Potzdam 1740 Carbine?

[Wes/Tex]

Frederick used a bit of common sense up grade his infantry fire rate. Ramods wre basically dowels, even through out, and didn't require turning before raming the charge. The touch holes were conically ground from the inside and were self-priming. Two more steps saved in teh loading drill! :wink: Pretty smart old bird!

 

[Artificer]

After looking into it again, it appears all Hussar troopers had a carbine, one or two pistols (depending on time and circumstance) and a sword. 10, later 12, of each troop were issued rifled cabines for scout or picket duty. How well they were trained to use them is another matter.

Thanks for the follow up!

I suppose they issued the rifled carbines to those who were the best shots with smoothbore guns.

Gus

 

[Wes/Tex]

That would be the normal assumption but you know how all militaries are! Since it was basically a picket duty weapon for light units, no way to tell. I only know of two times through the late 18th and early 19th centuries that shooting for horse back was even attempted in anything like regimental numbers. One was only because the commander thought it'd be a swell idea and the Russians could only advance at a walk due to heavy snow...so poppity-pop went the French Chausseurs till the Russians got close enough to spur the horses on and over ran the French before they could recover adequately. Oops! Convential wisdom said a moving cavalry group will always beat a group standing still...guess the old ideas were based on something! :wink: :haha:

 

[corrado26]

The carbine shown in the Fotos above is a smooth bore short Prussian Hussar Carbine M 1742 made at Potzdam factory by David Splitgerbers Erben (DSE). The normal length of this carbine was 1200-1230mm, the barrel length 844-874mm, the length of the lockplate was 155mm and the calibre 16,8-17,0mm.

The Prussian Hussar Regiments used three different carbines: Long carbines with 4 ramrod tubes (it was the cuirassier carbine M 1731), a medium carbine with three ramrod tubes and a short vcarbine, with two ramrod tubes.

The 10 Prussian Hussar Regiments (during the rain of Frederic II.) used These carbine as follows:

H1 short carbine
H2+3 Long and short carbine
H4 unknown
H5+6 short carbine

H7 medium carbine
H8 medium and short carbine
H10 short carbine

The medium and long carbines were carried in a holster shoe, the short carbines used to be carried on a hook of the bandelier.

corrado26

 

[Artificer]

Great Info! Thank you and welcome to the forum!

Gus

 

[Oldham]

corrado26 Thank you so much for the info, I will print it out and keep it with the gun. I have looked for a long time and could find nothing at all so this is much appreciated. Welcome to the forum and howdy from Texas.
Only the barrel length on mine is 520 mm (20 1/2"). It really does not appear to be cut as the front sight looks like the original brazed directly to the barrel. Maybe an arsenal cut down of a longer carbine?

 

[corrado26]

Sorry for the wrong Information: The barrel length of a short hussar carbine was between 482 and 527mm. The above given dimensions are these of the medium carbine.
This means that your piece is an original short hussar carbine M 1742.

Please can you tell me how to add pictures here - I cannot find a way to upload fotos............

corrado26

 

[Oldham]

Just got back from vacation. To post pictures I had to sign up for an account (free) with Photobucket.
Follow their directions and upload a photo to your library on the Photobucket site. Click on the picture you want and to the right there will be a column of windows with all the different address types for the picture. Click on the one that has "url" in it and it will say copied. Then paste that into the comment box here. Hope it works for you and I may have not explained to well.It is the first time for me to do this on this forum and there is bound to be better ways to do it.