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The Chassepot, officially known as ''Fusil modèle 1866'', was a bolt action military breechloading rifle, famous as 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 1867 to breech loading (the Tabatière rifles). A great improvement to existing military rifles in 1866, the Chassepot marked the commencement of the era of modern bolt action, breech-loading, military rifles. Beginning in 1874, the rifle was easily converted to fire metallic cartridges (under the name of Gras rifle), a step which would have been impossible to achieve with the Dreyse needle rifle.〔''New International Encyclopedia''〕 It was manufactured by MAS (Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne), 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 1870 was close to 1,000,000 units. Manufacturing of the Chassepot rifle ended in February 1875, four years after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. ==History== The Chassepot was named after its inventor, Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833–1905), who, from 1857 onwards, had constructed various experimental forms of breechloaders, and the rifle which became the French service weapon in 1866. In the following year it made its first appearance on the battlefield at Mentana on 3 November 1867, where it inflicted severe losses upon Giuseppe Garibaldi's troops. It was reported at the French Parliament that "''Les Chassepots ont fait merveille!''", or loosely translated: "The Chassepots have done wonderfully!" The heavy cylindrical lead bullets fired at high velocity by the Chassepot rifle inflicted wounds that were even worse than those of the earlier Minié rifle. In the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871) it proved greatly superior to the German Dreyse needle gun, outranging it by 2 to 1. Although it was a smaller caliber (11 mm vs. 15.4 for the Dreyse), the ''chassepot'' ammunition had more gunpowder and thus higher muzzle velocity (by 33% over the Dreyse), resulting in a flatter trajectory and a longer range, which was . The Chassepots were responsible for most of the Prussian and other German casualties during the conflict. After the war, 20,000 captured Chassepot rifles were sold to the Shah of the Qajar Dynasty. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chassepot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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