Chassepot and Gras

[Buchweizenkeim]

Hello everyone,

before i start, i have to make an excuse for my probably not very impressive english.

posessing a chassepot on my own , i did some research about my rifle. in gerneral, there were three types:

1. the original chassepot (paper cartridge)

2. the gras (a converted chassepot to take brass cartriges)

3. another gras which wasn´t a converted chassepot (also fires the brass cartridge)

my question is, did they change something on the steel of the 3rd version, or was it made out of the same material as the chassepot?

the later gras cardriges fired hardened lead instead of soft lead. that´s why i´m asking.

thanks for reading.

Information

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[Aragorn243]

If you are concerned with blowing up the rifle with the later load, I wouldn't be. All conversions to centerfire should be safe for the original black powder loads including lead bullet variations. The original Chasepots were converted to fire several different rounds including the German 11mm Mauser cartridge and with sleeves, the French 8mm Lebel.

[Buchweizenkeim]

Well, i was not afraid of blowing it up , more of insanely fast barrel erosion. they rebarreled some of the converted chassepots, but i couldn´t find out why. i even didn´t find out how many of these rifles were rebarreled.

PS happy new year

[Aragorn243]

I suspect they rebarreled some of them because they were worn out. With proper cleaning, etc, these barrels should last longer than you can afford to put ammo through them. $4 a round here in the states, reloading obviously much less. I've never actually shot mine. Took about three years to get the ammo for it. Finally got it a few months ago but didn't realize my range membership expired.

[Buchweizenkeim]

in this case, i think i might try some diffenent lead types.

[bandook]

in this case, i think i might try some diffenent lead types.

I have a few of these rifles and all are the Gras rifles built as Gras rifles, not converted Chassepots.. The bore diameters can vary quite a bit. I believe the hard lead bullets were paper patched. I find that you can get good accuracy by shooting a well lubricated soft lead bullet.