Thousand Days' War
The Thousand Days' War, was a civil armed conflict in the Republic of Colombia, between the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and radical factions. During 1899 the ruling conservatives were accused of maintaining power by fraudulent elections rather than democratic procedure; the situation was worsened by an economic crisis caused by decreasing international coffee prices. This affected the opposition Liberal Party, which had lost power. Throughout the 19th century, Colombia was a politically unstable country, a factor that evolved during 1886 into what became the main cause of the war; this was the year in which the 1863 constitution was suppressed and replaced by a more centralist and conservative document. The 1863 constitution had been criticized as a result of federalist excesses during the period in which the Liberal radicals were in power. With the Regeneración period and the creation of the 1886 constitution, the centralist regime only managed to aggravate the political problems; the governments of some departments soon began to complain about these problems to the central government.
Poor political decisions resulted in economic problems. The indigenous leader Victoriano Lorenzo had been fighting for Native American land rights and economic autonomy, soon negotiated an alliance with the Liberal cause; the war began as a result of confrontation between the Conservatives. The Conservatives had used fraudulent elections to remain in power, this resulted in much anger amongst the opposition. Additionally, President Manuel Antonio Sanclemente was too ill to rule the country, resulting in a power vacuum; the intended date for the beginning of the civil war was October 20, 1899. However, due to the imprudence of some of the Liberal generals Paolo Emilio Villar, who wished to begin the war on October 17, it was changed; the reaction of many Liberals was hesitant, since they believed that they did not have sufficient numbers or organization. Despite this, the rebellion began in the municipality of Socorro and the rebels awaited military reinforcements from Venezuela; the Conservative government, was not idle while this was occurring.
They prepared a military force to be sent to the capital of Santander. The force never arrived, because the troops refused to accept payment by "tickets", which the government had to use due to the dire economic situation. No one expected, or was prepared for, a war that would last three years and would result in disaster to the country. With time, the war spread to every part of Colombia; the first Liberal defeats came early during the war, with the Conservative victory at the Battle of Magdalena River on October 24. However, the Conservatives were in a delicate situation as well; the Conservatives had split into two factions, the Historical and National, in a frenetic attempt to bring order to the country. First, they replaced him with Jose Manuel Marroquin. In response, the Liberals nominated Gabriel Vargas Santos for the presidency; the battles of Peralonso and Palonegro caused substantial damage. At Peralonso, the Liberals achieved victory by the direction of Rafael Uribe Uribe. At Palonegro the Conservatives halted the enemy in.
After Palonegro, the Liberals were divided into two different factions, this time pacifists and the warmongers. The Nationals of the Conservatives believed it was time to end the war, which by this time was in the province of Panama and on the coast of the Caribbean Sea. With that decision, internationalization of the war was avoided, though it was desired by the Venezuelan president Cipriano Castro. Conservative troops commanded by Marroquín managed to reduce Venezuelan aid to the Liberals, who at this time were suffering defeats by the Conservative General Juan B. Tovar. General Uribe saw that the Liberals would not be able to defeat the Conservatives, therefore was inclined to surrender, albeit with certain conditions; the peace treaty was signed on the plantation Neerlandia on October 24, 1902, the fighting ended mid that year in Panama. From late 1901, fighting occurred between the ships Admiral Padilla and the Lautaro, the latter of, defeated in front of City of Panama on January 20, 1902.
The threat was from the American navy, sent by the government of Theodore Roosevelt to protect the United States' future interests in the construction of the Panama Canal. The Liberals commanded by general Benjamin Herrera were forced to surrender; the subsequent assassination of Victoriano Lorenzo is understood among indigenous Panamanians as the loss of their struggle for land rights. The definitive peace treaty was signed on the American battleship Wisconsin on November 21, 1902; the Liberals were represented by general Lucas Caballero Barrera, in charge of the united army of Cauca and Panama, Colonel Eusebio A. Morales, representing general Benjamin Herrera; the Conservatives were represented by general Víctor M. Salazar, governor of the department of Panama, general Alfredo Vázquez Cobo, chief of staff of the Conservative army on the Atlantic Coast, the Pacific, Panama. Together, representing the entire government, they signed the end of the war. Panama became an independent country. No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel García Márquez, published during 1961, is a novella concerning an impoverished, retired colonel, a veteran of the Thousand Days' War, present at the signing of the Treaty of Neerlandia and still hopes to receive his pension pro
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific known as the Saltpeter War and by multiple other names was a war between Chile and a Bolivian-Peruvian alliance. It lasted from 1879 to 1884, was fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert; the war ended with victory for Chile, which gained a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia. Chile's army took Bolivia's nitrate rich coastal region and Peru was defeated by Chile's navy. Battles were fought in the Pacific Ocean, the Atacama Desert, Peru's deserts, mountainous regions in the Andes. For the first five months the war played out in a naval campaign, as Chile struggled to establish a sea-based resupply corridor for its forces in the world's driest desert. In February 1878, Bolivia imposed a new tax on a Chilean mining company despite Bolivian express warranty in the 1874 Boundary Treaty that it would not increase taxes on Chilean persons or industries for 25 years. Chile protested and solicited to submit it to mediation, but Bolivia refused and considered it a subject of Bolivia's courts.
Chile insisted and informed the Bolivian government that Chile would no longer consider itself bound by the 1874 Boundary Treaty if Bolivia did not suspend enforcing the law. On February 14, 1879 when Bolivian authorities attempted to auction the confiscated property of CSFA, Chilean armed forces occupied the port city of Antofagasta. Peru, bound to Bolivia by their secret treaty of alliance from 1873, tried to mediate, but on 1 March 1879 Bolivia declared war on Chile and called on Peru to activate their alliance, while Chile demanded that Peru declare its neutrality. On April 5, after Peru refused this, Chile declared war on both nations; the following day, Peru responded by acknowledging the casus foederis. Ronald Bruce St. John in The Bolivia–Chile–Peru Dispute in the Atacama Desert states: Even though the 1873 treaty and the imposition of the 10 centavos tax proved to be the casus belli, there were deeper, more fundamental reasons for the outbreak of hostilities in 1879. On the one hand, there was the power and relative stability of Chile compared to the economic deterioration and political discontinuity which characterised both Peru and Bolivia after independence.
On the other, there was the ongoing competition for economic and political hegemony in the region, complicated by a deep antipathy between Peru and Chile. In this milieu, the vagueness of the boundaries between the three states, coupled with the discovery of valuable guano and nitrate deposits in the disputed territories, combined to produce a diplomatic conundrum of insurmountable proportions. Afterwards, Chile's land campaign bested Peruvian armies. Bolivia withdrew after the Battle of Tacna on May 26, 1880. Chilean forces occupied Lima in January 1881. Peruvian army remnants and irregulars waged a guerrilla war. Chile and Peru signed the Treaty of Ancón on October 20, 1883. Bolivia signed a truce with Chile in 1884. Chile acquired the Peruvian territory of Tarapacá, the disputed Bolivian department of Litoral, as well as temporary control over the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica. In 1904, Chile and Bolivia signed the "Treaty of Peace and Friendship" establishing definite boundaries; the 1929 Tacna–Arica compromise gave Arica to Chile and Tacna to Peru.
The conflict is known as the "Saltpeter War", the "Ten Cents War", the "Second Pacific War". It should not to be confused with the pre-Columbian Saltpeter War, in what is now Mexico, nor the "Guano War" as the Chincha Islands War is sometimes named. Wanu is a Quechua word for fertilizer. Potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate are nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as salpeter, salitre, caliche, or nitrate, they have other important uses. Atacama is a Chilean region south of the Atacama Desert, which coincides with the disputed Antofagasta province, known in Bolivia as Litoral; the Atacama border dispute between Bolivia and Chile concerning the sovereignty over the coastal territories between the parallels 23°S and 24°S was just one of several long-running border conflicts in South America as the area gained independence throughout the nineteenth century, since uncertainty characterized the demarcation of frontiers according to the Uti possidetis 1810. The dry climate of the Peruvian and Bolivian coasts had permitted the accumulation and preservation of vast amounts of high-quality guano deposits and sodium nitrate.
In the 1840s, Europeans knew the guano and nitrate's value as fertilizer and saltpeter's role in explosives. The Atacama Desert became economically important. Bolivia and Peru were located in the area of the largest reserves of a resource the world demanded. During the Chincha Islands War, under Queen Isabella II, attempted to exploit an incident involving Spanish citizens in Peru to re-establish Spanish influence over the guano-rich Chincha Islands. Starting from the Chilean silver rush in the 1830s, the Atacama desert was prospected and populated by Chileans. Chilean and foreign enterprises in the region extended their control to the Peruvian saltpeter works. In the Peruvian region of Tarapacá, Peruvian people constituted a minority behind both Chileans and Bolivians. Bolivia and Chile negotiated the "Boundary Treaty of 1866"; the treaty established the 24th parallel south, "from the littoral of the Pacific to the eastern limits of Chile", as their m
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the system of government adopted in France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 after France's defeat by Nazi Germany in World War II led to the formation of the Vichy government in France. The early days of the Third Republic were dominated by political disruptions caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which the Republic continued to wage after the fall of Emperor Napoleon III in 1870. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, the establishment of the Paris Commune; the early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy and who should be awarded the throne caused those talks to stall. Thus, the Third Republic, intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France; the French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic.
It consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. Issues over the re-establishment of the monarchy dominated the tenures of the first two presidents, Adolphe Thiers and Patrice de MacMahon, but the growing support for the republican form of government in the French population and a series of republican presidents during the 1880s quashed all plans for a monarchical restoration; the Third Republic established many French colonial possessions, including French Indochina, French Madagascar, French Polynesia, large territories in West Africa during the Scramble for Africa, all of them acquired during the last two decades of the 19th century. The early years of the 20th century were dominated by the Democratic Republican Alliance, conceived as a centre-left political alliance, but over time became the main centre-right party; the period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured polarized politics, between the Democratic Republican Alliance and the more Radicals.
The government fell during the early years of World War II as the Germans occupied France and was replaced by the rival governments of Charles de Gaulle's Free France and Philippe Pétain's Vichy France. Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s "the form of government that divides France least". On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution. On the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. In spite of France's divided electorate and persistent attempts to overthrow it, the Third Republic endured for seventy years, which as of 2018 makes it the longest lasting system of government in France since the collapse of the Ancien Régime in 1789; the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France and the overthrow of Emperor Napoleon III and his Second French Empire. After Napoleon's capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870.
The deputies selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president. This first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris; as Paris was cut off from the rest of unoccupied France, the Minister of War, Léon Gambetta, who succeeded in leaving Paris in a hot air balloon, established the headquarters of the provisional republican government in the city of Tours on the Loire river. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, national elections were called with the aim of creating a new French government. French territories occupied by Prussia at this time; the resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, nominally. Due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters; the new government negotiated a peace settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire: the Treaty of Frankfurt signed on 10 May 1871.
To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of financial laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities, to pay reparations. In Paris, resentment against the government built and from late March – May 1871, Paris workers and National Guards revolted and established the Paris Commune, which maintained a radical left-wing regime for two months until its bloody suppression by the Thiers government in May 1871; the following repression of the communards would have disastrous consequences for the labor movement. The French legislative election of 1871, held in the aftermath of the collapse of the regime of Napoleon III, resulted in a monarchist majority in the French National Assembly, favourable to making a peace agreement with Prussia; the "Legitimists" in the National Assembly supported the candidacy of a descendant of King Charles X, the last monarch from the senior line of the Bourbon Dynasty, to assume the French throne: his grandson Henri, Comte de Chambord, alias "Henry V."
The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch i
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device within a metallic, paper or plastic case, made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for the practical purpose of convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is used to refer to a complete cartridge, it is used only to refer to the projectile. Cartridges can be categorized by the type of their primers — a small charge of an impact- or electric-sensitive chemical mixture, located at the center of the case head, inside the rim of the case base, in a sideway projection, shaped like a pin or a lip, or in a small nipple-like bulge at the case base. Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition; some artillery ammunition uses the same cartridge concept. In other cases, the artillery shell is separate from the propellant charge. A cartridge without a projectile is called a blank.
One, inert is called a dummy. One that failed to ignite and shoot off the projectile is called a dud, one that ignited but failed to sufficiently push the projectile out of the barrel is called a squib; the primary purpose is to be a handy all-in-one for a shot. In modern, automatic weapons, it provides the energy to move the parts of the gun which make it fire repeatedly. Many weapons were designed to make use of a available cartridge, or a new one with new qualities; the cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore. A firing pin ignites it; the primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate. A jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall; these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to this pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance, down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the chamber pressure drops to atmospheric pressure.
The case, elastically expanded by chamber pressure, contracts slightly. This eases removal of the case from the chamber. To manufacture brass for cartidges, a sheet of brass is punched into disks; these disks go through a series of punches and dies and are annealed and washed before moving to the next series of dies. Making bullets involves simular type of maching as for making brass cases; the projectile can be made of anything. Lead is a material of choice because of high density, ductility; the propellant was long gunpowder, still in use, but superseded by better compositions, generically called Smokeless powder. Early primer was fine gunpowder poured into a pan or tube where it could be ignited by some external source of ignition such as a fuse or a spark. Modern primers are shock sensitive chemicals enclosed in a small capsule, ignited by percussion. In some instance ignition is electricity-primed, there may be no primer at all in such design; the case is made of brass because it is resistant to corrosion.
A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the high pressures of cartridges, allow for manipulation via extraction and ejection without tearing the metal. The neck and body portion of a brass case is annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in some military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass. Military forces consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, so the lighter steel cases do have a military advantage. Conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the increased strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck and into the chamber. Constituents of these gases condense on the chamber wall; this solid propellant residue can make extraction of fired cases difficult.
This is less of a problem for small arms of the former Warsaw Pact nations, which were designed with much larger chamber tolerances than NATO weapons. Aluminum cased; these are not reloaded as aluminum fatigues during firing and resizing. Some calibers have non-standard primer sizes to discourage reloaders from attempting to reuse these cases. Plastic cases are used in shotgun shells and some manufacturers offer polymer centerfire cartridges. Paper had been used in the earliest cartridges. Critical cartridge specifications include neck size, bullet weight and caliber, maximum pressure, overall length, case body diameter and taper, shoulder design, rim type, etc. Ever
Berthier rifle
The Berthier rifles and carbines were a family of bolt-action small arms in 8mm Lebel, used in the French Army from the 1890s to the beginning of World War II. The Berthier was introduced as a partial replacement for the French 1886 Lebel rifle; the Lebel, a revolutionary concept at the time of its introduction because of its smokeless high-velocity, small-caliber cartridge, still used a tube-fed magazine and other details carried over from black-powder designs. By 1900, the Lebel was obsolescent in comparison to newer magazine-fed rifles introduced by Mauser and Mannlicher. With its tube-fed magazine, the Lebel was long and distinctly muzzle-heavy when loaded, difficult to manufacture, was overly complex in construction. Most notably, the Lebel proved slow in reloading compared to newer rifle designs. On horseback, carbine versions of the Lebel proved impossible to reload while on the move, while shortening the barrel to carbine length resulted in feeding problems due to an unreliable tube magazine that were never resolved.
Mounted security forces, cavalry units, artillery units in colonial services were forced to use single shot Mle 1874 carbines, most not converted to fire the modern 8mm Lebel ammunition, against insurrectionist forces who were sometimes better armed than government forces. A replacement for the Lebel was required, at least for mounted troops. Named after its inventor, Emile Berthier, a French civilian engineer in the Algerian railways, the Berthier's three-shot vertical-feed Mannlicher-type en bloc magazine could be loaded by clips increasing reloading speed, a particular convenience for cavalry and other mounted troops. A spring-loaded arm fed cartridges to the breech, when all cartridges had been loaded, the empty clip fell out by gravity through an opening in the bottom of the magazine; the small 3-shot magazine capacity was adopted after field testing, where the cavalry expressed a preference for a non-protruding magazine that did not interfere with the balance or handling of the rifle.
The Berthier carbine was adopted by the French Army on March 14, 1890, a short rifle version of the Berthier rifle was adopted in 1907. French records indicate that in excess of two million Berthier rifles and carbines were manufactured by the French State manufactures supplemented by civilian industries. Like the Mdle 1886 lebel, the Berthier lacked a mechanical safety. France employed large numbers of colonial troops with limited technological experience, since colonial combat conditions in North Africa and Indochina were hard on service weapons, carrying with an empty chamber was considered superior to reliance on a mechanical safety, since a rifle with no round in the chamber could never go off, unlike a rifle whose safety was not properly engaged or had malfunctioned due to grit or wear. At the outbreak of World War I, the Model 1907 Berthier rifle was modified for mass manufacturing, resulting in the Mdle 07/15; the sights, barrel band, stacking hook were simplified to increase the rate of production.
While the original 1907 rifle incorporated a cruciform bayonet, the 07/15 was modified to take the same bayonet as the Lebel, simplifying supply. The turned-down bolt handle. During World War I, it was recognized that the Berthier's three-shot magazine was too small in comparison to foreign weapons, requiring too-frequent reloading. Additionally, it was found that trench mud and grit could enter the weapon through the opening in the bottom of the magazine. To correct these issues, the Model 1916 Berthier rifle was introduced with a five-round en-bloc clip; the clip discharge opening at the bottom of the protruding magazine was replaced by a spring loaded trapdoor to keep out dirt and debris. This improved 5-shot design was fitted to existing rifle and carbine-length Berthier models. In response to changing combat situations at the front, which had evolved from a war of maneuever into static trench warfare and frequent night raids, many Berthier rifles were fitted with sights designed for close range or night combat, using radium paint to improve visibility in poor light or darkness.
The Kingdom of Greece, fighting alongside the allies, received large number of Berthiers during the war Mle 07/15 rifles and Mle 1892 M16 carbines. Many Model 1916 rifles and carbines were produced too late to see service in World War I, but were used after the war in colonial service; the Greek Army of Asia Minor received 10,000 Berthier Mle 07/15 and Mle 1892 M16 to fight against the Turks. Czechoslovakia received large numbers of Mle 07/15 rifles after World War I; the Spanish Republic received some 20,000 Berthier 1907/15 during the Spanish Civil War. Berthier rifles and carbines continued in service during the Second World War in all branches of French service, including infantry and mounted units. Colonial and Foreign Legion forces in particular continued to use the Mdle 1916 Berthier due to a shortage of the new MAS-36 bolt-action rifle. Despite the advent of the MAS-36, the French Army did not have enough of the new rifles to equip half of its frontline interior troops. Berthier Model 1916 5-shot rifles and carbines saw action in both Norway.
After the fall of France in 1940, the Berthier could be found in service with both Vichy and Free French units. Selected Berthier Mle 1907/15-M16 rifles were fitted with telescopic sights and used, along with scoped Mle 1886/M93
Action (firearms)
In firearms terminology, an action is the mechanism of a breech-loading weapon that handles the ammunition or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all are single-shot weapons with a closed off breech. Instead, the ignition mechanism is referred to Actions can be categorized in several ways, including single action versus double action, break action versus bolt action, others; the term action can include short and magnum if it is in reference to the length of the rifle's receiver and the length of the bolt. The short action rifle can accommodate a cartridge length of 2.8 in or smaller. The long action rifle can accommodate a cartridge of 3.34 in, the magnum action rifle can accommodate cartridges of 3.6 in, or longer in length. The dropping block are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or "drops" into the receiver to open the breech actuated by an underlever. There are two principal types of dropping block: the falling block. In a tilting block or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear.
When the lever is operated, the block tilts forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are the Peabody, the Peabody–Martini, Ballard actions; the original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. Swiss gunsmith Friedrich Martini developed a pivoting block action by modifying the Peabody, that incorporated a hammerless striker, cocked by the operating lever with the same single, efficient motion that pivoted the block; the 1871 Martini–Henry which replaced the "trapdoor" Snider–Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the Victorian era, the Martini was a popular action for civilian rifles. Charles H. Ballard's self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, earned a superlative reputation among long-range "Creedmoor" target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today prized by collectors those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Schützen stocks of the day. A falling block action is a single-shot firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon and actuated by a lever.
Examples of firearms using the falling block action are the Sharps rifle and Ruger No. 1. In a rolling block action the breechblock takes the form of a part-cylinder, with a pivot pin through its axis; the operator rotates or "rolls" the block to close the breech. Rolling blocks are most associated with firearms made by Remington in the 19th century; the hinged block was the earliest metallic-cartridge breechloaders designed for general military issue began as conversions of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The upper rear portion of the barrel was filed or milled away and replaced by a hinged breechblock which opened upward to permit loading. An internal angled firing pin allowed the re-use of the rifle's existing side-hammer; the Allin action made by Springfield Arsenal in the US hinged forward. Whereas the British replaced the Snider with a dropping-block Peabody-style Martini action, the US Army felt the trapdoor action to be adequate and followed its muzzleloader conversions with the new-production Springfield Model 1873, the principal longarm of the Indian Wars and was still in service with some units in the Spanish–American War.
A break action is a type of firearm where the barrel are hinged and can be "broken open" to expose the breech. Multi-barrel break action firearms are subdivided into over-and-under or side-by-side configurations for two barrel configurations or "combination gun" when mixed rifle and shotgun barrels are used. Although bolt-action guns are associated with fixed or detachable box magazines, in fact the first general-issue military breechloader was a single-shot bolt action: the paper-cartridge Prussian needle gun of 1841. France countered in 1866 with its superior Chassepot rifle a paper-cartridge bolt action; the first metallic-cartridge bolt actions in general military service were the Berdan Type II introduced by Russia in 1870, the Mauser Model 1871, a modified Chassepot, the Gras rifle of 1874. Today most top-level smallbore match rifles are single-shot bolt actions. Single-shot bolt actions in.22 caliber were widely manufactured as inexpensive "boys' guns" in the earlier 20th century. The eccentric screw action first seen on the M1867 Werndl–Holub and on the Magnum Research Lone Eagle pistol, the breech closure is a rotating drum with the same axis, but offset from the bore.
When locked, a firing pin aligns with the primer and the breech is otherwise solid. When rotated open, a slot in the drum is exposed for feeding of a new round. Though first used on the Werndl-Holub, this action is known as a cannon breech due to its association with the French 75mm Model of 1897 cannon; the French M1897 was, based on William Hubbell's U. S. Patent 149,478; the Ferguson rifle: British Major Patrick Ferguson designed his rifle, considered to be the first military breechloader, in the 1770s. A plug-shaped breechblock was screw-threaded so that rotating the handle underneath would lower a
Canada 
Quebec: In use by the Quebec Home Guard and Papal Zouaves (Both 11mm and later 8mm Lebel Mle 1914 Gras)
Belgian Congo: 15,000 rifles bought by the Force Publique during World War I,[8] still in service with second line units during World War 2.[9]
Chile during the War of the Pacific
China[10]
Colombia: several thousands bought at the end of the 19th century. They were used during the Thousand Days' War,[11] against the Panamanian rebels[12] and various civil Colombian conflicts from the 1920s to the 1950s.[11]
Ethiopian Empire: the Gras was used by the Ethiopian Army[13][14]
France
Greece: the Gras was used by the Hellenic Army[7] as late as 1941 in the Battle of Crete
Monaco
Poland[7]
Russian Empire: due to firearm shortages in World War I, the Russian Empire received Gras rifles from France[15][16] France sent 450,000 Gras rifles to Russia.[17]
Spanish Republic[18]
Vietnam Vietnamese insurgent of the Hương Khê uprising managed to produce the copy version of Fusil Gras mle 1874. The Vietnamese version did not have rifled barrel, though.
Yemen: still used in Yemen in 2002[19]
Yugoslavia[7]
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French weapons of the 19th century
