No. 129. J 83 



REPORT 



t 



Of Board of Ordnance Officers on Patent Smnll Arms other than 



Repeating Pistols. 



Waspington, D. C, Jfovember 27, 1850. 



Iii addition to their report on the trial and examination of 



repeating pistols, the Board have agreeably to their instructions, 



to report the result of their examination of the following arms, 



being all that -were presented for that purpose : 



1st. Sharp's Rifle and Musket. 4th. Jennings' Rifles. 

 2d. Klein's Prussian Rifle. 5th. Perry's Rifle. 



3d. Jenks' Carbine. 6th. Welch's Rifle. 



Isf. Sharps^ Rifle and Musket. 

 This is an arm loading at the breech, which is opened and 

 closed by a vertical slide or shear cutting off the end of the 

 cartridge. This arm has withstood all the trials the Board has 

 considered necessary to make with it. It was fired several 

 hundred times without cleaning, during which the movements 

 of its machinery was not obstructed. The arm is loaded with 

 great ease and rapidity by using a simply prepared cartridge which 

 Mr. Sharj) has arranged ; and also the ordinary rifle and musket 

 ammunition with its percussion caps can be used with facility. 



The penetration, range and accuracy of fire from the rifle thus 

 arranged, with a cartridge and conical ball prepared for it, were 

 superior to that of any other breech loadicg piece oflered to the 

 board. With Maynard's primer (which, as well as the cap, may 

 be used) this arm was tired ten times per minute, and when 

 discharged over the water, a second charge was fired before the 

 ricochet of the first had ceased. 



From their observations of the use of tkis rifle, the Board are 

 of opinion that it is superior to any of the other arms loading at 

 the breech, and think it would be well to have further trials 

 made, and to put some of them in the hands of troops to deter- 

 mine whether they are suitable to the military service. 



2d. Klein's Rifle. 

 This is a Prussian rifle, understood to be at present under trial 

 in the Prussian service. It is loaded at the breech, and the 

 charge is fired by means of a needle which pierces the iVietion 



