Tabatière rifle

The Tabatière rifle was a breech-loading rifle of the French Army.

The Tabatière system was developed from 1864 as a way to convert numerous muzzle-loading weapons (usually Minié rifles) into breech-loading ones, in a process similar to that of the Snider-Enfield in Great Britain, Wänzl rifle in Austria, and the Springfield Model 1866 in the United States. The name "Tabatière" comes from the fact that the breech-loading mechanism looked like a snuff box.

Most of the conversion work had been accomplished by the time of the Franco-Prussian War. By July 1870, roughly 358,000 rifles had been converted, while 1.4 million muzzleloaders stayed in their original configuration. This weapon system was recognized as ballistically inferior to the Chassepot rifle, therefore it was used by second line troops and in defensive roles.

These are commonly encountered today as "Zulu Guns", after rifles were converted into shotguns and sold cheaply in the late 1800s.

Models

Infantry

• Fusil d’Infanterie Mle1867
• Fusil d’Infanterie Mle1822T.bis/1867

Dragoon

• Fusil de dragon Mle1867

Carbine

• Mle1867 Carabine de Chasseurs

Musketoon

• Mousqueton de Gendarmerie Mle1867

Cartridge

The 18x35mmR was constructed similarly to a shotgun shell, in that it had a copper base with a paper tube for the body. There were two loadings, though interchangeable, meant for the rifle and carbine respectively. The rifle cartridge used a blue paper wrap and had a powder load of 5 grams with a 48 gram projectile. The carbine load used a brown paper wrap and had powder load of 4.5 grams with a 36 gram minie ball projectile.

Users

•  Argentina: Acquired small amounts during the Paraguayan war. A number were imported from Germany and France by Buenos Aires in 1880 along with 500.000 cartridges. Those rifles were shipped without bayonets, and were adapted to use old muzzleloader bayonets.
•  France
•  Qajar Iran: 30,000 captured Tabatiere rifles were purchased from Germany in 1873.

Conflicts

• Paraguayan War (limited use)
• Argentine Civil Wars
• Franco-Prussian War

Notes