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Bavarian M1869 Werder shooting and disassembly

“I remember the first rifle ever given to me by my grandfather. It was a Werder’s Original, and I was four”…

The Chap takes his Bavarian 1869 Werder in 11x50R out to the range for a shoot, and then takes it back to the workshop to give its insides a good look-over.

The Werder is rather the Rolls-Royce of the single-shot black powder cartridge rifles, and features an automatic ejection system activated by pushing forward on a lever in the front of the trigger guard. At the time, the rate of fire was so impressive that they earned the nickname “Blitzgewehr”, “Lightning-rifle”. A full charge of 66 grains of black powder sends the bullet downrange with a nice puff of smoke.

This one seems to have come out of an arsenal in France after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which occurred at the end of the period where the Kingdom of Bavaria acquired its own weapons independently of the other Germans.

Full details on the rifle can be found at The Chap’s site here: http://militarygunsofeurope.eu/listing/bavarian-werder-1869-infantry-rifle/

And our FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/Blokeontherange/

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