Original French Model 1866 Chassepot Needle Fire Rifle Dated 1873 - Matching Serial No Q 15217 Manufacture Type_Original Items and four-shot pepperbox pistols

and four-shot pepperbox pistols

506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division

The heavy iron barrel is 18 inches in length while the brass tipped wood ramrod is a later replacement

It is 44in long with a 35in blade and weighs roughly 2

D-shaped handguard with 4 stamped spikes was attached around a hilt that utilized rubber hosing for the grip

Original French Model 1866 Chassepot Needle Fire Rifle Dated 1873 - Matching Serial No Q 15217 Manufacture Type_Original Items and four-shot pepperbox pistolsOriginal Item: Only One Available. Despite the fact that the French needle fire Chassepot rifle was far superior to the needle fire Prussian Dreyse rifle, the French took a swift and decisive beating in the war of 1870 71. In fairness to the French, the defeat was due to Napoleon III's foolhardiness in allowing himself to get captured at the Battle of Sedan and the show was then over. The Chassepot rifle of 1866 was a single shot bolt action rifle and