#1860s
Early Bolt-Actions: The Chassepot And Dreyse At RIA
Today, we tend to take the metallic cartridge and the guns that fire them for granted, but before the invention and perfection of the metallic cartridge case, arms designers faced stiff challenges in realizing the breechloading military rifle. Early attempts, most famously the flintlock Ferguson used in very limited numbers by the British during the American Revolution, were too expensive to produce in large numbers and only saw limited success.
Shooting a Reffy Mitrailleuse
Not for a lack of vision did 18th and early 19th Century weapons designers fail to create successful automatic weapons. Attempts were made to facilitate fully repeating, automatic fire as early as they could be conceived with the technology of their period. Eventually, rapidly reloaded fully automatic fire was brought into service in the early days of the metallic cartridge with the Gatling and its French analogue, the mitrailleuse, with the more obscure Gardner following about a decade later. Julien Lucot, writer for the French gun magazine Cibles, sent footage of a reproduction French Reffy (or Reffye) mitrailleuse to Forgotten Weapons, where it was posted for our enjoyment. It is embedded below: