So, Switzerland, a small country in the center of Europe, with a small army, a stable economy and traditionally adhering to neutrality (since 1814), turned out to be the first European state that overcame the inertia of thinking and managed to introduce several revolutionary developments in the field of small-caliber small arms. Well, what about the money? The Swiss have always had money. They, in fact, are always there for everyone. Another thing is that not everyone knows how to use them correctly!
Greek rebels, one of whom is holding a Vetterli carbine, clearly of Italian origin.
Moreover, we note that it was the Swiss who, back in 1851, were the first to use weapons of caliber in 4 lines (10, 4 mm). And already in 1867, they were the first in Europe to make sure that their army received a rifle equipped with an under-barrel magazine. For comparison, the Russian army at the same time adopted the Karle needle rifle, and three years later, the Berdan No. 1 single-shot rifle. True, it is clear that the scale here is different, but still who at that time had to fight more often, and therefore use weapons not for parades, but for their intended purpose? However, the example of the Swiss at that time was not followed by other European powers, whose armies were still doing with "single charges".
And here the Vetterli rifle fell in love with … the Italians. In Italy, at that time, a needle rifle of the Carcano system of 17.5 mm caliber was in service. Can you imagine how much her bullet weighed and what it was like to shoot from it? Meanwhile, in other European countries, small-caliber rifles have become the dominant type of weapon: in Germany it is the Mauser, in the Netherlands - the Beaumont (or Beaumond), Belgium armed with the Comblin rifle, and Russia - Berdan No. 2. Therefore, keep up the Italians also decided and … for some reason they chose the F. Vetterli rifle as a model.
Italian model of the Vetterli rifle, 1870. Army Museum in Stockholm.
Rifle Vetterli-Vitali Model 1870/87 Army Museum in Stockholm.
The new Italian rifle was planned to be naturally breech-loading, with a cartridge of 10, 4 mm caliber and with a metal sleeve, but … not a magazine one, but a single-shot one, so as not to spend too many cartridges. Thus, F. Wetterly's system lost its main advantage - a high rate of fire. In 1872, the Italians adopted two modifications of the Wetterly rifle: an infantry rifle and a shorter cavalry carbine. The length of the latter, called the "Wetterly blunderbuss", was 928 mm, and the weight was 2.95 kg. The caliber, bullet, powder charge of the cartridge were similar to the Swiss rifle. But the cartridge was used not with annular, but with central ignition. Then, in it, the charge of black powder was changed to smokeless, and the lead bullet was replaced with a bullet with a brass sheath weighing 15, 8 g. In general, the Italian military with a new, model 1872, rifle were satisfied: there is no magazine - it means the balance of weapons has improved, besides it has become much cheaper to manufacture and much easier to operate.
Right side of the receiver on the 1869 model
The same wall on the 1869/71 model.
However, the progress of military technology at the end of the 19th century was so rapid that soon, namely in 1887, the Vetterli rifle of 1871 had to be improved, which was done by the designer Vitali, who adapted it for the middle store he designed. This is how the Vetterli-Vitali rifle, model 1871-1887, turned out. Moreover, although it became a store one, it was inferior to the already appeared Lee and Mannlicher rifles, since it was equipped with 4 cartridges from a clip made of wood and tin. And it was arranged in such a way that the wooden plank covered it just from above, so it was necessary to load its magazine first, inserting this entire clip into it, and then removing it by the rope attached to it from above. It is clear that this design was far from perfect, but the rifle was still a store rifle and lighter than the basic Swiss model. However, the Swiss themselves were not tempted by this sophistication, but continued to consistently improve the Wetterli rifle.
In 1878, an infantry rifle was adopted with several "cosmetic touches" in the field of design - in particular, the magazine cover was removed from it, the aiming range was increased to 1200 m and they also came up with a completely creepy knife bayonet with a sawtooth sharpening on the butt, replacing the used before that the bayonet is needle. Even then, it became obvious that the rimfire cartridge was outdated, but … the Swiss did not replace it until 1889, when they changed both the cartridge and the rifle to the new Schmidt-Rubin system with a caliber of 7.5 mm.
Rifle 1871.
The final version of the Swiss Wetterly rifle was the 1881 model. Outwardly, it did not differ much from the previous sample, but only a number of previously made iron parts for it were now made of steel. This change in metal improved the overall finish of the Model 1881 rifle over the Model 1878 and earlier rifles, but it's a difference that's hard to notice unless they're next to each other. The most obvious change in the 1881 model was the improved Schmidt sight, in which the V-notch rear sight could be extended so that it could fire up to 1600 meters. Again, a choke was released with two triggers and improved barrel quality. An innovation was that the trigger was easily removed for cleaning. To do this, it was enough to unscrew one screw and remove the guardrail bracket. The front hook required minimal downhill pull, the rear hook was rougher. Moreover, 7,538 of these fittings were produced!
Fitting 1881.
In the battles with the Wetterli rifles, the Swiss army did not have to fight. But their Italian “colleagues” fired everywhere, from Ethiopia and Krasnaya Presnya to the fields of World War II!
And how did it all continue?
By 1889, it became clear to the Swiss that they had completely lost their priority in the field of small arms, and their once the best rifle in terms of rate of fire no longer met the requirements of the time. In addition, she fired black powder cartridges, while in neighboring France they had already adopted an 8-mm cartridge with a charge of new smokeless powder. However, when there is money and there is no immediate threat of war, why not approach the matter in great detail? And so the Swiss did. For a number of years, professor physicist Friedrich-Wilhelm Hebler worked on small-caliber rifles, selecting bullets, cartridges, gunpowder for them, after which, based on his experiments, gunsmith Rudolf Schmidt and Edward Rubin designed a rifle model 1889 chambered for 7, 5 × 53.5 mm with a bottle sleeve with an annular groove and without a rim. It should be noted that at that time among the line of 7-8 mm cartridges adopted for service, it was the smallest cartridge. Only 6, 5 and 7 mm cartridges were smaller than him.
Swiss soldiers pose with Schmidt-Rubin rifles 1889
The new Schmidt-Rubin rifle had a barrel length of 780 mm and three, rather than four, right-hand rifling, which were on the Wetterly rifle. The bullet had a metal shell only in its front part, and its leading part, as before, was made of lead in a traditional paper wrapper. Its weight was 13.75 g. A smokeless powder charge of 2 g. The bullet developed an initial speed of 620 m / s. The mass of the rifle was traditionally large for the Swiss - 4200 g, (and with a bayonet - 4630) and long - 1300 mm without a bayonet and 1600 with a bayonet! A total of 212,000 rifles of the 1889 model were produced.
The device of the Schmidt-Rubin rifle 1889
Rifle Schmidt-Rubin 1889
Shutter rifle Schmidt-Rubin 1889
But the most important thing is that the designers managed to keep the ammunition load from the Vetterly rifle on it, for which they equipped it with a two-row magazine of the original device for 12 rounds, in which the cartridges were staggered. The store could be removed, but, in addition, on the right side of the receiver there was a lever (shutter cutoff) that retracted it 5 mm down. This was done in order to store cartridges in it, and shoot economical fire at one cartridge. Three holes were made on both walls of the store, allowing you to see how many cartridges were left in the store. And four more oblong holes were provided in the lower part of the store, so that trash that got into it would fall out through them.
Cartridge and bullets for the Schmidt-Rubin rifle 1889
It was loaded from a clip for six rounds in two steps. The latter was not very convenient, but the presence of a 12-round magazine made this new weapon traditionally rapid-fire.
Bayonet in a rifle 1889
