Franco Prussian Beutewaffe

Hi All,

Here's one you don't see every day. I picked this up recently along with a few K71 carbines. I've wanted one for a while and narrowly lost a GunBroker auction last time a decent one showed up. These are talked about pretty extensively in Storz, but to those not familiar, captured chassepots were utilized as stopgap weapons after the war ended in a variety of roles.

One case in particular was the reworking of captured French rifles to an 11mm cavalry carbine to arm Prussian cavalry units until a new Kar71 could be designed and implemented. This started life as an 1867 Tulle Chassepot and was cut down and reworked to accepted 11mm German ammunition.

Overall, nice condition, except the stock is rough, all matching and cool mix of French and Prussian markings. There is a slight coat of something on the metal, likely varnish. I had an M71 with a similar coating.

Marking is to a machine gun unit, which I find interesting. I thought these were short term and according to Storz they were phased out entirely before WWI. Best guess maybe issued to very early MG units?

Pics follow.


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WAY out of my lane, but it looks very interesting, congratulations on a cool pick-up!

Pat

A very elusive and a very scarce carbine to own Chris. You should be quite happy my friend. I personally have only seen one for sale and it was on GunBroker. It was a nice piece, but the bolt was matching.

What's even better for you? This one has a matching bolt, which is incredible that it survived the franco-prussian war, the early Imperial era, World War 1, World War II, and it ended up here in the states still matching!

And on top of that it's unit marked to a machine gun squad that is even better. We know how machine gun unit marked stuff brings high value in the collecting market. So you have another big plus. So you have like three big factors there buddy matching, rare, and a cool unit mark. Yeah, that's neat!

I have no doubt that this piece ended up here in the States because it was brought back by a veteran. That to me seems like the only logical explanation. Or it was brought in the country in the fifties and sixties with the massive amounts of other firearms. Who knows. Anyway, you have a great rifle, buddy. Thanks for sharing!

Warrior1354 said:

A very elusive and a very scarce carbine to own Chris. You should be quite happy my friend. I personally have only seen one for sale and it was on GunBroker. It was a nice piece, but the bolt was matching.

What's even better for you? This one has a matching bolt, which is incredible that it survived the franco-prussian war, the early Imperial era, World War 1, World War II, and it ended up here in the states still matching!

And on top of that it's unit marked to a machine gun squad that is even better. We know how machine gun unit marked stuff brings high value in the collecting market. So you have another big plus. So you have like three big factors there buddy matching, rare, and a cool unit mark. Yeah, that's neat!

I have no doubt that this piece ended up here in the States because it was brought back by a veteran. That to me seems like the only logical explanation. Or it was brought in the country in the fifties and sixties with the massive amounts of other firearms. Who knows. Anyway, you have a great rifle, buddy. Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks Jordan-- yeah, really thrilled on how this panned out. I just like the story on these and feel like it's a legit spot in an imperial collection. The MG mark is just icing on the cake. Funny to think there were still some of these in limited use into WW1.

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Nice!

Very interesting markings.

With the arm shortages in 1914. There is an understanding why. I have many pictures in my collection showing Navy Personnel armed with the 1891 Mosin Nagant, infantry soldiers armed with the 1886 lebel rifle. And many others showing soldiers armed with the 1871 model of rifles and carbines.

Neat looking carbine with a really interesting history! Looking at the color and character in the rear of the stock I can only imagine where this thing had been. Thanks for sharing!

heavy_mech said:

Neat looking carbine with a really interesting history! Looking at the color and character in the rear of the stock I can only imagine where this thing had been. Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks! Yeah, the weird fusion of French and Prussians is just cool. Putting it side by side with a Kar71 makes for neat comparison too.

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