a bayonet - 4.4 kg, with a bayonet - 4.8 kg; the weight of the charge, despite the reduction in the weight of the bullet, managed to remain the same. The new charge was 1.12 spools against the previous 1.1 spools. The mass of the bullet fell from the previous 49.05 to 35.19 g. The initial velocity from the previous 450 m / s fell to 348.6 m / s due to the high friction of the bullet on the rifling. However, at the same time, the firing range from the previous 213 meters increased to 853.

Russian Percussion Capsule Gun Model 1845

Russian 6-line muzzle-loading rifle model 1856: Caliber - 15.24 mm. Length 1340 mm. Barrel length 939 mm. Weight without bayonet 4.4 kg. The mass of the powder charge is 4.78 g. The mass of the bullet is 35.19 g. The initial velocity of the bullet is 348.6 m / s.

However, as soon as this rifle was adopted, like our enemies, and our enemies then were all countries except neutral Switzerland and distant America, breech-loading rifles appeared. The breech-loading gave the enemy an advantage in the rate of fire. In addition, it was necessary to keep in mind that in order to load the weapon from the muzzle, it was necessary to rise to its full height; it was impossible to prepare a weapon for a shot while sitting and lying down. After the introduction of more long-range and more accurate weapons into the troops, it was necessary to take all measures to eliminate this shortcoming in order to better shelter manpower. Therefore, in addition to the desire to increase the rate of fire, the need for such protection of the shooter during loading was the main reason for the transition to loading from the treasury, in which all methods for reloading weapons could be performed in shelter.

In view of all this, in Russia, special attention is paid to needle weapons. The tests were “subjected to the Dreyse and Carle systems. This latter was given unconditional preference, since the main shortcomings of the Dreyse rifle had already been eliminated in it. The design of the shutter had a leather obturator, the needle was short, the bullet was guided along the rifling with its body, and not with a separate pallet.
In view of the extreme haste, the experiments were limited to a relatively small number of shots.
In 1867, a model of a rifle and a cartridge was approved for the speedy conversion of 6-line rifles loaded from the muzzle into breech-loading rifles according to the Carle system.

Carle-Zons needle rifle, 1867 Caliber - 15.24 mm. Weight without bayonet - 4.5 kg, Length without bayonet -134 cm. Barrel length - 765.5 mm. The mass of the powder charge is 5.02 g. The mass of the bullet is 34.64 g. The initial velocity of the bullet is 305 m / s.

Krnka rifle open bolt

Closed breech of the Krnka rifle

The barrel of the Krnk rifle was the same as that of a 6-line rifle loaded from the muzzle. However, unlike that barrel, a chamber was drilled in the breech of the Krnk rifle for inserting a metal cartridge.

A box was screwed onto the breech of the barrel, which was also attached to the stock by means of a tail screw. The Krnka rifle box had a slightly inclined semi-cylindrical chute for inserting cartridges into the barrel chamber; on the left, on the left side of the box, there were ears through which a hinge bolt passed, which served as the axis of rotation of the folding

Carle's rate of fire reached seven rounds per minute, but when the first batches of rifles entered the troops, serious shortcomings of the system were discovered, consisting in the wrong flight of bullets and poor accuracy. Studies of this issue found that the reason was not the shortcomings of the rifle itself, but of the cartridge. Since after the shot the unburned part of the paper sleeve remained in the channel, the bullets of the following cartridges, when they moved when fired along the bore, had this residue in front of them; the bullet flew along with the rest of the paper part of the cartridge, as a result of which its flight was incorrect, worsening the accuracy of the rifle.
It was necessary to change the arrangement of the cartridge and ensure that the rest of the cartridge case freely flew out of the bore without following the bullet.

In 1868, the Berdan rifle No. 1 began to enter service. But initially she entered service only with rifle regiments. The infantry regiments, of which there was a majority, remained with the 1856 rifle of the year - it was not possible to quickly replace a huge number of rifles.

At the end of 1868, Lieutenant Baranov proposed a slightly modified Albini system, which was adopted by the Belgian army. The experiments gave favorable results. It was immediately decided to remake 10 thousand rifles according to this system. Almost simultaneously in January 1869, another system, also with a folding bolt, was proposed for the conversion of a 6-line rifle, namely, a Viennese gunsmith named Krnka. A special commission was hastily formed to test both systems in order to choose the best one. Tests revealed some advantages of the Krnk system, which also turned out to be easier to manufacture and therefore cheaper. A sample of the Krnk system was approved for the conversion of 6-line muzzle-loading rifles.


Sylvester Krnka (1825-1903)

In his homeland in the Czech Republic, Krnka is mainly known as the inventor of the pedal tram, in which all twenty passengers pedaled. The Krnki tram was presented in 1895 at the Slavic ethnographic exhibition in Prague and caused a great sensation in the press, but the project never came to practical implementation.

The wars of the first two decades of the 19th century made obvious the importance of aimed shooting, but in order to make rifled weapons widespread, it was necessary to combine the accuracy of rifled combat and the rate of fire of a smoothbore in one muzzle-loading weapon. When loaded, the bullet had to pass freely along the barrel, and when fired, it should fill the rifling. The search went empirically, but the industrial revolution accelerated the implementation of new products.

The French shooting school in Vincennes played an important role here. In 1826, officer A. Delvin made a screw chamber of the barrel with a smaller inner diameter than the channel: resting against the edges of the chamber, the bullet was distributed to the sides due to the blows of the ramrod. But with such a "sending" it was too deformed, and Delvin could not achieve a stable battle from his fitting. His fittings, adopted in the armies of Austria and Sardinia, did not last long. However, in the course of work, Delvin created a cylindrical-conical oblong bullet and was the first to practically prove its benefits, which Professor I. Leitman had theoretically substantiated a century before.

The oblong bullet gave a number of advantages in internal and external ballistics. She walked along the grooves more correctly, filling them better, a large lateral load (the ratio of mass to the cross-sectional area) and an advantageous shape in terms of aerodynamics reduced the loss of speed in the air; the trajectory of her flight became flatter, the aiming range and the distance of a direct shot grew.



An officer of the Vincennes school, Colonel L. Tuvenin, placed a rod on the tail rotor of the barrel - a bullet, sitting on the rod, expanded with a blow from a ramrod. This decision was ingenious, but the rod was bent, and it was impossible to clean the chamber without completely disassembling the weapon. Nevertheless, the Tuvenin 1842 17.78 mm caliber hit up to 1,400 steps, and at 1,200 steps his bullet pierced two boards 3 cm thick.

It was much more tempting to expand the bullet not by the efforts of the shooter when loading, but by the pressure of powder gases when fired - since lead is quite plastic. A whole series of expanding bullets appeared: Mignet, Neuendorf, Plennis, Podeville. The Peters bullet, modified by Timmergans (in Russia it was called "Belgian"), had a cylindrical-conical shape and a large recess in the lower part - such a "cap" expanded well with powder gases, but was not strong enough. An oblong lead bullet, created in 1848 in the same Vincennes school by captain C. Mignet, had a conical recess at the back, which included an iron cup, powder gases pressed the cup into the recess, and it burst the bullet. The Minier bullet also had grooves on the cylindrical part proposed by Professor Tamizier, which improved the obturation (ensuring the tightness of the bore when fired) of gases and bullet ballistics.

The Minié bullet was considered the most successful and became so popular that the muzzle-loading rifles to which it was used, regardless of the system, were called Minié rifles. It was used even in cartridges for breech-loading rifles, where the "expansion" design was already superfluous.

But you can also make a bullet so that it easily slides along the rifling, snug against them. The Englishman Whitworth proposed a whole system - from a rifle to a rifled cannon with a barrel bore in the form of a twisted 6-sided prism and a corresponding bullet shape. The system turned out to be too expensive (although much later polygonal rifling would find its way into small arms), so Whitworth went down in history more as a weapon manufacturing technologist. American Green's rifle with an oval bore bore had even fewer prospects.

Finally, compression (shrinking) bullets appeared - Wilkinson, Lorenz. The transverse grooves on the pool contributed to its compression under the pressure of gases along the length and the corresponding expansion to the sides. This scheme, which required the precise manufacture of bullets and barrels, was adopted in Austria-Hungary, Switzerland and Saxony.

CRIMEAN DISASTER

Well, what about Russia? If at the beginning of the 19th century Russian military weapons were on a par with the best foreign ones, then by the middle of the century there was a strong lag, which was clearly revealed by the Crimean War of 1853-1856. In general, in the Crimean campaign in the Russian army, almost everything - from equipment to weapons - turned out to be of little use, except for people who showed miracles of courage, perseverance and ingenuity.

While in Europe they were looking for the best option for using a capsule lock, in Russia they did not want to part with a flint lock. Various objections were raised against capsules: that the rough fingers of soldiers would not be able to handle small “caps” and clean the brand pipe, that “caps” were easily lost, that a flintlock was more reliable and cheaper. And behind this was the realization of a simple fact: it is necessary to spend a lot of money on the organization of capsule production, to tighten chemical industries, copper mining. Russian masters used the primer only in piece-work weapons. The interchangeability of weapon parts, achieved by 1826 at Tula, and from 1839 at other arms factories, was, of course, an important step, but the weapon system that had been frozen for many years still did not improve. In 1839, a Committee for the Improvement of Fittings and Guns had to be organized, which, after many years, decided to start converting flintlock weapons into percussion ("percussion") weapons according to the French model. Since 1844, they began such an alteration of 7-linear, 17.78 mm (line - a unit of length equal to 2.54 mm, was used in Russia until 1918), infantry, Cossack, dragoon rifles, carbines and part of pistols: they replaced the lock trigger , removed the flint, cut off the shelf, installing a brand pipe in its place. Alteration of an infantry rifle cost 63 kopecks. And in 1845-1849 they adopted new primer guns. Accordingly, mass production of capsules was also established.

Rifles also had to be dealt with with caution - to buy cheaper and in small batches. Among other systems, I was interested in the fitting proposed in 1832 by the Brunswick officer Berners with two grooves, into which the bullet was inserted with two protrusions. The bullet did not fill the rifling entirely, the breakthrough of gases turned out to be significant, it was not easy to load - in a combat situation, the protrusions or the rim of the bullet did not immediately fall into the grooves on the muzzle of the barrel. Nevertheless, in Belgium such a fitting was adopted, and the Russian Committee for the Improvement of Fittings and Guns also ordered 5 thousand pieces. They were called "Littich" or "Luttich" (from Luttich, the old name for the Belgian Liege). Littikh fittings were officially adopted in 1843 and issued to skirmishers. The shields of the sight in them were replaced with a lifting "Hessian" sight according to the system of the master of the Izhevsk plant Jung, the fittings were equipped with cleaver bayonets and a special ramrod. Back in 1839, for the fortresses, they adopted the breech-loading capsule fitting of the French system of Fallis ("Rampard") of 8.33 caliber of the line, however, not very successful. It is noteworthy that the first samples of capsule weapons adopted in Russia turned out to be rifled, but then they were sorely lacking.

The teacher of target shooting of the guards corps Gartung converted the dragoon gun into a fitting according to the same two-rifle system. It turned out no worse than foreign ones, and even three times cheaper. In 1848, the skirmishers of the guards regiments received the Hartung fitting. At the same time, Colonel Kulikovsky created a pointed bullet with two "ears" for the Littich and Hartung fittings. In 1851, the fortress fitting of Kulikovsky himself with the Thouvenin rod was adopted, but Ernrot's rod fitting of the same year did not take root - it was too expensive. There were so few fittings in general that the troops did not even take them on maneuvers - they were afraid to wear them out.

The situation at the arms factories was gradually deteriorating: in addition to the lack of "machines of a good design", the dependence of machine tools on water wheels (steam engines were introduced slowly), wear and tear of equipment restrained; it was not possible to raise the production of weapons in any way. In 1853, the Russian army lacked 532313 guns, 48032 carbines and 31120 fittings. Three domestic factories in 1853-1856 produced 362,992 guns. Of the 55,000 guns urgently ordered in Belgium and Prussia, only 9,184 were obtained, and attempts to buy fittings in the United States ran into difficulties in delivery.

In 1852, the last model of a smooth-bore infantry rifle was adopted, which by that time was clearly outdated. Its only advantage was the stock, more convenient for aiming. But the soldiers were taught more to march than to shoot. Until 1853, 10 rounds per year per person were released for training infantry and dragoons, fire control officers were not taught at all. The experience of the Caucasus produced many excellent marksmen and skirmisher tactics, but the bulk of the army simply did not know this.

The Crimean War was a clash of rifled and smooth-bore infantry weapons, which were muzzle-loading, mostly capsule, approximately equal in rate of fire, the difference was in the aiming range. The urgent adoption of rifled samples, converted from smoothbore ones, with a "Belgian" expansion bullet did little to improve the situation. At the beginning of the war, the share of rifled guns in the small arms of the Russian army in the Crimea did not exceed 4-5%, by the end of the war - 13.4%. In French, rifled guns accounted for about a third of small arms, and in English - more than half. The French had a Touvenin rod fitting with an effective range of 1100 m, the British had an Enfield rifle Patent of 1851 and 1853 with a Minier bullet and an effective range of up to 1000 yards (914 m). Their aimed fire blocked the range of Russian rifles (four times) and smoothbore guns, causing heavy losses. In the battle on the Alma in September 1854, the arrows of the advancing enemy killed the officers and artillery servants of the Russian units. The experience of Balaklava, Inkerman and the Chernaya River was also sad. Russian troops involuntarily began to develop new tactics: lie under fire, make more active use of earthen shelters, and act in chains. And the dashing Russian bayonet attacks that amazed the Anglo-French were the result of the weakness of the fire of Russian guns.

Some ideas were suggested by the enemy. Near Sevastopol, a pack of cartridges with "secret" bullets of the system of the head of the Vincennes Rifle School, Colonel Neissler, was taken from a French soldier. The "hemispheric" bullet had a prismatic bottom recess, entered the bore with a gap, expanded when fired, which increased the obturation of gases. Such bullets were tested in Sevastopol and St. Petersburg. In 1855, the Neissler bullet was adopted by the Russian army. The firing range of the 1852 model gun increased from 300 to 600 paces. This was the last improvement of the soldier's smoothbore gun. Then the era of the rifle began.

STATE CHARGING

While most armies were looking for ways to turn muzzle-loading rifles into mass weapons, Prussia, which was rapidly developing its military industry, decided to adopt a breech-loading rifle and a unitary cartridge. Its creator was the outstanding gunsmith I.N. Dreyse. He found a way to make a unitary cartridge and weapons for it based on existing technologies. The bullet in the pan, gunpowder and primer were combined with a paper (folder) sleeve, and the primer was located in the bullet pan. The cartridge was inserted into the chamber, which was locked with a longitudinally sliding bolt. When descending, a long striker, mounted in the bolt together with a helical mainspring, cocked during reloading, penetrated paper and gunpowder and broke the primer. The drummer was nicknamed the "needle", and the rifle itself was called the needle. There were some drawbacks to this scheme as well. The "needle" rusted and broke, the shutter became clogged with powder deposits, and a special obturator had to be installed to prevent the breakthrough of gases through the shutter. But the rate of fire increased to 5 aimed shots per minute both in defense and in attack, the danger of investing 2-3 charges in a row or not sending the bullet to gunpowder disappeared, it was possible to load and shoot from any position, the shutter was disassembled without tools, care was easier.

The Prussian War Office bought the patent in 1841, adopted the 15.44 mm Dreyse rifle and made it one of the best-kept secrets. This secret was revealed during the revolutionary events of 1848, when the crowd broke into the Berlin arsenal. And since 1858, needle rifles and carbines became the main ones in the Prussian army, removing the Touvenin and Mignet systems. New weapons, as well as combat discipline and the initiative of the commanders, ensured success in the Prussian-Danish (1864) and Prussian-Austrian wars. By that time, a similar reduction in caliber took place in Great Britain and Spain. Members of the Russian Artillery Committee A.V. Lyadin, L.G. Rezviy, K.I. Konstantinov and others developed a corresponding design of a muzzle-loading percussion rifle with 4 grooves, which was adopted in 1856 under the name "6-line rifled rifle". Since that time, the term "rifle" has become firmly rooted in the Russian military lexicon. At first, rifle battalions and companies, as well as infantry non-commissioned officers, received a rifle with a sight of up to 1,200 steps. But soon, on its basis, they created an infantry (sight up to 600 steps), then - dragoon and Cossack rifles (the latter was developed by master A.E. Chernolikhov). The rifle also hit the fleet. Slicing the sight showed that the military leadership had not yet realized the power and significance of aimed infantry fire and sought to divide the infantry into "line" and "shooters". In the production of 6-line rifles, they switched from manual to machine-manual dressing using imported machines. The question of the transition from iron trunks to steel could not be resolved. Having excellent metallurgists, Russia in terms of steel production at that time was much inferior to Great Britain, France, Prussia, and only a small part of the rifles received steel barrels - in an experimental order.

Rearmament required a change in all shooting "business in the army, and at the end of 1857, at the suggestion of Feldzeugmeister General Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, an Officer's Shooting School was organized in Tsarskoe Selo to train instructors in shooting for army and guard units. Over time, this school became research and such outstanding specialists as V. L. Chebyshev took up the development of the theoretical basis of small arms. In general, this time gave Russia a number of brilliant theoreticians and practitioners of artillery and weapons technology. Sestroretsky, located near St. Petersburg, became the experimental base for work on small arms Armory.

The 1856 rifle of the year turned out to be much more successful than the foreign models available, but these samples themselves soon turned out to be outdated, like Russian rifles.

The question arose about breech-loading weapons. It was necessary to look for a way to convert rifles of the 1856 and 1858 models into breech-loading ones, but it was not clear under which cartridge. Minister of War D.A. Milyutin admitted: "... technology was advancing with such rapid strides that before the proposed orders were tested, new requirements appeared and new orders were made." He also called the rearmament of the 1860s "an unfortunate gun drama."

Since 1859, the Armory Commission (formerly the Committee for the Improvement of Fittings and Guns) has tested over 130 foreign and at least 20 domestic systems. Gunsmith F.F. Trummer in 1861 proposed the two-bullet system of the Belgian Gillet improved by him with bullets in front and behind the powder charge: one bullet flew out through the barrel, the second, sitting down with gas pressure, locked the breech, the next cartridge pushed the second bullet with the remnants of paper forward, and now it became a projectile . Neither a stable battle, nor reliable obturation worked, and the Gillet-Trummer rifle was rejected. In 1866, at the insistence of the Duke of Mecklenburg, who headed the Armory Commission, they settled on the system of the Englishman Terry, improved by the inspector of the Tula Arms Plant I.G. Norman and the same Trummer. Everything was done simply: a receiver with a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt was screwed into the breech, the old primer lock remained. Terry-Norman's "quick-firing percussion rifle" was put into service in order to ... be removed a few months later as obsolete.

Tests of needle rifles of various systems revealed many of their shortcomings. A group of gunsmiths led by Colonel N.I. Chagin took up the needle system of another Englishman, Carlet, a former development of the Chaspeau system. The primer was placed in a reinforced cardboard bottom of a paper unitary cartridge equipped with a Minier bullet, the needle could be made shorter and stronger, and a seal made of leather circles prevented the breakthrough of gases. The shutter is rotary, with two lugs. The conversion was inexpensive. True, the remnants of the sleeve had to be pushed through the barrel with the next bullet, as a result, up to 20% of the bullets went far from the target. Nevertheless, in 1867 they approved the Carle rifle, a cartridge for it with a Veltishchev bullet and a charge of black gunpowder, adopted for all small arms as a single one. It is characteristic that in the same year the system of breech-loading rifled artillery was adopted. In addition to the state-owned private factories of Nobel, Vinogradov, Meingard, Standersheld, the new rifles were made only by the state-owned Tula, Sestroretsk and Izhevsk factories. The troops were re-equipped with a needle rifle by 1874, during which time its drawing and the cartridge was changed several times.During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the troops of the Caucasian front took Kars, Ardagan, Erzurum, Bayazet with this rifle in their hands.

The weakness of the technical base and the attempt to "privatize" the arms production slowed things down. Wishing to relieve itself of the costs of its transformation - the transition from "assigned workers" to free employment, as well as the renewal of equipment - the government decided to transfer the factories to the lease-commercial management. Reforms were underway in the country, which means that funds were constantly lacking. As a result, the War Department got a constant headache. And after all, the factories fell into the hands of qualified specialists, experts in weapons and production: Tulsky received Major General K.K. Standersheld, Sestroretsky - Colonel O.G. Lilienfeld, Izhevsky - Colonel A.A. Frolov with Captain Standersheld (brother of the Tula tenant), and later - Captain P.A. Bilderling. And there was a "government order". But the tenants needed a speedy profit, while not having the funds to upgrade production. Piece samples of Russian weapons received prizes at international exhibitions, while inside the country the War Department groaned from the growing marriage, the unfulfillment of commercial rental factories and unnecessary costs. Artisans almost asked back "to the fortress": before, at least there was a constant income. It was possible to finish the "unfortunate gun drama" only with the return of the factories to state administration.

And here, not far off, there was a new rearmament with rifles chambered for a metal cartridge and with steel barrels. In terms of significance, this can be compared with the rearmament of the entire modern army with high-precision systems of the new generation. In 1866, the experimental production of metal cartridges began at the Okhta Capsule Establishment.

KRNKA OR BARANOV

Among the various proposals for converting 6-line rifles to a metal central ignition cartridge, one of the best was the system of the head of the Maritime Museum in St. Petersburg, Lieutenant N.M. Baranov. His rifle had an Albini-type folding top of the bolt, so the system was often called "Albini-Baranov", although Baranov significantly improved and simplified the system. In the breech of the barrel, the chamber was cut, the receiver was screwed on, and a hinged up and down bolt was attached to it on a hinge. A rod was attached to the head of the trigger with a pin, which was included in the receiver and played the role of both the trigger itself (he hit the striker in the bolt) and the locking wedge. The advantages of the Baranov system were as follows - strength, preservation of the barrel, stock, lock during the alteration, disadvantages - the difficulty of loading at a large elevation angle (the shutter fell under its own gravity), inspection and cleaning of the bore.

The competitor to the Baranov system was the rifle of the outstanding Austrian gunsmith, a Czech by nationality, S. Krnka Baron Hohenbrück. Although the Krnka rifle was not accepted in Austria-Hungary, the Russian military department was interested in it. The rifle had a hinged bolt to the left and a horizontally located drummer, the trigger also remained external, but was bent inward, easier than in the Baranov rifle. In both systems, the spent cartridge case was not ejected - the shooter removed it with his hand. Preliminary tests of the "carbine" Krnka passed in July 1867 successfully, but did not resolve the issue of adoption. It was not a matter of "inertia" of military officials: they saw the merits of a metal cartridge, but they also understood what efforts and expenses would be required by "installing in our country a gross fabrication" of cartridges with the required accuracy. Therefore, voices were again heard that, they say, paper cartridges can be made in the troops (although military laboratories and workshops could not make capsules), that the metal sleeve is expensive, the cartridge is heavy, that accelerating loading will cause excessive consumption of cartridges. But Russian military agents abroad increasingly reported official experiments with rifles chambered for metal cartridges. And the regular complications of the international situation forced us to hurry.

The Main Artillery Directorate of the War Ministry leaned towards the Krnka rifle, while the Naval Department favored Baranova. The fleet's interest in more accurate and faster-firing weapons was determined not only by the sailors' experience of land operations in the Crimea, but also by the general rejection of "boarding" tactics and the increasing role of landing forces. The financial independence of the Naval Ministry and the smaller need for small arms than the army allowed the navy to adopt new weapons systems that were different from the army and, moreover, a little earlier.

In March 1869, two commissions for the conversion of rifles were created at once - the main administrative commission, chaired by Milyutin, and the executive commission, headed by Lieutenant General Rezv. The rifles were recognized as equivalent. Managers of state-owned and private factories calculated that the conversion according to the Krnka system would cost 6 rubles, and according to the Baranov system - 7 rubles 50 kopecks (later, however, these prices could not be sustained). As a result, the systems were divided into departments: the army was re-equipped with Krnka rifles, the fleet - Baranov. At first, the sight was old - at 600 steps, then they nevertheless adopted a "high" one - at 1,200. Krnka rifles were produced both as new and as alterations, Baranova - only as alterations. State institutions of the military and naval departments and private factories were involved in the work. The weapons commission demanded the unity of the patron, but this was not easy to achieve. Two types of cartridges were accepted for the Krnki rifle - with a composite sleeve made of brass and zinc and with seamless brass with a Berdan-type primer, both with a Minier-type bullet. A Fusnot cartridge with a Veltishchev bullet was accepted for the Baranov rifle, which better filled the rifling of the barrel. Hopes to make cartridges in military workshops were finally abandoned. And cartridge factories became the most important part of the military industry.

The re-equipment of the army and navy with 6-line breech-loading rifles was completed by 1872, supplying them in parallel with needle rifles chambered for a paper unitary cartridge. In the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the most massive weapons of the Russian infantry were the Krnka rifles (in the army they were called "krynks" or "krymki"). The 6-line metal cartridge was heavier than the paper one. This increased the weight of the ammunition carried by the soldier, so that a new reduction in caliber was just around the corner, and they were already working on it.

Note that the British army at that time attended to converting their rifles into breech-loading Patent 1853 - since 1866 they were equipped with a Snyder hinged bolt to the right and loaded with a cartridge with a composite paper-metal sleeve. And since 1867, they put steel barrels with 5 grooves (instead of the previous 3) and began testing metal cartridges. Russia, as we see, quickly caught up with yesterday's winners.

EQUALITY ACCORDING TO COLT

In parallel, the production of personal weapons also developed. In the 1840s and 1850s, capsule revolvers loudly declared themselves abroad. Samuel Colt launched revolvers in 1837. In the USA, a legend is popular how Colt came up with a scheme for a drum mechanism with a stopper, looking either at the ship's steering wheel or at the winch. In fact, both the drum circuit and the stopper were known long before Colt. Colt himself did not shine with design talents, but he turned out to be a talented entrepreneur who caught the possibilities of machine-made weapons, and a great master of advertising. Having patented the scheme developed by J. Pearson, Colt in 1836 began its production in the city of Paterson. The revolver, known as the "Paterson Model", or "Colt-Paterson", had a removable drum with five chambers, from the breech of which protruded brand pipes under the primer, the trigger and part of the percussion mechanisms were hidden in a metal frame. In 1839, the drum became permanent, a special ramrod articulated lever appeared for loading its chambers. And although Colt's first enterprise went bankrupt, the initial step towards success was taken. And in 1848, his new factory in Hartford began production of the Dragon No. 1 model in .44 caliber for the US cavalry, who fought at that time in Mexico - this time Colt used the services of designer E. Root. A year later, the Colt Pocket appeared in .31 caliber (7.87 mm) for couriers and postal guards (very dangerous professions in the United States at that time). "Kolt" revolvers had not yet become "equalizers of chances", they were inferior to cheaper pistols in terms of aiming range, they were bulky, they took a long time to load, but they atoned for all this with their rate of fire.

MARIETTA WITH PEPPERBOX

They did not lag behind on the other side of the ocean: in 1839 in Belgium, the production of G. Marietta multi-barreled revolvers began, in 1851 in England - R. Adams revolvers with a solid frame and a self-cocking mechanism. The latter were such serious competition to Colt that he had to close a branch in London. The production of revolvers was mastered by more and more new firms and craftsmen. Heavy multi-barreled “mariettes” and “pepperboxes” (“pepperboxes”) spread on the market because they were safer than drum ones: you didn’t have to think about the alignment of the chamber and the barrel, when several charges were ignited by a primer at once, the shooter did not risk injury from a ricocheted bullet or frame fragment.

In the Russian army, it was decided to replace the flintlock pistol with a capsule pistol, and in 1848 smooth-bore capsule pistols were adopted - for soldiers and officers. The last muzzle-loading pistols - capsular smooth-bore soldier and rifled officer caliber 7 lines - were approved in 1854, which was clearly too late. The Crimean War showed not only the superiority of a rifled gun over a smoothbore, but also a multi-shot melee weapon over a single-shot one - the British in the Crimea had already used Beaumont-Adams and Colt Navy revolvers.

True, although in very small quantities, revolvers were made in Russia. When, in 1854, Colt presented several of his revolvers to Emperor Nicholas I, this did not make the expected impression - a little earlier, Tula gunsmiths presented the tsar with revolvers of the "Colt system". Orders were received in Tula for small batches of such revolvers for the guards naval crew, for officers of the rifle regiment of the imperial family.

But the capsule revolvers were replaced by a new type - under a unitary cartridge. In 1857, in the USA, the firm of X. Smith and D. Wesson laid the foundation for the production of revolvers with through chambers for a metal cartridge. The success was so obvious that the “lagging behind” Colt company, in order not to violate the patent, created a unitary cartridge of an unusual “nipple” shape for its new revolvers, which was inserted into the drum chamber in front.

In 1859, the Russian Minister of War raised the issue of replacing muzzle-loading pistols in the cavalry with rifled breech-loading revolvers. They tested the revolvers of foreign and domestic gunsmiths, but they made an intermediate decision: to recommend to officers for the purchase of Colt and Lefoshe revolvers at their own expense. The breech-loading pistol of the Gillet-Trummer two-bullet system was officially adopted, but his biography was limited to the release of only 100 pieces. The first in Russia to officially receive revolvers was the Separate Corps of Gendarmes: in 1860 Lefoshe hairpin revolvers were ordered for it in Belgium and France, some of the revolvers were produced by the Sestroretsk plant. But a revolver with a metal frame and a drum for a unitary cartridge was still difficult for mass production. It was clear that for many more years Russia would have to buy revolvers and cartridges for them abroad.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL ARMS SYSTEMS IN RUSSIA OF THE XIX CENTURY
Year Weapon
Flintlock guns: hussar, horse-chasseur
Silicon Cavalry Fitting
Flintlock Infantry Rifle
Silicon fitting of the Guards Finnish Rifle Battalion
Silicon cavalry pistol
Flintlock Cossack gun
Flintlock Cavalry Carbine
Flintlock pistols: cavalry, Cossack, officer, soldier Flintlock guns: infantry, dragoon, cuirassier, equestrian pioneer Flintlock cavalry carbine Flintlock cavalry fitting Fallis fortress fitting
Capsule Littich fitting
Alteration capsule guns: infantry, dragoon, Cossack
Capsule infantry rifle
Alteration capsule officer and soldier pistols Cossack capsule gun
Capsule dragoon (sapper) gun
Capsule officer and soldier pistols
Capsule Cossack rifle
Fitting Ernrot for the Finnish rifle battalion Fortress fitting Kulikovsky
Capsule infantry rifle
Capsule soldier's pistol Modification rifled guns: infantry, dragoon, infantry regiment of the imperial family Capsule rifled pistol officer
Marksman 6-line rifle
Infantry 6-line rifle
Dragoon 6-line rifle
Cossack 6-line rifle Revolver Lefoshe (for gendarmes)
Rifle pistole Gillet-Trummer
Terry-Norman rifle
Carle Needle Rifle
Infantry Krnki rifle
Baranov rifle
Rifle Krnka Dragoon

Some peoples have what might be called a "cult of precision" when it comes to designing their rifles. And this applies to the Swedes in the first place. Other nations simply wanted their rifles to do the job they were made for, hitting a man quickly and easily at about 100 yards. Of course, all the sights on the rifles were calibrated for shooting at a greater distance, but it is simply impossible to really get to a distance of one kilometer in battle. And everyone understood this.

German Mauser M1892 chambered for 8x58R (Army Museum, Stockholm)

They also understood that a soldier in battle must ... work! Otherwise, he will simply go crazy from the horror that is happening around him. The easiest way is to give him the opportunity to shoot. Not too often - it is very expensive for the country, but not one cartridge at a time. It's too slow. Five rounds per magazine charge was enough.

Nevertheless, for some reason, some countries developed a real "cult of accuracy" in their own. This is, first of all, Switzerland (which we already talked about at VO) and Sweden (which we also talked about rifles, but much more information will be given now!), Trying to put a sniper rifle in the hands of almost every soldier in their army. And if for rifles of other countries at the beginning of the twentieth century the optimal distance for an accurate shot was a distance of 100 yards, then for rifles of these two countries - 300 yards! Even the United States, Germany and Great Britain, which produced extremely accurate rifles (especially in their sniper variations), did not achieve such results for rifles issued for ordinary infantrymen.


Swedish Mauser M1896, manufactured by Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori. Caliber 6.5x55 mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

So what made Sweden and Switzerland come to this? Perhaps this was a consequence of their culture. In fact, the topic of the relationship between culture and war is very interesting within the framework of the culturological tradition and it will be necessary to deal with it. In the meantime, the answer to this question, perhaps, lies in the great attention to mechanical precision and metalworking for which they were famous? But it could very well be a matter of choosing tactical priorities as well. These peoples had small armies that faced potential invaders who had a huge supply of labor, and therefore “cannon fodder”. They were at a disadvantage, but it was advantageous for them to "play defense" in difficult terrain. The troops of these countries will not be able to outdo their opponents in the jungle. But they will outnumber him in snowy fields or high mountains.

Imagine yourself as a Swiss soldier standing in front of a German occupier. You are in a hidden position on a snowy slope and your enemy is crossing the valley. If you don't have artillery, wouldn't it be nice if you had a rifle that could hit him from as far away as possible? And isn't it a wonderful idea that every person in your country, even the smallest unmobilized reservist, would have such a rifle at hand? And, most likely, the military experts of these countries just decided that their armies needed just such well-aimed and long-range rifles.


Carbine m/1894/96 for the Swedish engineering corps. Caliber 6.5x55 mm (Army Museum, Stockholm)

This was true in mountainous and neutral Switzerland, but it was also accepted in northern, mountainous and neutral Sweden. Not without reason, for today's collectors, Swedish rifles are real treasures ... beautiful, accurate and very accurate. And these are all Mausers, although this does not mean that the Swedes did not test rifles and other systems. Experienced! But they considered the Mauser to be the best rifle among all they tested. The Swedish Mausers are very similar to the Spanish Model 1893 Mausers, except for a few minor details and... an amazing level of accuracy!

Mauser rifles were originally purchased from Oberndorf, but the Swedes insisted that superior Swedish steel be used in their manufacture. Later, the production of rifles was deployed at two Swedish enterprises: Carl Gustaf and Husqvarna. By this time, the crane-action Remington rifles of the Swedish infantry had already been converted to small caliber (8x58R) cartridges, but the cavalry carbines still used the old 12.17x42R ammunition. So it was decided that it was the cavalry who would receive the first new Mausers, and the infantry would wait a bit!


Clip with cartridges for "Swedish Mauser", issue 1976

And so the famous "Swedish Mauser" was born - a family of rifles based on an improved version of the early model "Mauser" of 1893, but using a 6.5 × 55 mm cartridge and incorporating a number of unique elements at the request of Sweden. These are m/4 carbine (model 1894), m/96 long rifle (model 1896), m/38 short rifle (model 1938) and m/41 sniper rifle (model 1941). In 1898, their production was started at the Carl Gustaf gun factory in Eskilstuna.


The shutter of the rifle "Karl Gustav"

All Swedish Mausers were chambered for the 6.5×55mm cartridge, and all provided 455 MPa (65,992 psi) (55,000 CUP) pressure. The sight was also graduated for the 6.5×55 mm cartridge and was designed for firing from 300 to 2000 m in 100 m increments. The Swedish Mausers were manufactured by Waffenfabrik Mauser AG in Oberndorf in Germany, where 12,000 rifles were already produced at the end of 1896. In Sweden, the production of rifles began in 1898 at the Carl Gustaf and Husqvarna factory at Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag. Until 1918, 113,000 carbines were produced at the Karl Gustov factory, which had a characteristic tide in the lower part of the stock at the muzzle for attaching a bayonet. All Swedish Mausers made in Germany or Sweden were made using high quality nickel, copper and vanadium alloyed tool steel with high strength and corrosion resistance.


Carbine m / 1894 with a tide for the bayonet. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

In total, the following types of Mauser rifles were produced in Sweden:
1. m/1892 Rifle and carbine
2. m/1894 Carbine
3. m/1894/14 Carbine
4. m/1896 "Long Rifle"
5. m / 1938 "Short shooting"
6. m/1941 and m/1941B "Sniper rifle"
Note that the sample of the M1892 rifle presented to the Swedes and the carbine based on it was a motley mixture of elements of German (M1890), Turkish and Argentinean (M1891) Mauser rifles.


Short bayonet for m/94 carbine. ((Army Museum, Stockholm)

In 1914, the carbines were modified according to the model of the English No.1 Mk3 Lee Enfield rifle and received a mount suitable for two bayonets at once. The most common was the long m/1914 bayonet. The second secondary bayonet was an even longer bayonet and was intended for the sea (m / 1915). Modification m / 1894-67 was a carbine of 1894, adapted for the bayonet-saber m / 1867 "Yatagan".


A device screwed onto the barrel of a Swedish Mauser for firing blanks.

Also known was Skolskjutningskarbin (literally "school carbine") for military training in Swedish civilian schools. This model differs from the standard m / 1894 carbine, firstly, by marking, and secondly, by a straight bolt handle and the absence of a bayonet mount.

The production of rifles at the factories of Karl Gustov continued until 1925, but approximately 18,000 m / 96 were made at the factory in Haskvarna during World War II for military training of citizens. Mauser produced 40,000 m/96 "long rifles" between 1899 and 1900 and delivered them to Sweden, Carl Gustav 475,000 m/96 between 1896 and 1932 and Husqvarna 20,000 m/96 between 1942 and 1944. A total of 535,000 m/96 "long rifles" were produced. The short rifle 6.5 mm Gevär m/38 in 6.5 mm caliber was adopted in 1938 following the experience of the First World War, which showed that in the new conditions it was preferable to have a shortened rifle.


Rifle Gevär m/38. Short rifle m / 96 (modification 1938-1940). (Army Museum, Stockholm)

The original m/38 rifles (type I) were derived from m/96 rifles by cutting their barrels to 139mm. Most of the specially made m/38 (type II) rifles had a handle bent down and were completed in 1944. The Husqvarna Arms Factory produced 88,150 new m/38 "short rifles" between 1942 and 1944. A total of 143,230 copies were produced. The m/41 and m/41B sniper rifles are m/96 rifles equipped with a telescopic sight supplied from Germany. When, due to the deteriorating military situation, Germany stopped selling them to Sweden, the Swedes launched their own sights and converted 5300 specially selected rifles in 1941-1943 into sniper rifles.


Gevär m/41 sniper rifle. Caliber 6.5x55mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

In 1939, an unknown but apparently quite large number of m/96 rifles were handed over to the Finnish army, which were used during the "Winter War" against the Soviet Union and, most likely, also during the war of 1941-1944. In fact, Swedish rifles have been withdrawn from service since the 1950s, although variants of sniper rifles continued to serve until the early 1980s. However, some units of the rear services were equipped with m / 96 even as early as 1983. The last unit to use m/41B sniper rifles was the Royal Guard.


Rifle "Husqvarna".

Interestingly, for their "medium" and "heavy" machine guns, the Swedes developed a special cartridge measuring 8 × 63 mm m / 32. It was used from 1932 until the completion of the transition process to 7.62×51mm NATO caliber in 1975.


Cartridge 8×63 mm.

The fact is that the 6.5 × 55 mm m / 94 cartridge was not considered effective enough for firing at aircraft and armored vehicles, and the army needed something more powerful, but not too heavy. Bofors offered the m/32 cartridge the same length as the .30-06 cartridge, allowing it to fit into a standard Browning machine gun receiver, but with a case larger than the standard 6.5×55mm. The bullet weighed 14.2 g, had a large muzzle energy and had an effective range of about 3600 m (3937 m), at which the impact energy was 196 J. The maximum range was 5500 m (6.015 m). The cartridge was equipped with armor-piercing bullets, which had quite decent characteristics of action on armor.


Experienced rifle m / 40 with a muzzle brake chambered for 8 × 63 mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

To be continued…

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At the same time, special attention was paid to needle weapons in Russia; Dreyse and Carle systems were tested; this latter was given unconditional preference, since the main shortcomings of the Dreyse rifle had already been eliminated in it. The design of the shutter had a leather obturator, the needle was short, the bullet was guided along the rifling with its body, and not with a separate pallet.

In view of the extreme haste, the experiments were limited to a relatively small number of shots.

In 1867, a sample of a rifle and a cartridge was approved for the speedy conversion of 6-line rifles loaded from the muzzle into breech-loading rifles according to the Carle system (Fig. 74).

Rice. 74. Carle rifle.

The rate of fire reached 7 rounds per minute.

When issuing the first batches of rifles to the troops, however, significant shortcomings of the system were discovered, consisting in the incorrect flight of bullets and poor accuracy.

Studies of this issue found that the reason was not the shortcomings of the rifle itself, but of the cartridge. Since after the shot the unburned part of the paper sleeve remained in the channel, the bullets of the following cartridges, when they moved when fired along the bore, had this residue in front of them; the bullet flew along with the rest of the paper part of the cartridge, as a result of which its flight was incorrect, reducing the accuracy of the rifle.

It was necessary to change the arrangement of the cartridge and ensure that the rest of the cartridge case freely flew out of the bore without following the bullet.

All these studies led, during the installation of the production of a rifle, to the need to introduce changes both in the rifle, and mainly in the cartridge.

Hastily introduced changes, however, could not completely fix the issue. The troops continued to receive complaints about the newly issued weapons. The troops pointed to frequent shortfalls of bullets, gas breakthroughs into the bolt, and needle breakage. All these shortcomings, due to the slowness of the alteration, forced the abandonment of the Carle system. A total of 200,000 of these rifles were made.

Carle rifle. The main data are as follows: caliber - 6 lin. (15.24 mm), weight with a bayonet - 4.9 kg, weight without a bayonet - 4.5 kg, length with a bayonet - 184 cm, muzzle velocity - 305 m / s.

The barrel is the same as the 6-line muzzle-loading rifle; when reworking, only the chamber was cut in it to accommodate the paper cartridge invested from the treasury. The barrel was screwed into the receiver ab(Fig. 75 and 76), a trigger spring was attached to it from below in with an upturned end that served as a combat platoon G.

Rice. 75. The position of the parts of the Carle rifle before the shot.

Rice. 76. The position of the parts of the Carle rifle after the shot.

A shutter served to close the barrel treasury when fired. dd(Fig. 77), representing a cylindrical tube with two racks LJ at the rear end and two lugs her; a handle was placed between the posts h(Fig. 78), rotating on the axis and passing through the racks; in its raised (Fig. 77) and lowered (Fig. 75) positions, the handle was fixed with the help of special leaf springs; combat ledges her intended to connect the bolt to the receiver; when the bolt was turned, they entered the corresponding recess in the receiver, holding the bolt when fired, just as it is done by the protrusions of the combat larva in a modern 7.62 mm rifle; in front of the shutter was placed a movable head to, under which there were several leather circles; they were intended to eliminate the breakthrough of powder gases when fired, (similar to how it was done in the Chasspo rifle (see Fig. 76).

Rice. 77. Carle rifle bolt.

Rice. 78. Carle rifle bolt handle.

To break the cartridge primer, a striker with a mainspring and a clutch with a needle was placed in the bolt tube (see Fig. 75).

To fire a shot, the shooter pressed the trigger: the drummer jumped off the cocking of the trigger spring and, under the action of the compressed mainspring, rushed forward, as a result of which its needle broke the cartridge primer.

The cartridge for the Carle rifle (Fig. 79) consisted of a paper sleeve, a Minié bullet, a charge of gunpowder and a pallet made from several circles of cardboard; a capsule was inserted into the pallet; when fired, the front part of the cartridge case broke off at the sling under the bullet and was carried away by it from the barrel; the rest of the sleeve with the pallet remained in the chamber of the chamber. The remainder of this moved forward when the next cartridge was inserted, and when fired, was ejected from the bore in front of the bullet.

Rice. 79. Carl rifle cartridge.

The cartridge, in comparison with the previous paper cartridges for flintlock and percussion guns, was quite complicated - the troops could only collect individual parts of the cartridge sent to them: primers, pallets, gunpowder, iron cups for Mignet bullets, which required more accurate factory rather than manual fabrication in the troops.

The disadvantages of this unitary paper cartridge, in addition to the complexity of its device, was that the pallet, together with the leather obturator in the rifle bolt, did not always protect against gas breakthrough; the remaining part of the sleeve after the shot, in addition, contaminated the barrel. All these shortcomings forced us to turn to the introduction of cartridges with a metal sleeve.

A total of 213,000 rifles were converted; they entered service with the outlying military districts - the Caucasus, Orenburg, East Siberian, West Siberian and Turkestan. With this weapon in hand, the Russian soldier took part in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, in all the battles of the Caucasian Front, and partly in the conquest of the Central Asian possessions, undertaken since 1879.

The Karle rifle in its design was one of the least perfect of the rifles that were in service with the Russian army, but nevertheless, the Russian troops inflicted a number of defeats on the Turkish army both in field battles and during the capture of the fortresses of Ardagan, Kars, Erzerum.

For the United States, World War II began on the morning of December 7, 1941, with a Japanese carrier-based air raid on Earl Harbor. Six aircraft carriers were involved in the strike of the Japanese fleet. The main purpose of the strike was the destruction of battleships and aircraft carriers of the American Pacific Fleet in the harbor of Pearl Harbor. In terms of battleships, the number was a success - all the battleships that were in Pearl Harbor received damage, but the Japanese did not find aircraft carriers in Hawaii. With the failure of battleships, heavy cruisers had to take their place.

Already in the very first year of the war, the most stubborn skeptics were forced to admit that the aircraft had become an integral part of combat operations, and its role in the war was steadily growing. The aircraft has already been used not only to correct artillery fire, reconnaissance or communications, but the aircraft has now turned into an independent weapon capable of fighting enemy aircraft.

The fighters of France and Germany are described (beginning).

Cadres decide everything. And at a turning point, in extreme situations, heroes decide everything, - the author of the book about Air Marshal A. I. Pokryshkin believes.

It was Pokryshkin who became the clearest spokesman of the changes that made our army of 1941 the army of 1945. He was the first of a cohort of those who broke the morale of the Luftwaffe. According to the well-known scientist Yu. N. Mazhorov, who during the war years served in the 1st separate radio brigade of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, only in three cases did the Germans switch from digital radio messages to transmission in plain text: “Akhtung, partisan!” (surprise partisan attack); "Achtung, panzer!" (breakthrough of Soviet tanks) and - "Akhtung, Pokryshkin!".

The famous pilot has never been a darling of fate. And the life of a person could not be easy, who, as one of his students, Colonel-General of Aviation N. I. Moskvitelev, says about him, “never lied anywhere, never told a lie.” Many ups and downs in the life of a pilot and military leader are first described in this book.

The rarest combination of various talents - an ace pilot, an analyst, a commander, a mentor - makes Pokryshkin's personality one of a kind. Our second three times Hero I. N. Kozhedub always said that he learned from him to fight and live, to be a man ...

The book is published for the 100th anniversary of Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin.

The first Bf.109B-1 left the Augsburg assembly line in February 1937. By this time, the oldest fighter squadron, JG.132 Richthofen, had been chosen to be the lead fighter squadron for equipping the new fighter. They planned to re-equip the 2nd group in Jüterbog-Damm first, and behind it - the 1st in Deberitz. However, the situation in Spain, where the I-15 and I-16 demonstrated complete superiority over the He 51, made it necessary, first of all, to rearm at least part of the J / 88 in the Condor legion, which turned out to be an opportunity to test the aircraft in real combat conditions and at the same time develop suitable tactic. Thus, after a short retraining course, II/JG 132 personnel were sent to Spain, where the Bf.109B-1s arrived in April 1937. Here they replaced the He. 51 in the 2nd Squadron J / 88.

Note: A complete set of illustrations arranged as in a printed publication, captions for illustrations in text.

Studies of this issue found that the reason was not the shortcomings of the rifle itself, but of the cartridge. Since after the shot the unburned part of the paper sleeve remained in the channel, the bullets of the following cartridges, when they moved along the bore, had this residue in front of them; the bullet flew along with the rest of the paper part of the cartridge, as a result of which its flight was incorrect, ”and reducing the accuracy of the rifle.

It was necessary to change the arrangement of the cartridge and ensure that the rest of the cartridge case freely flew out of the bore without following the bullet.

All these studies led during the installation of the production of a rifle to the need to introduce changes both in the rifle, and mainly in the cartridge.

Rice. 75. The position of the parts of the Carle rifle before the shot

Hastily introduced changes, however, could not completely fix the issue. The troops continued to receive complaints about the newly issued weapons. The troops pointed to frequent shortfalls of bullets, gas breakthroughs into the bolt, and needle breakage. All these shortcomings, due to the slowness of the alteration, forced the abandonment of the Carle system. A total of 200,000 of these rifles were made.

Carla rifle. The main data are as follows: caliber - 6 l!in. (15.24 mm), weight with a bayonet - 4.9 kg, weight without a bayonet - 4.5 kg, length with a bayonet - 184 cm, muzzle velocity - 305 m / s.

The barrel is the same as the 6-line muzzle-loading rifle; when reworking, only the chamber was cut in it to accommodate the paper cartridge invested from the treasury. The barrel was screwed into the receiver ab (Fig. 75 and 76), the trigger spring was attached to it from below with the end bent up, which served as a combat platoon of the city.

To close the treasury of the barrel when fired, the shutter dd served (Fig. 77), which was a cylindrical tube with two yazh racks at the rear end and two of its lugs; a handle h was placed between the uprights (Fig. 78), rotating on an axis u passing through the uprights; in his raised (Fig. 77) and lowered

nom (Fig. 75) position, the handle was fixed with the help of special leaf springs; its lugs "were intended to connect the bolt to the receiver; when the bolt was turned, they entered the corresponding recess in the receiver,

Rice. 76. The position of the parts of the Carle rifle after the shot

holding the bolt when firing, just as it is done by the protrusions of the combat larva in a modern 7.62-lsh rifle; in front of the shutter was placed a movable head k, under which there were several leather circles; they were intended to eliminate the breakthrough of powder gases during a shot, similar to how it was done in the Chasspo vyamtovka (see Fig. 76).

Rice. 77. Carle rifle bolt

Rice. 78. Carle rifle bolt handle

To break the cartridge primer, a striker with a mainspring and a clutch with a needle was placed in the bolt tube (see Fig. 75).

To fire a shot, the shooter pressed the trigger: the drummer jumped off the cocking of the trigger spring and (under the action of the compressed mainspring rushed forward, as a result of which the needle broke the cartridge primer.

The cartridge for the Carle rifle (Fig. 79) consisted of a paper sleeve, a Minié bullet, a charge of gunpowder and a pallet made from several circles of cardboard; a capsule was inserted into the pallet; when fired, the front part of the cartridge case broke off at the sling under the bullet and was carried away by it from the barrel; the rest of the sleeve with a pallet remained in the chamber of the chamber. The remainder of this moved forward when the next cartridge was inserted, and when fired, was ejected from the bore in front of the bullet.

The cartridge, in comparison with the previous paper cartridges for flintlock and percussion guns, was quite complicated - the troops could only collect individual parts of the cartridge sent to them: primers, pallets, gunpowder, iron cups for Mimier bullets, which required more precise factory, rather than manual fabrication in the troops.

The disadvantages of this unitary paper cartridge, in addition to the complexity of its device, was that the pallet, together with the leather obturator in the rifle bolt, did not always protect against gas breakthrough; the remaining part of the sleeve after the shot, in addition, contaminated the barrel. All these shortcomings forced us to turn to the introduction of cartridges with a metal sleeve.