Dreyse Needle Gun

Dreyse Needle Gun

The Dreyse needle-gun (German Zündnadelgewehr, which translates roughly as "needle ignition rifle") was a military breechloading rifle, famous as the main infantry weapon of the Prussians, who accepted it for service in 1841 as the "leichtes Perkussionsgewehr Model 1841" ("light percussion rifle Model 1841"), with the name chosen to hide the revolutionary nature of the new weapon. The name "Zündnadelgewehr"/"needle-gun" comes from its needle-like firing pin, which passed through the paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. The Dreyse rifle was also the first breech-loading rifle to use the bolt action to open and close the chamber, executed by turning and pulling a bolt handle. It has a rate of fire of about 10–12 rounds per minute.

The rifle was the invention of the gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), who, beginning in 1824, had conducted multiple experiments, and in 1836 produced the complete needle-gun. Dreyse was ennobled in 1864.