Tabatière rifle

French Tabatière carbine, 1867.

French Garde Mobile soldier with Tabatière rifle, 1870.

The Tabatière rifle was a breech-loading rifle of the French Army.

The Tabatière system was developed from 1864 as a way to convert numerous muzzle-loading weapons (usually Minié rifles) into breech-loading ones, in a process similar to that of the Snider-Enfield in Great Britain, Wänzl rifle in Austria, and the Springfield Model 1866 in the United States. The name "Tabatière" comes from the fact that the breech-loading mechanism looked like a snuff box.[1]

French Tabatière mechanism, 1867.

Most of the conversion work had been accomplished by the time of the Franco-Prussian War.[1] By July 1870, roughly 358,000 rifles had been converted, while 1.4 million muzzleloaders stayed in their original configuration.[2]

The ammunition was a center fire cartridge closely resembling a shortened 12 gauge shotgun shell. This weapon system was recognized as ballistically inferior to the Chassepot rifle, therefore it was used by second line troops and in defensive roles.[1]

These are commonly encountered today as "Zulu Guns", after rifles were converted into shotguns and sold cheaply in the late 1800s.

Models

• Tabatière rifle model 1867.[3]

Users

•  Argentina: Acquired small amounts during the Paraguayan war.[4] A number were imported from Germany and France by Buenos Aires in 1/6/1800 along with 500.000 cartridges. Those rifles were shipped without bayonets, and were adapted to use old muzzleloader bayonets.[5]
•  France

Conflicts

• Paraguayan War[4] (limited use)
• Argentine Civil Wars[5]
• Franco-Prussian War

Notes

1. Stephen Shann French Army 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War (2), p. 38
2. "Namslauer Stadtblatt. Zeitschrift für Tagesgeschichte" (PDF). bibliotekacyfrowa.pl (in German). Retrieved 18 April 2023.
3. Stephen Shann French Army 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War (2), p. 45
4. Esposito, Gabriele, The Paraguayan War 1864–70: Osprey Publishing (2019)
5. "Unidades y armas durante el sitio de Buenos Aires de 1880" (PDF).

Preceded by Minié rifle

French Army rifle 1864–1870

Succeeded by Chassepot