Swiss Vetterli Rifle

This is a Rifle that I enjoy shooting, so I thought I would share a little history on it. After the Civil War most country's seen the need to change from their old Muzzle loading Rifles to a Breech loader. So in an 18th century arms race each country tried to come up with and idea of a modern military arm to issue their troops. The Swiss followed suit. In 1867 they began converting some of their muzzleloading .41 caliber rifles to a breechloading trapdoor system Know as the M1842/59/67 Swiss Milbank-Amsler. It was chambered in the new .41 Swiss rim fire round M1867 0r 10.4x38 RF Swiss. They also ordered 15,000 Peabody rifles chambered in 41 Swiss from the U.S. These stayed in service for two years, Things where changing and the repeating bolt action rifle Was being developed by the other European country's, for the Swiss to keep up that's where Swiss engineer Friedrich Vetterli stepped in with his 12 shot tubular magazine bolt-action rifle. The model 1867 VetterlThis rifle was inspired by the American made Henry Rifle.It had a tubular 12 round enclosed under barrel magazine, when the bolt was pulled to the rear, the empty shell was extracted and this in turn released a new shell from the magazine into a shell lift assemble. When the bolt was pushed forward the lift assembly raised and lined the shell with the bolt where as it was pushed into the chamber, the rifle was ready to fire again. New rounds where loaded into the magazine through a opening in right hand side of the receiver. This rifle say service with the Swiss army from 1869 until 1890 when it was replaced by the Schmidt-Rubin . It was also used and issued to the Italian Army in a Modified Version up through WW-1. Pictured at right Swiss Version on top, Italian Version on bottom. This Rifle was sold as surplus after being replaced by the Schmidt-Rubin. Ammo was made for it by Remington up until the 1940's This old War horse can still be shoot able with a little work and reloading skills. So I hope you have enjoyed this little tid-bit of info on the Swiss Vetterli. Until the next time: Look to God but remember to keep your powder dry just in case.