The guns crew would have not been so lucky however, and as far as the designer cared they could have considered themselves fortunate they even had this hardass metal bicycle seat to put their butt on. This one come quipped with a peculiar muzzle shield that would have deflected direct fire to the gun.
The St-Etienne machine gun, made to carefully avoid Hotchkiss patents, was overall less satisfactory than the Hotchkiss 1914 it was gradually replaced by. Produced as a anti-aircraft anti-tank machine gun using a modified 13,2x92mmSR Tankgewher cartridge, this prototype was abandonned after its proprietary round was further developed into the 13,2x96mm Hotchkiss and used with the Hotchkiss Mle 1929 machine gun. The mitrailleuse - now the French word for all machine guns, originally meaning grapseshooter - was an evolutionary dead-end in the history of rapid-fire firearms.
Reloading was achieved using ammunition plates halfway between a speedloader and a magazine that fit in front of the breech-block bristling with 37 individual firing pins. One of the few successful tactical use of the Reffye, against what was thought to be its effective use at the time, was at the battle of Gravelotte or Saint-Privat, where a battery of six Reffye Mitrailleuse with infantry support mowed down 500 Prussian cuirassiers in 90 seconds, in a WW1 fashion. The ammunition used was a 13x40 lead bullet in a cardboard and brass centerfire cartridge longer than a human index (the most powerful rifle cartridge in existence at the time), showing the artillery mindset the gun was designed in considering the range it gave the weapon (3400m).Īs opposed to the 200 rounds of the Gatling gun, the Mitrailleuse could indeed only fire 100 rounds a minute. Working the Reffye was very similar to how you would a Montigny instead of levers, the gun used cranks to open the breech and load a speed-loaderesque magazine into the gun, and then fire its 25 rifled barrels. Some people say it was inspired by an American volley gun we know little about, beside that it sucked, but I have yet to see proof of that. The Reffye Mitrailleuse of 1866 was based on the Belgian Montigny Mitrailleuse of 1863, based on the drawings of Toussaint-Henry-Joseph Fafchamps. It remained in service alongside Gatling guns made in Puteaux until 1897-1900 when it is slowly replaced by the first Hotchkiss machine gun.
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