Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1861 edition. Excerpt: ...in the tige and elevating sight. The tige, in the Austrian carbine, is used simply to support the ball, and thus preserve the powder from being caked or crushed; it is not meant at all to assist the blow of the rammer in expanding the bullet, according to the original intention of its inventor, into the grooves. The ramrod of the Austrian, like that of the Bavarian carbine, is carried separately. The range and accuracy of the Austrian short rifies provided with tiges are very remarkable. At a range of 820 yards, 95 per cent, of the bullets struck a target 55 feet long and 6 feet high; at 984 yards, 65 per cent.; at 1280 yards, 49 per cent. When 100 rounds were fired at 246 yards, 100 bullets were found to have struck within a circle of 6 inches diameter; at 1640 yards, the projectile has been known to pierce three deal boards, each 134 AUSTRIAN RIFLE. upwards of an inch thick, placed a foot apart, one in the rear of the other. The rifled musket (pattern 1855), differs from the short rifle or carbine, in length of barrel, twist of grooves; in having no tige, and in carrying the ordinary bayonet. It has a graduated sight up to 245 yards; those of the men in the third rank are graduated up to 820 yards. The rifled musket is supplied to the infantry of the line, and to what are termed the "frontier regiments" (Greuzers). The carbine with tige has four grooves of uniform depth; the width of the grooves being equal to that of the lands; the twist is one turn in 5 feet 2 inches; the calibre, -54 inch, about equivalent to our 81 bore. The swordbayonet attached to this carbine is 23 inches long, broad and flat, like our own and the French. For several inches near the point, both edges are sharp, after that but one is sharpened. The entire...
