Black Powder Bolt Action Rifles

[Kayla Munl]

TheJarmann M1884 is a Norwegian bolt-action repeating rifle designed in 1878 adopted in 1884.[1] The Jarmann's adoption, and subsequent modifications, turned the Norwegian Army from a fighting force armed with single-shot black-powder weapons into a force armed with modern repeating weapons firing smokeless ammunition. Several thousand were manufactured to equip the Norwegian Armed Forces in the 1880s, and it also saw some, though very limited, use in Sweden. The design is unique, and was the brainchild of Norwegian engineer Jacob Smith Jarmann. After the design had been phased out of the Norwegian Army, a number of the weapons were rebuilt as harpoon guns.

The Jarmann M1884 fired a 10.15 mm black powder cartridge in an 8-round, tubular magazine in which the rounds were lined up in a tube below the barrel. It has a non-rotating bolt (the part of the action that seals the rear end of the barrel) locked by a rotating bolt handle, and reputedly a smooth action. However, this action is not considered strong enough to fire modern ammunition, since the only locking is provided by the rotating bolt handle.

Another interesting oddity is that the Jarmann action does not have a separate ejector, but instead relies on the fact that the extractor pushes the spent round down onto the elevator. The resulting friction was enough to safely eject the round from the receiver.

Despite being a trailblazer with its then-pioneering design, the Jarmann M1884 cannot be considered successful. The combination of tubular magazine and centerfire ammunition has been referred to as "too excitable", especially when used with pointed bullets.[1] Also, the balance of the weapon changed with every shot fired. However, both of these issues are common to all firearms that use tubular magazines.

The first Jarmann design was firmly a single-shot weapon, and Jacob Smith Jarmann was reportedly at first unwilling[2] to design a magazine for it. This may explain why the magazine and bolt do not always work well together.

The sights on the Jarmann M1884, as first issued,[2] were graduated from 200 m to 1600 m. There was an additional sidemounted volley sight, intended for indirect volley fire over long distances, from 1600 m to 2400 m. To be effective, an entire company would have to fire at the same time, which would ensure that at least some of the bullets found their targets. During production, the sights were modified, and M1884s with serial numbers higher than 4330 also had a battle sight fitted to the backside of the sight leaf,[2] which could be revealed by folding the leaf fully forward. The battle sight was set to a fixed range of about 430 m (470 yd), close to the maximum point-blank range of the weapon.

The aforementioned Norwegian-Swedish commission also designed the 10.15 x 61R cartridge[2] that the various prototypes as well as the service weapon were chambered for. Originally a black-powder round with a paper-wrapped lead bullet, it was later loaded with smokeless powder and a full metal jacket bullet. More than 5 million cartridges were manufactured for the M1884, in addition to several thousand specialty cartridges. The following different variations on the 10.15 x 61R cartridge have been identified:[2]

The Jarmann rifle was a remarkably accurate rifle for its time. In 1886, the joint Norwegian-Swedish rifle commission, which had selected the Jarmann, created a list of the ballistic properties of all the rifles tested.[2] It is clear from the list, reproduced below, that the Jarmann M1884 was significantly better than the other rifles tested, although in part this must be due to the higher muzzle velocity of the Jarmann.

Towards the end of their use in the armed forces, the original black powder cartridges were replaced by cartridges filled with smokeless powder. Despite the increase in muzzle velocity, the sights were not altered,[2] thus radically decreasing the accuracy of the rifle.

Some reports indicate that the Germans melted a significant number down[2] the last remaining Jarmann rifles in military warehouses during the Nazi occupation. The Germans still gave the rifle a designation, despite being considered too obsolete for their use, the Jarmann M1884 received the designation Gewehr 351(n).

Between the wars, several Norwegian gunsmiths attempted to create harpoon guns,[2] intended for hunting seals and shooting rescue lines to boats in distress. Seeing a ready market, and having access to the several thousand Jarmanns in storage, Kongsberg Vpenfabrikk designed a harpoon gun referred to as the M28.[2]

The Jarmann was, at the time of its adoption, considered a good weapon. By comparing it to the Remington M1867, which was the standard-issue rifle in the Norwegian Army, as well as against the standard service rifles of Germany, France and the United Kingdom at the time it is clear that the Jarmann indeed was an excellent weapon for its time, particularly in its accuracy and range.[2]

Writing a fantasy story where my protag has knowledge of modern day Earth technology. Magic also exists but it can't just create things in and out of existence and uses the body's energy for it to work e.g. you can crush earth to make hard rock or perhaps craft small objects with earth in hand but it'd take too much energy to exert enough pressure to make diamonds or craft a mansion.

What is the closest to smokeless powder could we get? Chemicals made in factories are clearly out so we'd be looking for something that would be simple or moderate difficulty to create. Even if we can't make it that far what's the best optimisation of black powder could we do with modern day knowledge?

The gun itself, I'm thinking the end game would be a simplistic bolt action rifle (maybe with inbuilt silencer but that might be too much) with a magazine. Design would be in stages, for example, first she'd make a smooth bore then later on figure out with magic perhaps how to carve the rifling incrementally. Though if we made that possible, would that essentially make semi-auto and full auto possible if that level of precision was possible with magic?

A wood stock with magazine well should be more than feasible. It'll be the main body of the smooth bore gun or rifle and the manufacture of the bullets which I'm not too sure of. I'm assuming that the parts of a bolt action are a lot simpler than modern semi or full auto rifles?

Silencer/Suppressor: As Dragongeek pointed out my ammunition would most likely be subsonic, at least for the most part until later perhaps (tbd) and the protag would wish to ensure not bring too much attention to herself.

Gunpowder is part of the overall question about gun manufacturing as of course without it, we have no ammunition. Smokeless is the modern day equivalent and I wanted to show progression. Our protag is the super knowledgeable about weapons person so I was hoping we could see progession from black powder to something even a little better but as Dragongeek stated, if the only real downside is fouling the barrel more often, then maybe there's no need (low power bullets are fine in the setting I'm in).

To try and clarify the magic system. Essentially I'm thinking of it using up the body's natural energy to manipulate the atoms/particles in the world. As long as it's nearby you can manipulate it.The further away the greater the energy required.I can create fire in my hand, increase it's heat enormously by manipulating the elements such as extracting the oxygen around the air and adding it (but taking it to ridiculous levels such as the temperature of the sun, no).I can condense and join atoms to create water, slowing down the atoms to freeze it (but nowhere near to absolute zero).I can energise the elements in the air to create wind but not a typhoon.Raise and manipulate the earth to create barriers of stone but no one is making any earthquakes.

With regards to gunsmithing. Our protag, after much training, magic manipulation could probably, with the materials roughly in the shape of what she's looking for, could perhaps smooth out the barrel of the gun (later on rifle it but it would take many attempts). Take a roughly designed body (receiver?) and smooth out any imperfections. she could probably with the magic strengthen the metal to a certain degree.

Essentially I'm thinking that without the magic, and tech set roughly somewhere in the early middle ages even a bolt action, magazine fed, smooth bore might be a bit too hard even for a very knowledgeable protag. With magic able to smooth out some kinks, perhaps offer a little bit of precision since I've seen a few questions on what kind of gun could be made way back when (I've done some research) and they all make mention that precision machining is required. No precision machining and you couldn't even make a semi-modern gun. Or that's what I'm lead to believe.

Wouldn't think it was a duplicate as I'm not looking for the earliest gun, I'm looking for the most advanced gun for preindustrial era with magic. Edited title, though that doesn't seem to have changed anything. Any ideas?

None of these ingredients can be directly scratched out of the environment. Each requires lots of processing steps just to become an ingredient for the final product. Processing that requires plenty of specialized equipment, energy, measurement, and testing.

The problem is that all of that energy, tools, and equipment also cannot be scratched out the environment. You need whole specialties to collect and store that energy, to make the assorted tools, and to finance/manage the development and sales of the equipment.

All of that knowledge and all of that technology impacts other elements of society. Energy management and equipment leads to steam engines. Metalworking machines leads to farming machines and canned food. And your medieval children suddenly need to go to school to learn careers using those machines and knowledge instead of working the fields alongside their parents.

Let's try this way: Perhaps there is a way to limit the changes brought about by all that technology and knowledge and machinery, so only a small segment of the population gets educated, and inventors don't benefit much from their inventions.

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