The joy of surviving

[JHart]

The caption says 1917-1918, but it is more like 1817-1818 as he has a flintlock rifle on his shoulder

[Legbreaker]

That's quite possible. "Repeating" rifles had only been around as standard issue for a short period at the time of the Great War. Flintlocks, while completely unsuited to the "modern" battlefield, would probably have still been quite common in civilian hands.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by JHart

The caption says 1917-1918, but it is more like 1817-1818 as he has a flintlock rifle on his shoulder

To me, it looks like a wooden equivalent of a "rubber ducky."

[Targan]

Originally Posted by JHart

The caption says 1917-1918, but it is more like 1817-1818 as he has a flintlock rifle on his shoulder

Photography hadn't been invented in 1818. According to Wikipedia "Louis Daguerre took the first ever photo of a person in 1839 when, while taking a daguerreotype (early type of photograph) of a Paris street, a pedestrian stopped for a shoe shine, long enough to be captured by the long exposure (several minutes)".

[Ironside]

I have to say the gun looks more like a percussion lock than flintlock.

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Targan

Photography hadn't been invented in 1818. According to Wikipedia "Louis Daguerre took the first ever photo of a person in 1839 when, while taking a daguerreotype (early type of photograph) of a Paris street, a pedestrian stopped for a shoe shine, long enough to be captured by the long exposure (several minutes)".

The Force is strong in this one......(google fu)

[Cdnwolf]

Originally Posted by General Pain

The Force is strong in this one......(google fu)

(He means... someone needs a life.)

I was thinking that during the crisis of WWI when the Brewster Body Shield was developed... they used various weapons to test AGAINST the armor and maybe one of them was an old flintlock rifle.

[headquarters]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

(He means... someone needs a life.)

I was thinking that during the crisis of WWI when the Brewster Body Shield was developed... they used various weapons to test AGAINST the armor and maybe one of them was an old flintlock rifle.

using a rifle with a variable powder amount like a muzzle loader might the way they did it to simulate various ranges,projectiles/shrapnel and so on .

The practice of selling armour with a dent in it from the testfiring of a musket on it was apparently common in old times.Maybe not in 1917 ...

a link to the modest armour section on our site

http://thebigbookofwar.50megs.com/DOX/Armor/

I should do some work on body armour from 1885 - 1940 soon - after smokeless powder was introduced but before modern ballistic materials were used widely . But alas life is what happens while you are planning other things .

The GrabenSchutz, Brewster armour ,Soviet Assault Engineer armour and the 1930s Japanese battle armour -and others -should all have their own docs I guess .

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

(He means... someone needs a life.)

Gee thanks. Was I wrong?

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

Its possibly a Springfield trapdoor conversion. Look just below the lock, see the lever. That might just be the lever that releases the trapdoor for loading.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Cpl. Kalkwarf

Its possibly a Springfield trapdoor conversion. Look just below the lock, see the lever. That might just be the lever that releases the trapdoor for loading.

I agree, from this site http://www.schiferli.net/Springfield%20Trapdoor.htm the last of the 'trapdoor Springfields' were made in 1893. That's only 24 years before the date in the picture.
I'd say that most of the bolt-action military rifles were likely to have been unavailable for a private company to use for research purposes and it's worth noting that apparently the last of the trapdoor rifles were chambered for .45-70 which would have had a decent amount of energy for testing purposes against the armour