Minié rifle
| Minié rifle | |
|---|---|
 French Army P1851 Minié rifle  British Army Pattern 1853 Enfield Minié rifle  Springfield Model 1861 Minié rifle, the most widely used rifle during the American Civil War  Württemberg, Baden and Hesse Vereinsgewehr 1857 rifled musket  The Austrian Lorenz rifle |
|
| Type | Service rifle |
| Place of origin | France |
| Service history | |
| Used by | France, Prussia, Austria, United Kingdom, United States, Confederate States, Japan, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Empire of Brazil |
| Wars | Crimean War, Indian Rebellion of 1857, Taiping Rebellion, Second Italian War of Independence, French intervention in Mexico, Austro-Prussian War, American Civil War, Boshin war, War of the Pacific, Paraguayan War |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) |
| Barrel length | 958 millimetres (37.7 in) |
|
|
|
| Cartridge | 18mm rimmed bullet |
| Caliber | 18 millimetres (0.71 in) |
| Rate of fire | 2–3 shots per minute |
| Feed system | Muzzle-loading |
The Minié rifle was an important infantry rifle of the mid-19th century. A version was adopted in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captain Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The bullet was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles, and was an innovation that brought about the widespread use of the rifle as the main battlefield weapon for individual soldiers. The French adopted it following difficulties encountered by the French army in Northern Africa, where their muskets were outranged by long-barreled weapons which were handcrafted by their Algerian opponents. The Minié rifle belonged to the category of rifled muskets.
The rifle used a conical-cylindrical soft lead bullet, slightly smaller than the barrel bore, with three exterior grease-filled grooves and a conical hollow in its base. When fired, the expanding gas forcibly pushed on the base of the bullet, deforming it to engage the rifling. This provided spin for accuracy, a better seal for consistent velocity and longer range, and cleaning of barrel detritus.
Before this innovation, the smoothbore musket was the only practical field weapon. Rifled muskets had been in use since the Renaissance, but they required hammering projectiles with a ramrod and mallet into the bore of the barrel, and also created considerable cleaning problems. The short-lived "carabine à tige" system used a pin at the bottom of the barrel which deformed the bullet against the wall of the barrel when the bullet was pushed to the bottom. This system was very problematic for cleaning, especially with the black powders of the period.
The Minié rifle used a percussion lock and weighed 10 lb 9 oz (4.8 kg). Having a reasonable accuracy up to 600 yards (550 metres), it was equipped with sights for effective aiming. The hollow-based bullet was of .702 inch (17.8 mm) calibre, and weighed 500 grains (32.4 g). It could penetrate 4 inches (10 cm) of soft pine at 1,000 yards (918 m).
...
Wikipedia