Skip to main content

The Jaeger

This was reserved for the Jaeger carbine, one of the more unusual of the imported weapons since it is illustrated in the Atlas of the Official Records and is considered as a United States substitute standard weapon.
The records show that 29,850 of the Jaeger carbines were imported. Fruwirth’s name stamped in a sunken oval about % of an inch long at the breech is on some guns. “Joh-Fruwirth a Wienn” is also found.
A typical Jaeger is 43 Vi inches overall, with a 26-inch octagon barrel. From the muzzle back 4Vi inches the barrel is turned round to accommodate an unusual socket bayonet resembling the Brown Bess sword bayonet, and has a clasp. The bayonet stud is beneath the barrel; front sight is brass, rear sight in two patterns. The bayonet is distinctive because of its diagonal slot, and because the blade is wide and flat, about 1% inches wide, single edged as a sword. Except near the point both edges are sharp. There is no guard or hilt. Total length is 23 inches. Caliber standard, .54.
Significant ballistic difference between the Jaeger carbine and the rifle musket is that the Jaeger has a tige inside the breech. Boring is four grooves, uniform depth, grooves and lands equal width, and the twist is one turn in 5 feet 2 inches. Range and accuracy of this Lorenz short rifle was remarkable as Austrian Army tests showed 95 per cent hits on the target at 820 yards; at 984 yards, 65 per cent struck the target; at 1,230 yards, 49 per cent hits, the target being six feet by 55 feet long, a company front target. At 246 yards, 100 bullets were fired, all inside a 6-inch diameter bull. At extreme effective range of 1,640 yards, the conical bullet pierced three poplar boards 1.02 inches thick placed one foot apart in line. Some Jaeger carbines have the tige, others are without it. Noncommissioned officers, men of the third rank who by their tactics are skirmishers, and the best marksmen of the battalions in Austria, were issued with the tige carbines. They may be distinguished externally by their
Fruwirth Jaeger carbine bears Federal eagle mark thought to indicate Wisconsin regiment which had a mascot eagle “Old Abe” who flew into battle above them. Gun shown was in Liege arms museum 1961, had been sent to Europe in post-Civil War sales of surplus arms.
Fruwirth Jaeger carbine bears Federal eagle mark thought to indicate Wisconsin regiment which had a mascot eagle “Old Abe” who flew into battle above them. Gun shown was in Liege arms museum , had been sent to Europe in post-Civil War sales of surplus arms.
rear sights graduated up to 1,000 yards. The tige in the Austrian carbine is used simply to support the bullet, leaving an interval between it and the powder; it was not intended to assist the taps of the rammer in expanding the ball into the grooves. The Jaeger rammer is carried separately. Jaeger carbines without tige had sights graduated to 770 yards, and were issued to ordinary line infantrymen. The tige carbine was the more accurate.
The Lorenz designs also were bought by the combatants in in musketoon form, corresponding more closely to the design of a short rifle, two banded. Basically the same gun as the rifle musket, the Lorenz short rifle had the front band set back and the rear band fitted with the sling swivel. The rear swivel base was screwed by two screws to the underside of the buttstock to the rear of the trigger guard plate. A small three-leaf rear sight similar to that on Enfield carbines was mounted.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CHAPTER 17 The Starr Rises

From the catalog of Wallis and Wallis, British gun auctioneers ( 1962 ) at Lewes in Sussex, we read of the sale of a Starr revolver: Lot 1060 ... A 6 shot .44 Starr SA Army Perc Rev 14", brl 8", No. 51594, the top strap bearing old engraving Col. Colt Address New York, Good Condition but action As Found & frame screw not orig . Eben T. Starr of Yonkers, New York, might not have smiled at this latter day whimsey. Marking his re volver with the name of the man he dared challenge by launching a new revolving pistol business in 1858 was to him not funny. Though the modern gun bug who fraudulently marked this in the hope someone would bite on it as a hitherto unknown Colt double action revolver we trust was unsuccessful in his piracy, per haps the buyer at the Wallis and Wallis auction cherishes his purchase for what it is: one of the best and most modem revolvers of the Civil War era. Though complex inside at first glance, its parts are well thought out and reveal Star...
Post a Comment
Read more

CHAPTER 6 Rifle Muskets: Civil War Scandals

You place me in a most embarrassing position, Mr. Secretary. How is that, Mr. Wilkeson? the gaunt-faced Penn sylvanian queried, the lines of his expression amplified by the fatigue and, somewhat, disappointment with which he laid down his role as Secretary of War for Mr. Lincoln. Because, Mr. Cameron, the newspaperman re sponded, your contract for rifle muskets with the Eagle Manufacturing Company of Mansfield, Connecticut is for only 25,000 arms, and my friends there, whom I induced to engage in this business in expectation of your issuing a further order, as your assistant Mr. Scott assured me you would, will be sorely embarrassed in their operations on this small amount. Indeed this is bad news to me, Mr. Wilkeson, War Secretary Simon Cameron sympathetically observed, as he stuffed papers from his desk drawer into a large portfolio, scanning them briefly, consigning some to the waste basket. But as you can see, I am leaving office today; I believe Mister Stanton, who repla...
Post a Comment
Read more

French and Belgian Arms

French and Belgian materiel was considered next best to the Enfields, though the types and calibers were more varied than either Enfield or Austrian Lorenz arms. Basic pattern for the best rifles of both France and Belgium was the “carabine” of Captain Minie. Minie’s designs had exerted profound changes in the world’s small arms armament. That change was ably summed up by lexicographer Thomas Wilhelm after the War when he prepared his military dictionary. Said Wilhelm, “Minie Rifle. A species of fire-arm, invented by Capt. Minie, from whom it receives its name. It is certain in aim, and fatal in its results at 800 yards.” The claim was, if anything, inferior to the real capability of the Minie rifle. France in 1861 possessed a surplus of many arms. During the 1840 ’s the temporary procurement of guns designed by Thouvenin, Pontchara, Minie, and others kept the arsenals busy and the soldiers active testing them. Then came the Crimean War and France’s involvement on the side of Gr...
Post a Comment
Read more