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.

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 1861 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.