WAFFENFABRIK BERN M.81 (Vetterli ??) What is it??

[Eaglelord17]

They are pretty cool rifles, basically the first repeating rifle to be standard issue. By 1871 the Vetterlis were the main issued rifle of the Swiss military. Which to put in perspective how much more advanced they were than their contemporaries, the US was using the Trapdoor Springfield, UK the Martini Henry, Germany the 1871 Mauser, France the Chassepot, etc.

One of the issues with shooting these today is they are a rimfire cartridge, which makes them very difficult to actually shoot. There is two main options used, one being a centerfire conversion (involves drilling a hole in the center of the bolt and making a firing pin extension, fairly basic machining) and using 8mm Lebel brass trimmed and fireformed. The second option being there is cartridges with offset primers specifically for shooting these rifles as unmodified guns. The problem with those is you must manually line up the firing pin with the primer (i.e. no quick shooting), and you have to find them for sale, which I don't know how available they are.

Personally I have a 1871 Cadet Vetterli and a M81. Never shot the M81, still have to decide if I want to convert it (in Canada it has a legal effect turning it from a antique to a non-restricted firearm), but I have shot the Cadet rifle which is a antique even though it has had the modification done as it has no magazine. Neat enough gun to shoot, but it was a lot of effort to get going and my interest waned in using it when I realized it was more effort to use than my musket for a very similar practical effect.

They are cool rifles to collect though, tons of variants, tons of history, tend not to be too expensive due to the lack of practicality in using them. Very finely made though.

Information

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[usabaker]

They are cool rifles to collect though, tons of variants, tons of history, tend not to be too expensive due to the lack of practicality in using them. Very finely made though.

Thanks for the information. He's interested in it just because of its design I'm sure it's the $795.00 price that's making him hesitate and him wanting to know more about the rifle of course.