Today’s Ethiopian Oddity is a rifle that appears to be a Vetterli action with a distinctly Mauser flair. The bolt is styled after the Vetterli system (including rear locking lugs) but has a non-functional Mauser flag safety lookalike instead of a functional Vetterli safety. The stock, sights, and barrel bands are Mauser-like, although the rear sight is nonfunctional (and looks distinctively Chinese, if I didn’t know it came from Ethiopia…).
The caliber is inclear, but appears to be approximately .30 inch. It is definitely not 6.5mm (like the Vetterli-Carcano) or 10.5mm-11.5mm (like the original Vetterli and other contemporary black powder military rifles).
Great plot.
And a magnificent illustration of how they can sniff a piece of trash similar to Vetterli, a peasant who saw the real Vetterli only from afar.
And this illustration is magnificent, a historical analogy.
How modern manufacturers snatch their trash, taking advantage of exactly the same illiteracy of modern European and American rednecks.
I would like to recommend a book for you; It would be very beneficial. It’s ‘How To Win Friends And Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie. It has been translated into many languages; I’m sure that you can obtain a copy in your native tongue.
You’re not doing either now. Quite the opposite, in fact.
No forgotten weapons comment section is complete without at least one of the following:
-( ) Kirk furiously ranting about M60s, doctrine or both
-( ) fifteen nonsensical posts from PDB, who is either off the wagon or off his meds
-( ) Cherndog CYOA
-( ) Stiven being a complete cock
These sites attract people who have nothing better to do than be trolls or know- it- alls. SAD.
A little bit of everything together. Where parts are missing, something has just been picked up or made up?
“(…)caliber is inclear, but appears to be approximately .30 inch. It is definitely not 6.5mm (like the Vetterli-Carcano) or 10.5mm-11.5mm (like the original Vetterli and other contemporary black powder military rifles).”
There existed Vetterli rifle with caliber greater than 6,5 mm and lesser than 10,5 mm.
Namely Swiss Versuch 1883 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vetterligewehr#Versionen
it was used solely for testing cartridges (7,5 mm) for future Schmidt-Rubin.
In view of the Italian influence, could it be 7.35 x 51mm Carcano?
I’d be hesitant to chamber a Vetterli action in 8 x 59 Breda. That might be a bit “too much of a good thing”, pressure-wise.
cheers
eon
I think only way to detect true caliber reliably would be to get measurements of chamber. Note that during Italo-Abyssinian War 1935…1936 defenders used wide variety of fire-arms. Often repeated is that they have around 400000 of rifles of various models and years of manufacture. Often unexpected ones, for example according https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%91%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0#%D0%AD%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BB%D1%83%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%B8_%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5 they still use Russian Berdan rifles, which were sourced from Russian Empire yet before war of 1895…1896 war and also bought from Empire of Japan (captured from Russian Empire during Russo-Japanese War). So there were various rifle cartridge available.
I don’t need none of yer fancy “quality control” and “safety”, I just needs mah shootin iron!
You could probably do an analysis of the alloys making up the part to get an idea of origin, but where would be the fun in that?
Also, not worth it
My first impression was this was something a father put together for a child as a toy. I realize the size makes this unlikely.
I always enjoy seeing a weapon like this. You must imagine a a man who has seen a rifle, perhaps even seen what it can do. He needs a weapon. He’ll show those thugs a thing or two about stealing livestock. A man comes to the village… got a nice piece here. Only costs two goats and a mug of your local brew…
Illiterate? Illiterate?!!! Hey man, I know who BOTH my parents are!
Whether it’s got Chinese, or semi local African heritage, it’s a very cool artisnal gun.
I’d plump for local African heritage
There’s nothing that gets done up the khyber pass, that can’t be done every bit as well in that part of Africa.
Where would a Chinaman ever get to meet a Vetterli?
The Swiss definitely didn’t get that far, and the Italians got distracted by North African sand and deserts
Not quite to the same extent that the French found deserts attractive… but still, the Italian state held half of what is modern day Somalia, from the horn southwards, and it invaded Ethiopia twice.
The single stack box magazine with moving feed lips is incredibly interesting.
If that combination is done correctly, it can be very reliable at feeding unusual cartridges, for example the rebated, and huge .500 Schüler and the radically rebated .425 Westley Richards.
Some lucky person is going to get a very cool rifle
“(…)Where would a Chinaman ever get to meet a Vetterli?(…)”
What about so-called Eight-Nation Alliance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-Nation_Alliance
my understanding it has component run by Regia Marina, though I do not know if their foot-soldiers have most up-to-date fire-arms in form of Carcano 1891 or still older Vetterli (they set sail in 1898).
Thanks
I didn’t know that Italians were involved in sending troops to China at that time.
Italy actually maintained a territorial concession in the city of Tianjin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_concession_of_Tianjin