The first gun produced at Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk was a jäger rifle, very much like the Danish produced M1803 and fitted for the M1801 hirschfänger bayonet. This rifle is extremely scarce in flintlock and there probably only exist a total of two original flintlock guns. One interesting thing about the flintlock version – the flash-pan is moulded in brass. The percussion version is also fairly scarce, there were only produced a total of some 300 of the rifle.
All Norwegian jäger rifles in fairly good condition were converted to percussion in 1841 and in 1851 they were converted to pillar breech rifles in order to enable faster loading and use of pointed bullets. They were also fitted with a new rear sight, a new bayonet and a new ramrod. |