Really like this rifle. The rolling breech Werndel is boringly simple compared to this elegant design.

Yeah I like the Werder. It looks good and works well. Here is a bit faster rate of fire.
It seems very advanced compared to the contemporary Trap Door Springfield.

Werder Lightening
Rifle

Werder Action

well put, but the Trapdoor was handicapped by a post war Ordnance Board that were all raised on flintlocks...

I think the word skinflint applies to those organizations that scabbed a breech block onto a rifled musket.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
well put, but the Trapdoor was handicapped by a post war Ordnance Board that were all raised on flintlocks...

the US had a massive war debt, and a couple hundred muskets left over; but the word skinflint does come to mind.

I owned a Swiss Peabody-Martini that a friend brought back from Embassy Duty there for several years. Built by Providence Tool in RI.

I saw an ancient black and white movie where a French-Canadian frontiersman had a Peabody side hammer carbine. Probably a 50-70.

It was an adventure for the Swiss. The first model was the Peabody .41 rimfire (the one I bought), 20,000 iirc. By time they were all delivered, the Swiss had gone to a CF version. Most were converted, but some were sold to civilians in the RF state. By time they were converted, the Swiss had switched to the Vetterli bolt action single shot. By time they were beginning delivery, Vetterli had introduced the tube magazine repeater.

That must have been a crazy ten or twelve years.