Alfred Ritter von Kropatschek ( Bielitz , January 30, 1838 – Lovran , May 2, 1911) was a general in the Austrian Army and a weapons designer of the late 19th century, who was responsible for several rifle and revolver designs in affiliation with the Steyr Mannlicher ; these weapons were used by the armed forces of the Austrian Empire and several other nations. His rifles feature a tubular magazine under the barrel similar to a Winchester rifle ; the cartridge lifter was the key to the Kropatschek design. One of his designs was sold to the French Navy , and was later adapted by the French Army in the development of the prolific Lebel rifle , which served as France 's front-line rifle from 1886 through the First World War . According to historian Roger A Pauly, some people joked that more bullets from Kropatschek-designed rifles were fired at the Austrians, than by them. Kropatschek's tubular magazine design was also adapted to the German Mauser Model 1871 rifle, resulting in the Model 71/84.
3-613: A Kropatschek is any variant of a rifle designed by Alfred von Kropatschek . Kropatschek's rifles used a tubular magazine (constructed of nickel -plated steel) of his design, of the same type used in the Japanese Murata Type 22 and the German Mauser Gewehr 1871/84 . While designed for black powder , the Kropatschek action proved to be strong enough to handle smokeless powder . The Kropatschek
6-641: The tubular magazine and the Steyr Mannlicher rifles featured a box magazine. The limiting factors of the tubular magazines were: a risk of pointed tip bullets firing the primer of the next cartridge in the tube, decrease in magazine capacity in short weapons such as carbines (shorter tubes), a shift in the rifle's point of balance as the magazine is depleted, and lack of any significant firing speed advantage in prolonged engagements over single-shot weapons (since cartridges had to be loaded one by one in contrast to magazines designed to use clips). An advantage of
9-657: Was the basis for the French Lebel M1886 . Austria-Hungary : France: Portugal: The Wassoulou Empire arms industry created functional copies of the Krophatschek rifle in the 1880s and 90s to use in their struggle against French colonial forces. Alfred von Kropatschek Kropatschek was a contemporary of Ferdinand Mannlicher in their affiliations with the Steyr munitions company, but they had competing designs. The Steyr Kropatschek rifles featured
#718281