The Chassepot, officially known as Fusil modèle 1866, was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It replaced an assortment of Minié muzzleloading rifles, many of which were converted in 1864 to breech loading. An improvement to existing military rifles in 1866, the Chassepot marked the commencement of the era of modern bolt action, breech-loading military rifles. The Gras rifle was an adaption of the Chassepot designed to fire metallic cartridges introduced in 1874.
Chassepot rifle with bayonet
Chassepot bolt mechanism
Chassepot paper cartridge and boxes.
French soldier with Chassepot rifle.
Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by directly manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm. The majority of bolt-action firearms are rifles, but there are also some variants of shotguns and handguns that are bolt-action. A firearm using bolt-action mechanism is colloquially referred to as a bolt gun.
The AWM sniper rifle, a bolt-action rifle
A US Marine extracts a fired cartridge from an M40A3 using a bolt-action mechanism
A disassembled Karabiner 98k action
Close-up of the action on an SMLE Mk III rifle, showing the bolt head, magazine cut off, and charger clip guide.
