User:Skret4/Augustin Infantry Musket Model 1842

Augustin Infantry Musket Model 1842 new article content ...

Augustin rifled musket

"Augustin pattern tube-lock, muzzleloader, cal .70. Overall length 57.75 in. Paper cartridge with round ball. Quadrangular socket bayonet retained by two types of spring clamp beneath muzzle; blade length 18-18.75 in. Three bands flattened on bottoms, with upper band double-strapped. Furniture usually iron, bright; some examples have brass trigger guard, bands, and buttplate. Simple notched rear sight on barrel tang, not adjustable. Front sight partially enclosed by upper strap of forward band. Sling swivels on trigger guard and center band.... Most of these muskets converted to percussion lock in 1861, the cone seat being forged into the top of the barrel; many were rifled with four grooves and given the 1000 meter leaf rear sight. Some 10,000 of this model were converted and rifled in Cincinnati for General Fremont; these had the cone tapped directly into the barrel and some were given U.S. pattern long range sights. Two shorter version of the Model 1842 were also imported. The first had an overall length of 52.5 in, and the heel of the butt was almost squared; otherwise similar. This variant was known in Austria as the cadet musket. The second shortened variant was converted from an Augustin tube-lock muzzleloader issued in Austria originally to engineer troops, cal .70; its 33.5-in. barrel was rifled with 4 grooves. Overall length 48.5 in. Paper cartridge with ball wrapped separately from powder. Quadrangular socked bayonet retained by spring clamp beneath muzzle (or possibly, at times, by a lug), blade length 18.5 in. Three bands. Leaf rear sight like Lorenz rifle musket, graduated to 900 meters. Furniture bright or brass, bright lock plate and hammer. Sling swivels on center band, and underneath butt or on trigger guard tang. Lock plate markings: year and eagle as on musket." - Todd

"The M1842 musket was manufactured in Augustin tubelock, its main distinction from the M1840 flintlock musket is the lock, which in addition to having the integral tubelock mechanism in lieu of the frizzen, has a distinctly rounded rear tail. Although 25,000 of these muskets were imported into the United States for use by Fremont's forces in Missouri in 1861, many were subsequently altered to percussion. The Cincinnati contractors, Hall, Carroll & Co. or Greenwood & Co. accounted for 10,000 of these arms, all of which were altered to percussion my means of a cone-in-barrel system. These were also rifled and a portion of them sighted with a long range rear sight similar to the Enfield P1853 rifle-musket. Many of the balance were subsequently sent to the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia, where they were subcontracted to Henry Leman of Lancaster for alteration to standard percussion. Those altered by Leeman are distinguished by having new breechpiece with integral bolster, the latter with a cleanout screw through its face. In addition to the 25,000 imported for Fremont, the firm of H. Boker & Co. of New York imported approximately 8,000 Austrian M1842 muskets which it has altered to percussion in Belgium. The French method of adding a reinforced bolster to the top right-hand side of the barrel was used. Many of those were also rifled and sighted in the manner of the French adaptations fashionable in Europe. George Heydecker of New York City imported another 4,000 in 1863 that were seized in transit in Canada, reputedly for delivery to Mexican republican forces." - Schwing