Fictional Needle fire Rifle Design 01

A bit of concept design for an upcoming commission. The client is asking me to do a bit of world building along with the general illustration.

    A point of focus in the picture is one character showing another character a needle fire style rifle. The needle fire was type of firearm that was very popular with certain European armies during the 1840s thru the mid 1860s. It was bolt action, breech-loading concept that fired a paper cartridge that contained the projectile, powder charge, and primer. The primer was detonated by a long needle-like firing pin, thus the name needle fire.  The needle would pierce the cartridge and detonate the propellant.

    The needle fire offers several advantages over the muzzleloaders of the period. One simple had to drop a cartridge into the chamber. Close the bolt. Cock the action and fire. Then open the action and shake out any remnants of unburnt cartridge from the chamber. Then repeat the process. It offered a much higher rate of fire and the weapon from prone positions and from behind cover.

    The system however did have several weaknesses. The first was the actual needle itself. It was long, thin and prone to wear from repeated detonations and the corrosive nature of black powder. There were two general schools of thought about how to go about firing the cartridge.

    The first method was the Dreyse-style of ignition which positioned the primer at the base of the bullet and used like a little anvil surface to aid in detonation. This unfortunately meant that the needle needed to be longer and more of it was exposed to the detonation and burning of the powder.

    The second method was the Chassepot-style ignition which located the primer at the back of the cartridge. This meant using a more sensitive primer but the needle could be shorter.

    The second problem with all needlefire systems was gas leakage. Besides providing a convenient to handle, waterproof, crushproof package, the metallic cartridges acts to form a gas seal in the chamber of the weapon. This was a problem that plagued most breech-loading firearms that fired paper cartridges.

    The Dreyse system just accepted the fact that some gas would leak from the chamber but it was some distance from the shooters face. The Chassepot system employed a rubber gasket seal the chamber. However these seals will wear out over time from stress and heat of firing and need replacing. This particularly became a problem for French soldiers during the Franco-Prussian war who were forced to manufacture ad hoc seals from leather.

    For this design I decided to use the more modern Chassepot system for this one.

    Ian over at Forgotten Weapons has a couple of good video on needle fire weapons.

Dreyse M60

Chassepot M1866

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