1884 Kropatschek: Groundwork for the Lebel
France
•
13m
After the adoption of the single-shot Gras rifle in 1874, attitudes towards repeating rifles began to shift in the French military. The Battle of Plevna had shown that regardless of their hypothetic detriments, repeating rifles could substantially magnify a force's firepower and allow a smaller force to defeat a larger one. In 1878 the French Navy had adopted a tube-magazine Kropatschek rifle, and the head of the Chatellerault Arsenal tool shop, Albert Close, spent several years improving it and adapting it for French production.
He presented his completed rifle in 1883, and it was adopted and put into mass production. Both the Chatellerault and St Etienne arsenals would build Mle 1884 rifles, although they both ceased in 1886 when the Lebel and its smokeless powder changed the whole face of military small arms. A total of about 83,000 Model 1884 rifles were made, and they would serve as the basis for the 1885 and by extension the Lebel itself.
Up Next in France
-
Shooting the RSC-1918 and RSC-1917 Fr...
The day has come to do some shooting with an RSC-1918 - and an RSC-1917 as well! The 1917 was the first selfloading rifle to see substantial combat use, with just over 85,000 manufactured in 1917 and 1918 and used on the frontlines by French troops. The 1918 pattern is an improvement of the desig...
-
France's Ultimate WW1 Selfloading Rif...
The French RSC-1917 semiauto rifle was a major step forward in arms technology during World War One, offering a reliable and effective self-loading rifle for issue to squad leaders, expert marksmen, and other particularly experienced and effective troops. No other military was able to field a sem...
-
American Viven-Bessières WW1 Grenade ...
The standard American grenade launching system in World War One was the Vivien-Bessiere, borrowed directly form the French. It had been adopted by France in 1916, replacing copies of the British Martin-Hale rod grenades. The V-B was a cup type launcher using a pass-through type of grenade and sta...
