The 1866 Benson-Poppenburg Breechloading Rifle
In the wake of the Prussian-Danish and Austro-Prussian Wars the 1860s saw much of Europe scramble to adopt breechloading rifles. Britain was amongst the first to leap into the process to find a suitable rifle. They held extensive trials with over 20 designs tested in an effort to find a rifle which could stand up to the difficult field conditions found across the British Empire. One of the most interesting rifles was submitted by Johann von der Poppenburg.
In this week’s Armourer’s Bench video I take a look at the Benson-Poppenburg which used an ingenious horizontally sliding action. The prototypes were seemingly rushed for the trials and suffered some problems, the Snider and what became the Martini-Henry eventually won out.
Check out my full length blog, with some extra history, over on the TAB website here.
Hope you guys enjoy the video!