I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 534: Hunter's Artifact

In the luxurious royal workshop of the Palace of Versailles.

Louis XVI took a rifle that looked like the Charleville 1776 from the wooden rack on the wall, handed it to his son, and said with emotion:
"You see, the processing difficulty is really very high. It's like installing a dozen clocks in the barrel of a gun. This thing took me nearly a year. But I bet that there are no more than three people in Europe who can make it so quickly!"

Joseph thought, if it weren't for the birdcage hair accessory you made for Mom as a birthday gift, it would have been finished by early October...

He took the gun carefully, squinted his eyes and looked into the barrel, then saw four convex and concave spiral lines neatly arranged on the inner wall of the barrel.

Dad's craftsmanship is as superb as ever. You know, in the late 18th century, this kind of rifling was manually pulled out little by little using a long-handled hook knife fixed on a slightly tilted frame.

The manufacturing process depends entirely on feel. If the spacing between the two spiral lines is slightly off, the entire barrel will be scrapped.

Therefore, only experienced craftsmen with more than ten years of experience dared to take over this kind of work, resulting in the cost of rifled guns being more than ten times that of ordinary flintlock guns, and the production cycle was extremely long.

But in order to keep the development process confidential, Joseph had to hand over the production of the new gun to his father. And His Majesty the King did live up to the reputation of the first craftsman in France. Starting from a novice, he made this brand new rifle in less than a year.

"You truly have the most skillful hands in France, my dear father, and the most brilliant mind."

Louis XVI immediately laughed happily, then pointed at the new gun and looked at Joseph expectantly: "So, how does it greatly increase the rate of fire?"

"With the iron spike you added to its chamber."

Joseph smiled mysteriously, picked up the vernier caliper next to him and measured the muzzle size, then said to the craftsman standing at the door:

"Mr. Aymeric, please help me make a cylinder with a diameter of 17.8 mm and a length of 35 mm using lead, and make the head into a hemispherical shape."

"As you wish, Your Highness."

Louis XVI was somewhat surprised: "What is the use of making lead columns?"

"For bullets." Joseph looked at the various muskets hanging on the wall and asked, "Father, are there any rifled guns here?"

"Of course." Louis XVI gestured to his side, "These are all my collections.

“The chief craftsman of the Charleville factory modified the rifled rifle from the 1763 model.

"Look, that's the Bavarian Augsburg Model 1720. It has eight grooves!
"And this weird thing invented by the Englishman Ferguson, which I bought from a smuggler for £1..."

"You can have a weapons exhibition here," said Joseph, taking off the German rifle. Due to the huge demand from wealthy German hunters, the best rifles in Europe are produced there.

For example, this Model 1720, although its caliber is only 15 mm, its range and accuracy can surpass the British and French .72, which is 18 mm flintlock rifles.

The trade-off, of course, is that it is prohibitively expensive and difficult to maintain.

Joseph picked up another spherical lead bullet from the bag next to him and gestured to his father:
"In addition to the difficulty in production, the biggest drawback of rifled guns is that loading is time-consuming and laborious."

Louis XVI nodded.

In order for the projectile to rotate under the action of the rifling, the outer edge must be embedded in the rifling. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a projectile diameter slightly larger than the barrel caliber, and then use a hammer and iron fiber to knock the projectile into the gun barrel.

The diameter of the gunpowder chamber at the bottom of the barrel is smaller than that of the barrel, so the bullet cannot be knocked down after it hits the bottom. Joseph put down the 16mm diameter bullet in his hand and picked up an ordinary smoothbore bullet next to him:
"If sub-caliber bullets can be used, the rate of fire of a rifled gun can be at least doubled."

The so-called "sub-caliber" refers to a projectile with a diameter smaller than the caliber of the barrel. Conversely, a projectile with a larger diameter is called "over-caliber".

Louis XVI shook his head and said, "But then the bullet cannot fit into the rifling and cannot generate rotation."

Joseph smiled slightly:
"We can think of it another way. For example, after the sub-caliber bullet is loaded into the gun chamber, we can make it bigger."

"How is this possible?" Louis XVI said it was impossible, but his eyes were full of expectation - his son had shown him miracles many times.

“The easiest way to do it is this.”

Joseph stuffed the sub-caliber bullet into the muzzle of the Fort Augustus 1720, then used the hammer and iron fiber loaded with the over-caliber bullet to hit it a few times, and looked at his father: "Look, now the diameter of the bullet is larger than the barrel."

Louis XVI was amused: "If you flatten the bullet, it will seriously affect the range and accuracy."

"That's true," Joseph nodded, "but you have to admit that the projectile will definitely spin when it is fired."

Before his father could raise any objections, he immediately added, "So, we can design the projectile into a cylinder, so that it won't flatten after a few hits."

"But that won't get the bullet into the rifling."

"This is when the iron spikes you installed will come in handy."

Louis XVI was stunned when he heard this, and then his eyes lit up.

"I understand! When you strike hard, the iron cone at the bottom of the barrel will penetrate into the bottom of the cylindrical bullet, expanding the diameter there!
"When firing, the tail of the bullet will embed into the rifling, creating a spiral."

"That's right." Joseph nodded vigorously and winked at his father. "This is the Tuven we developed together...ah, cough! The August 1790 rifle! It will completely change the status of the chasseurs and affect battlefields across Europe!"

He almost blurted out the name of the weapon. Historically, the Touwennant rifle was a groundbreaking weapon that was widely used by the French Chasseurs in the 19th century and was copied by Prussia, Belgium, Bavaria and other countries.

In fact, Joseph originally planned to let his father develop the Minié bullet directly, which is the pinnacle of muzzle-loading rifles and has more advantages than the Touvenant rifle.

However, he only remembered the principle of the Minié bullet, and the specific projectile structure, as well as the width and depth of the bottom opening needed to be designed by his father and repeatedly verified, and the gun body structure also needed to be adjusted to match it.

This will likely take a long time to complete.

So after weighing the pros and cons, he chose the Tuwinan rifle, which was less difficult to develop.

The bullet for this type of gun is just a simple cylinder, and any illiterate soldier can make it in the field with a mold.

Moreover, it could be produced using existing rifle technology with only minor modifications - just add a long iron spike to the chamber.

Of course, even if it is a "small change", it will require Dad to go through a lot of trial production before finalizing the specific process.

(End of this chapter)