The Cuirassier carbine is one of the very scarcest versions of the Berthier in the world, yet Patrick here is going to let me shoot a few rounds through his. My target is a steel plate at 300 meters, with a “feldgrau” silhouette – not visible through the camera, unfortunately. Thanks, Patrick!
Semiauto Rifles
Shooting the RSC-1918 and RSC-1917 French Autoloaders
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 […]
Accessories
Chain Mail for Machine Gunners
Chain mail appeared in a couple different forms during World War I – the most well-known is probably the mail facemasks developed for tank crews. These were intended to protect crew members from steel shards […]
Artillery
One Million Subscribers: The French 75 Special!
Holy cow, a million subscribers! When I started Forgotten Weapons, I never for a moment suspected it would end up this popular. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed! I think this required a celebratory […]
Thanks for posting this! It is always nice to see something rare being fired.
Is it just me or is the whirring sound after each shot being generated by the bullet as it travels down range?
I must admit, much of the enjoyment I get from your videos, Ian, is seeing you so happy firing all these rare weapons. I don’t think there is a better person on the planet to teach us about such old masterpieces. Keep up the great work, my friend!
Well, at least nobody challenged Ian to fire this from horseback! Then again, does anyone try to fire a bolt-action rifle from horseback anyway?
“horseback”
There existed Cossack variant of Berdan II rifle, according to: http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/RIFLES5.htm
Also Dragoon rifle, Cossack rifle and Carbine version of Berdan m/1870 existed in Russian use. From these rifles the Dragoon rifle was for riding infantry, Cossack rifle (with its button-like trigger) for cavalry fighting from its horses and carbine for gendarme and units like light cavalry.
Notice that Cossack Berdan II has not trigger and guard like Infantry Berdan II had, but in regard of activating from user point of view is akin to Winchester Model 99 (alias Winchester Thumb Trigger Rifle).
To avoid any possibly confusion, if you read text in link keep in mind that: Berdan m/1868 is same rifle as Berdan I and Berdan m/1870 is same rifle as Berdan II.
Years ago in a Gun Digest article, the author was trying to teach his horse to not shy @ the sound of gunfire, as he was trying to reenact some Brit or Canuck light cavalry. Started off w/ the pistol, & was trying to work the horse up to dealing w/ .303.