Jarmann M1884

Jarmann M28 harpoon gun
Jarmann M28 harpoon gun
	File:M28 photo (1930).jpg The M28 was delivered in a custom crate loaded with supplies
Type	bolt action harpoon gun
Specifications
Mass	5.3 kg (11.7 lb) empty, 7.7 kg (17 lbs)with harpoon
Length	1.06 m (42 in)

Jarmann M1884
Jarmann M1884
	Cross section of the M1884
Type	bolt action repeating rifle
Specifications
Mass	4.5 kg (10 lb)
Length	Unknown

A Jarmann M1894 manufactured in Sweden

The Norwegian Jarmann M1884 was among the first bolt action repeating rifles to be adopted in the Western world. Its adoption, and subsequent modifications, turned the Norwegian Army from a fighting force armed with single-shot black powder weapons into a force armed with modern repeating weapons firing smokeless ammunition. Several thousands was manufactured to equip both Norwegian and Swedish forces in the 1880s. The design is unique, and the brainchild of Norwegian engineer Jacob Smith Jarmann. After the design had been phased out of the Norwegian Army, a number of the weapons was rebuilt as harpoon guns.

Description

The Jarmann M1884 fired a 10.15 mm black powder cartridge in an 8-round, tubular magazine in which the rounds were lined up in a tube below the barrel. It has a non-rotating bolt (the part of the action that seals the rear end of the barrel) locked by a rotating bolt handle, and reputedly a smooth action. However, this action is not considered strong enough to fire modern ammunition, since the only locking is provided by the rotating bolt handle.

Jacob Smitch Jarmann designed his first rifle—a breech-loading rifle firing cardboard cartridges—in 1838, but this was turned down by the armed forces at the time. The logic was that a rifle capable of firing 13 shots a minute would be impossible to resupply with enough ammunition. In the 1870s, he stepped down from the daily running of his workshop to work on his newly invented bolt-action rifle. According to the patent, three particulars were considered new and unique with the action he had developed:

The extractor, which not only pulled the spent round out of the breech, but also served to limit the bolt's rearward motion.
The design of the rotating bolt handle, which served to lock the bolt to the receiver in the forward position.
The way the extractor was secured to the body of the bolt.

The design was first tested by a joint Norwegian-Swedish rifle committee. Their first tests were favorable but highlighted the desirability of a repeating weapon, that is, a weapon with a magazine.

Several magazine-fed prototype rifles were built—Ole Herman Johannes Krag, the designer of the Krag-Petersson and the Krag-Jørgensen repeating rifles, designed two different magazines for the Jarmann rifle: one virtually identical to the magazine used on the Krag-Petersson, one which was the forerunner for the magazine he used on the Krag-Jørgensen. Jacob Smith Jarmann himself also made several prototypes, mainly with tubular magazines under the barrel or detachable magazines mounted sideways over the bolt. The later was considered unusable in the field, and in the end a tubular magazine was selected for the weapon. The magazine is similar to the Kropatschek [1] tubular magazine and might be inspired by it.

Despite being a trailblazer with its then-pioneering design, the Jarmann M1884 cannot be considered successful. The combination of tubular magazine and centerfire ammunition has been referred to as too excitable, especially when used with pointed bullets. Also, the balance of the weapon changed with every shot fired. However, both of these issues are common with all firearms using tubular magazines.

The first Jarmann design was firmly a single-shot weapon, and Jacob Smith Jarmann was reportedly at first unwilling to design a magazine for it. This may explain why the magazine and bolt do not always work well together.

The sights on the Jarmann M1884 as first issued were graduated to a distance of 2400 m, and the original issue ammunition had a muzzle velocity of about 485 m/s to 500 m/s. At first the ammunition used paper-wrapped lead bullets but soon changed to a steel jacketed bullet.

Ammunition

File:Compare 10.15x61R.jpg

Blackpowder, paper-wrapped lead bullet on the top. Smokeless powder and full metal jacket on the bottom.

The aforementioned Norwegian-Swedish committee also designed the 10.15 x 61R cartridge that various prototypes and also the service weapon were chambered for. Originally a black powder round with a paper-wrapped lead bullet, it was later loaded with smokeless powder and a full metal jacket bullet. More than 5 million cartridges was manufactured for the M1884, in addition to several thousand speciality cartriges. The following different variations on the 10.15 x 61R cartridge has been identified:

10.15 Ball, rounded tip, lead bullet wrapped in paper, black powder (possible just used for tests)
10.15 Ball, flat tip, lead bullet wrapped in paper, black powder
10.15 Ball, flat tip, full metal jacket, smokeless powder
10.15 Gallery, round lead bullet (for use indoor / short rangers)
10.15 Gallery, same as above but with a ring crimped around the neck of the case
10.15 Blank, unpainted wooden 'bullet', smooth case
10.15 Blank, same as above but with six long ridges pressed into the case
10.15 Blank, same as above but with six long ans six short ridges pressed into the case
10.15 Dummy, red wooden 'bullet' going all the way to the bottom of the case, six long ans six short ridges pressed into the case and two rings crimped around the neck of the case.
10.15 Dummy, as above but with just the six long ridges and rings around the neck.
10.15 Dummy, as above but with brown wooden 'bullet' and two rings crimped around the neck of the case (tests only).
10.15 Harpoon round, a blank round crimped shut, used only in the M28 harpoon gun.
10.15 Harpoon round, as above but closed with a crimped lid.

Accurancy

The Jarmann rifle was a remarable accurate rifle for it's time. The 10.15 mm bullet was fully enfilading all the way out to 438 meters (1,430 ft) (the path of the bullet did pass thru a man sized target to this distance, meaning the shooter would not have to adjust his aim to hit the enemy), and at a range of 600 meters (1,970 ft) it did not spread more than 61 centimeters (2 ft). This compared very favorable to the Remington M1867, which was enfilading out to 300 meters (1,000 ft) and had a spread at 600 meters of 96 cm (3 ft).

Service

Despite the problems with the weapon, no less than 30,000 were manufactured for the Norwegian armed forces in the decade between its adoption in 1884 and the adoption of the Krag-Jørgensen in 1894. A further 1,500 were manufactured for the Swedish navy in the same period. In Norwegian service, it replaced the Remington M1867 and the last few kammerladers still in use.

When the weapon was elected and first issued, the military considered it a very good weapon. It had a good rate of fire and had less than half the spread of the Remington M1867 at 600 m (46 versus 96 cm). It was, however, eclipsed by the radical development of firearms at the time. Within a decade it was phased out and replaced by the Krag-Jørgensen rifle. Even if it was phased out, several units in the second line was issued the weapon in 1905, when war was considered imminent between Norway and Sweden.

Towards the end of their use in the armed forces, the original gunpowder cartridges were replaced by cartridges filled with smokeless powder. Despite the increase in muzzle velocity, the sights were not altered, thus radically decreasing the accuracy of the rifle.

Jarmann M1884s in their original condition are now extremely rare. During the 1930s, the surplus was either sold to civilians or rebuilt into M28 harpoon guns. It is reported that the Germans melted down the last remaining Jarmann rifles in military warehouses during the Nazi occupation, since they were "too obsolete to be of interest, too modern to have lying around"[2].

M28 Harpoon gun

Between the war, several gunsmiths attemted to create harpoon guns, intended for the dual purpose of hunting seals and shooting rescue lines to boats in distress. Seeing a ready market, and having several thousand Jarmann in storage, Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk designed a harpoon gun was refered to as M28. As part of the rebuild, the magasine was removed, the handguard and barrel shortened and the repeating mechanism removed. In addition a heavy rubber shoulderpad was added to reduce the recoil, which must have been considerable. A box could be mounted under the handguard containing up to 300 meter (1000 ft) of thin rope. Kongsberg manufactured the M28 harpoon gun until 1952, when they started using the Mauser mechanism in a new harpoon gun called M52. The sources indicate that around 1,911 Jarmann rifles was modified to M28s, about half of them after World War 2.

Special rounds for launching harpoons was manufactured until the mid 1970s, and the M28 could still be used for shooting the ordinary 10.15 x 61R cartridge.

Photographs of the M28 and the harpoon can be seen here, here and here. There is a photograph of two rather corroded rounds for the M28 here.

External links

References

Hanevik, Karl Egil (1998). Norske Militærgeværer etter 1867. Hanevik Våpen. ISBN 82-993143-1-3. Chapter 3