France Monaco Kingdom of Bavaria Kingdom of Saxony Brazilian Empire(Limited) Peru Bolivia Kingdom of Dahomey Qajar dynasty Greece Ethiopian Empire Principality of Serbia Tokugawa shogunate
Wars
Italian Wars of Unification Franco-Prussian War French colonial conflicts War of the Pacific[1] Boshin War Revolution of 1880 Federalist Revolution First Italo-Ethiopian War Revolutions of 1917–1923 1923 Revolution other conflicts
Production history
Designer
Antoine Alphonse Chassepot
Designed
1858–1866
Produced
1866–1875
No. built
~2,000,000
Specifications
Mass
4.635 kilograms (10 lb 3.5 oz)
Length
1.31 m (4 ft 4 in) without bayonet 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) with bayonet
Barrel length
795 mm (31.3 in)
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
8–15 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity
410 m/s (1345 ft/s)[2]
Maximum firing range
1,200 m (1,300 yd) service rifle 1,600 m (1,700 yd) fusil pour la cavalerie d'Afrique model
Feed system
Single-shot 5-Round Non Detachable box Magazine 8-Round Tubular Magazine
Sights
Ladder
The Chassepot (pronounced /ˈʃæspoʊ/SHAS-poh), officially known as Fusil modèle 1866, was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It replaced an assortment of Minié muzzleloading rifles, many of which were converted in 1864 to breech loading (the Tabatière rifles). An improvement to existing military rifles in 1866, the Chassepot marked the commencement of the era of modern bolt action, breech-loading military rifles. The Gras rifle was an adaption of the Chassepot designed to fire metallic cartridges introduced in 1874.
It was manufactured by Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS), Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault (MAC), Manufacture d'Armes de Tulle (MAT) and, until 1870, in the Manufacture d'Armes de Mutzig in the former Château des Rohan. Many were also manufactured under contract in England (the "Potts et Hunts" Chassepots delivered to the French Navy), in Belgium (Liege), and in Italy at Brescia (by Glisenti). The approximate number of Chassepot rifles available to the French Army in July 1870 was 1,037,555 units.[3] Additionally, state manufacturies could deliver 30,000 new rifles monthly. Gun manufacturers in England and Austria also produced Chassepot rifles to support the French war effort. The Steyr armory in Austria delivered 12,000 Chassepot carbines and 100,000 parts to France in 1871.[4] Manufacturing of the Chassepot rifle ended in February 1875, four years after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, with approximately 700,000 more Chassepot rifles made between September 1871 and July 1874.[5]
^Esposito, Gabriele, Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879-83: Osprey Publishing (2016)
^Ford, p. 23
^Walter, John (2006). Rifles of the World. Krause Publications. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-89689-241-5.[permanent dead link]
^"Zuendnadelgewehr Chassepot". Schmids-zuendnadelseite.de. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
^"Bladstadt" (PDF). Bibliotekacyfrowa.pl (in Polish). 1873. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
The Chassepot (pronounced /ˈʃæspoʊ/ SHAS-poh), officially known as Fusil modèle 1866, was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for...
cartridges, such as the Berdan rifle. The Chassepot was named after its inventor, Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833–1905), who, from 1857 onwards, had constructed...
Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles, 1866–2016 is a 2019 book by Ian McCollum about the history of French military rifles. Chassepot to FAMAS was...
cartridge adaptation of the single-shot, breech-loading, black powder Chassepot rifle. It was developed from 1872 to 1874 as a response to the German...
Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833–1905) was a French inventor and gunsmith. Born in 1833 in the town of Mutzig in Alsace, he is best known for inventing...
The Independent. May 28, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2023. Philippe Chassepot (May 19, 2017). "Greg Gonzalez, Texan décomplexé". Le Temps (in French)...
This problem was also encountered with the Dreyse needle gun; the French Chassepot solved the leaking-breech problem with the addition of a rubber seal to...
Ordnance rifles were introduced in the 1860s and 1870s, with the French Chassepot Model 1866, the Swiss Peabody Gewehr Modell 1867, and the Prussian Mauser...
worse as firing continued. Its effective range was less than that of the Chassepot, against which it was fielded during the Franco-Prussian War. This was...
Services) and James Rupley, through which he wrote and published his book Chassepot to FAMAS. The book was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and raised $800,256...
that Chassepot rifle fire had caused a far greater number of Prussian casualties than the Reffye mitrailleuses. However, about 100,000 Chassepot rifles...
1866. In 1867, orders were placed for 40,000 state-of-the-art French Chassepot rifles, a part of which reached Edo by year's end. Antiquated Tanegashima...
and while the Army had far superior infantry weapons in the form of the Chassepot and Mitrailleuse, its tactics and artillery were inferior, and by allowing...
novel type of bolt was a major improvement over the simpler Dreyse and Chassepot bolt actions. The Vetterli was also the first repeating bolt-action rifle...
conversion was inferior to both the Prussian Dreyse needle gun and the French Chassepot. Green percussion rifle, a Serbian conversion of Austrian Lorenz M1854...
nations began to develop new bolt-action breechloading rifles (such as the Chassepot and Snider–Enfield) and sword bayonets suitable for mass production and...
cavalry weapons. The French Army adopted its first bolt-action rifle, the Chassepot rifle, in 1866 and followed with the metallic cartridge bolt-action Gras...
rolling-block rifles to make up for a shortage of the standard-issue Chassepot and Tabatière rifles during the Franco-Prussian War. During World War...
convinced that he could sell the design to the French to convert their Chassepot rifles. The Norris-Mauser patent was taken out in the United States. Remington...
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