Chapter 533: Hunter's Artifact

Chapter 534 The Hunter’s Artifact

In the luxurious royal workshops of the Palace of Versailles.

Louis XVI took down a rifle that looked like Charleville 1776 from the wooden rack on the wall, handed it to his son, and said with emotion:

"You see, the processing is really difficult. It's like installing a dozen clocks in the barrel. This thing took me nearly a year. But I bet that no one in Europe can make it so quickly. There must be no more than 3 people who come up with it!”

Joseph thought to himself, if it weren’t for the birdcage hair ornament you bought for mom as a birthday gift, it would have been completed in early October...

He carefully took the gun and squinted into the barrel. He saw four uneven spiral lines neatly arranged on the inner wall of the barrel.

Dad's craftsmanship is indeed as superb as ever. You should know that at the end of the 18th century, this kind of rifling was done by hand using a long hook knife, fixed on a slightly inclined stand, and pulled out bit by bit.

The manufacturing process relies entirely on feel. If the distance between the two spirals is even slightly off, the entire barrel will be scrapped.

Therefore, only veteran craftsmen with more than ten years of experience dare to take over this kind of work. As a result, the cost of rifled guns is more than ten times that of ordinary flintlock guns, and the production cycle is extremely long.

But in order to keep the research and development process confidential, Joseph could only leave the production of the new gun to his father. And His Majesty the King has indeed lived up to his reputation as France's number one craftsman. Starting from a novice, he produced this brand new rifled gun in less than a year.

"You really have the most dexterous hands in France, my dear father, and the most brilliant mind."

Louis XVI suddenly laughed happily, then pointed at the new gun and looked at Joseph expectantly: "So, how can it greatly increase the rate of fire?"

"Use that iron cone you added to its medicine chamber."

Joseph smiled mysteriously, picked up the vernier caliper next to him and measured the size of the gun muzzle, and said to the craftsman standing at the door:

"Mr. Eymeric, please help me make a cylinder with a diameter of 17.8 mm and a length of 35 mm from lead, with a hemispherical head."

"As you wish, Your Highness."

Louis XVI was a little surprised: "What do you do with making lead pillars?"

"Make bullets." Joseph looked at the various muskets hanging on the wall and asked, "Father, are there any rifled guns here?"

"Of course." Louis XVI gestured to his side, "These are all my collections.

"A rifled gun modified from Model 1763 by the chief craftsman of the Charleville factory.

“Look, that’s the Bavarian Augsburg 1720. It has eight riflings!

"There are also weird things invented by the Englishman Sir Alex Ferguson. I bought them from a smuggler for 1,000 pounds..."

"You can really have a weapons show here." Joseph said, taking off the German rifle. There was huge demand from wealthy hunters in Germany, which produced some of the best rifled guns in Europe.

For example, this Type 1720 has a caliber of only 15 mm, but its range and accuracy can surpass the British and French .72, which is an 18 mm flintlock gun.

Of course, the price is that the cost is prohibitively high and maintenance is difficult.

Joseph picked up another spherical lead bullet from the single bag next to him and gestured to his father:

"Besides the difficulty in producing the rifled gun, the biggest drawback is that loading is time-consuming and laborious."

Louis XVI nodded.

In order for the projectile to rotate under the action of the rifling, the outer edge must be embedded in the rifling. Therefore, choose a projectile diameter that is slightly larger than the barrel diameter, and then use a hammer and iron fiber to knock the projectile into the gun chamber.

The diameter of the powder chamber on the bottom plate of the gun chamber is smaller than that of the barrel, and the projectile cannot be knocked after it hits the bottom.

Joseph put down the 16 mm diameter projectile in his hand and picked up the ordinary musket projectile beside him:

"If you could use sub-caliber projectiles, the rate of fire of a rifled gun could be at least doubled."

The so-called "sub-caliber" refers to projectiles whose diameter is smaller than the diameter of the barrel. On the contrary, projectiles with larger diameters are called "super caliber".

Louis XVI shook his head and said: "But in that case, the projectile cannot be embedded in the rifling and cannot produce rotation."

Joseph smiled slightly:

"We can change our thinking. For example, after loading the sub-caliber projectile into the gun chamber, we can make it larger."

"How is this possible?" Louis XVI said it was impossible, but his eyes were full of expectation - his son had shown him miracles many times.

"The easiest thing to do is this."

Joseph stuffed the sub-caliber projectile into the muzzle of the Augsburg 1720 gun, then hit it hard with a hammer and iron fiber loaded with super-caliber projectiles. He looked at his father and said, "Look, the diameter of the projectile is smaller than that of the gun." It’s up to you.”

Louis XVI was amused: "If you flatten the projectile, it will seriously affect the range and accuracy."

"Indeed." Joseph nodded, "But you have to admit, this projectile will definitely spin when it is fired."

Before his father could object, he immediately added: "So, we can design the projectile into a cylinder, so that it won't flatten after being hit a few times."

"But that won't make the projectile fit into the rifling."

"It's time to use the iron cone you installed."

Louis XVI was startled when he heard this, and his eyes lit up immediately.

"I understand! When struck hard, the iron cone at the bottom of the gun chamber will penetrate into the bottom of the cylindrical bullet, expanding the diameter there!

"When firing, the tail of the bullet embeds itself into the rifling, creating a spiral."

"That's right." Joseph nodded vigorously and winked at his father. "This is the Touwen... ah, cough! August 1790 rifle! It will completely change the status of the chasseurs and affect the battlefields of all Europe!"

He almost blurted out the name of this weapon. Originally, the Touwen rifle was a groundbreaking weapon that was equipped in large quantities by the French chasseurs in the 19th century and copied by Prussia, Belgium, Bavaria and other countries.

In fact, Joseph originally planned to let his father develop the Minié bullet directly, which was the pinnacle of muzzle-loading rifles and had more advantages than the Touwen rifle.

However, he only remembered the principle of the Minié bullet, and the specific projectile structure, as well as the width and depth of the bottom opening, needed to be designed by his father and repeatedly verified, and the gun body structure needed to be adjusted to match.

This may take a long time to complete.

So after weighing the pros and cons, he chose the Touwen rifle, which was less difficult to develop.

The bullet of this gun is a simple cylinder, and illiterate soldiers can make it in the field with a mold.

Moreover, it can be produced by using existing rifle technology and making some minor changes - just add a long iron cone in the chamber.

Of course, even if it is a "minor change", it will take a lot of trial production for Dad to finalize the specific process.