I found this rifle the other day and was somewhat interested, but I don't know anything about it.

Any input?







Thanks-

I think it's a Swiss vetterli.

Fred

That stamping on the side says "Waffenfabrik Bern", and that is the only markings I could find. The tag declared it to be a 10.3x38(?) and judging from the size of the bore and loading port I could believe it, but there were no markings on the gun one way or the other.

Sorry for the crappy pics, camera phone.

I'll look up the Vetterli, thanks.

You might send a PM to 400 Nitro Express. He spends most of his time on the double rifle forum. He has an extensive knowledge of older guns...he may be able to tell you exactly what the gun is.

SCW - yes it is a Vetterli. You may wish to try this spot:

http://militaryrifles.com/Switzerland/SwissVet.htm

interesting, I'd love to be able to shoot a gun like that but it sounds like that is somewhat difficult. Two firing pins on a rimfire? That's interesting.

I'll go look at it again, they didn't want much for it but I don't remember how much that was.

Thanks all-

It is pretty common to convert those to a centered firing pin and there are boxer cases available after the conversion.

Hi,

I just found two of those today! The cal. should be 10.4 (someone said 10.6 Berdan) and the Vetterli was made by three different companies. It seems to be quite sought after and I´ve seen prices + 1000 USD. Personally I´d rather sell than convert, you can probably find one that´s been worked on for a lower price than the original.

The rifles were sold on the European and US market after 1889, when the Swiss armed forces replaced them. The rifles have an interesting history to us Finns, as a considerable amount of them were smuggled into Finland in 1905 and -06 by patriot activists during the years of Russian oppression. The Grand Duchy of Finland had been an autonomous part of Imperial Russia since 1809, with our own laws and old constitution of the kingdom of Sweden as guarranteed by the Tsar of Russia. But the Russian government wanted to change that during early 1900. So some activists joined forces with russian revolutionarys and more important the Japanese empire (!). During the Russo-Japanese war 1905 an agent, col Akashi, financed guns to these activist (a central figure was the writer and adventurer Konni Zilliacus Sr, a Finnish activist), they bought a steamer, the John Grafton, and under the command of capt. J.Nylander (finn), they sailed from London to the baltic to distribute the guns. Russian spies got news of all this in London, and the secret police of the Tsarist government managed to stop revolutionaries in St Petersburg to recieve the shipment, so the ship continued north along the finnish coastline to distribute the guns to finnish activists. Finally capt Nylander had to blow up the ship and dump most of the arms, as Russian ships were closing in, close to the city of Kokkola in the gulf of Bothnia. Customs officers boarded the ship, the captain locked them in a cabin aft and gave them the choice of enjoying the explosion or peter out and shut up. They chose the latter, being customs officers and therefor cowards (I belong to a coastal tribe..therefor my sentiments). Some rifles were distributed and created rumours in the Russian faction of dangerous finnish guerrillas being formed. Capt. Nylander cabeled his co-conspirators the coded message: "Aunt died, she burst" to inform them of the events.

Russian divers examining the wreck

Later other activists did ship more Vetterlies to Finland on the steamer Peters and distributed the obsolete rifles to arm the people along the coast. The rifles did not play any important role in the war of Freedom 1918, but their psychological impact were significant. My grandmother's brother Bror (17 years old at the time) was killed in action close to Pori in 1918 carrying a Vetterli when trying to free this country. We still have the rifle.
Coppercased cartridges. Famous around here to be effective on moose. Claimed to penetrate two logwalls and then some..

Boha

Boja,

Very interesting and detailed story with great photos!! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Thanks Boja I really enjoyed reading that bit of your history

This is the new crtiges version!!
For more information you click here Swiss muniton site

It looks a lot like my Vetterli-Carcano, that fires the carcano cartrige, but mine is a real goofy looking bolt action. In fact, I hate to fire it because I can see about 12mm of exposed case when the bolt closes. But it still has that long vetterli torpedo looking piece on the top. I guess the vetterli-carcano is a swiss italian coop?

Murkan it tries to buy this to you is much beautiful one.

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