Good morning all;
I thought I would post a photo study of my M57 Dreyse Needle Carbine. I've been building a diverse Confederation/Pre-Imperial collection of Breechloaders and even Muskets and while nice examples are very difficult to find, the marking conventions are strikingly similar to later pieces. The Prussians were nothing if not consistent.
For your viewing pleasure, I broke down and photographed my current M57. This one was manufactured late in 1870 by A. Crouse in Herzberg. (A contractor that occupied the former Hannoverian state arsenal, which was no longer needed upon Prussians absorption of Hannover in 1866-- sidebar, the change and realignment of in arsenals in Prussia is interesting. Potsdam moved to Spandau in 1852, Saarn to Erfurt in 1862 and Danzig opened out of a need for an additional arsenal in 1853. Many of the familiar contractors also produced or refurbished rifles in this period, even if names were slightly different; Sömmerda, Spangenburg and Sauer, VC Schilling, CG Haenel, Simson and Luck-- Oberndorf, where a famous set of brothers worked with their father before buying the factory later).
In any case, the carbine is all matching and in great mechanical condition, with the only knocks being an old sanded stock (my guess is arsenal sanding) and a broken needle (common). Otherwise it's a nice example. The m57 was manufactured through 1873, where it was supplanted by converted Chassepot carbines and the new Kar71.
For those that haven't held one, they are much smaller than a Kar71 or Kar88. Very handy by design and a nice cheek rest on the left butt, similar to the M41 Infantriegewehr. The ammunition was 15.43mm, but with a much smaller load than the Infantriegewehr, given the short barrel and smaller action. The "Stahl" stamp on the barrel denotes a cast barrel rather than the older wrought iron barrels.
The simple flip sights were calibrated for 100-200 paces or 300 if the leaf was flipped up. While I have not shot mine, I sold my previous one to a friend that is an avid shooter of needle guns and I await his report.
The carbine is regimentally marked on the top of the buttplate, though I have not yet decyphered the meaning.
These Dreyse system weapons are not very easy to collect, but if you do have interest I strongly recommend The Dreyse Military Needle Ignition System by the A-R West guys. They are very knowledgeable authors and provided a much-needed English resource. Prior to its release last year, my only source material was a German book (actually CBs old copy), that was good, but a bit dated and B&W photos.
Not much more to say, I hope everyone enjoys the pics.
Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
I thought I would post a photo study of my M57 Dreyse Needle Carbine. I've been building a diverse Confederation/Pre-Imperial collection of Breechloaders and even Muskets and while nice examples are very difficult to find, the marking conventions are strikingly similar to later pieces. The Prussians were nothing if not consistent.
For your viewing pleasure, I broke down and photographed my current M57. This one was manufactured late in 1870 by A. Crouse in Herzberg. (A contractor that occupied the former Hannoverian state arsenal, which was no longer needed upon Prussians absorption of Hannover in 1866-- sidebar, the change and realignment of in arsenals in Prussia is interesting. Potsdam moved to Spandau in 1852, Saarn to Erfurt in 1862 and Danzig opened out of a need for an additional arsenal in 1853. Many of the familiar contractors also produced or refurbished rifles in this period, even if names were slightly different; Sömmerda, Spangenburg and Sauer, VC Schilling, CG Haenel, Simson and Luck-- Oberndorf, where a famous set of brothers worked with their father before buying the factory later).
In any case, the carbine is all matching and in great mechanical condition, with the only knocks being an old sanded stock (my guess is arsenal sanding) and a broken needle (common). Otherwise it's a nice example. The m57 was manufactured through 1873, where it was supplanted by converted Chassepot carbines and the new Kar71.
For those that haven't held one, they are much smaller than a Kar71 or Kar88. Very handy by design and a nice cheek rest on the left butt, similar to the M41 Infantriegewehr. The ammunition was 15.43mm, but with a much smaller load than the Infantriegewehr, given the short barrel and smaller action. The "Stahl" stamp on the barrel denotes a cast barrel rather than the older wrought iron barrels.
The simple flip sights were calibrated for 100-200 paces or 300 if the leaf was flipped up. While I have not shot mine, I sold my previous one to a friend that is an avid shooter of needle guns and I await his report.
The carbine is regimentally marked on the top of the buttplate, though I have not yet decyphered the meaning.
These Dreyse system weapons are not very easy to collect, but if you do have interest I strongly recommend The Dreyse Military Needle Ignition System by the A-R West guys. They are very knowledgeable authors and provided a much-needed English resource. Prior to its release last year, my only source material was a German book (actually CBs old copy), that was good, but a bit dated and B&W photos.
Not much more to say, I hope everyone enjoys the pics.
Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
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