Jarmann M1884
The Norwegian Jarmann M1884 was among the first bolt action repeating rifles to be adopted in the Western world. Its adoption, and subsecuent modifications, turned the Norwegian Army from a fighting force armed with single shot black powder weapons, into a force armed with modern, repeating weapons fireing smokeless ammunition. The design is unique, and the brainchild of Norwegian engineer Jacob Smith Jarmann.
Description
The Jarmann M1884 fired a 10.15mm blackpowder 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 bolthandle, 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 bolthandle.
Jacob Smitch Jarmann designed his first rifle - a breech loading rifle fireing cardboard cartrigdes - in 1838, but this was turned down by the armed forces at the time. The logic was that a rifle capable of fireing 13 shots a minute would be impossible to resupply with enought ammunition. In the 1870's he stepped down from the daily running of his workshop to work on his newly invented bolt action rifle. Accourding to the patent, it was particulary three particularities that was 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 bolts rerward motion.
- The design of the rotating bolthandle, which served to lock the bolt to the reciver 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 commitie. Their first tests was favorable, but highlighted the desirability of a repeating weapong, ie a weapon with a magazine.
Several prototypes of the rifle with magazines was 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 is the fore runner 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 considerer unusable in the field, and in the end a tubular magazine was selected for the weapon.
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. This however, is a fault commom with all firearms using a tubular magazine.
The first Jarmann designed was firmly a single shot weapon, and Jacob Smith Jarmann was reportedly at first unwilling to design a magazin 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 was graduated to a distace of 2400m, and the original issue ammunition had a muzle velocity of about 485m/s - 500m/s. At first the ammunition used paperwrapped lead bullets, but soon changed to a steel jacketed bullet.
Usage
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.
When the weapon was elected and first issued, it was considered a very good weapon by the military. It had a good rate of fire, and had less than half the spread of the Remington M1867 at 600m (46cm versus 96cm). 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.
Towards the end of their use in the armed forces, the original gunpowder cartridges was replaced by cartridges filled with smokeless powder. Despite the increase in muzzle velocity, the sights was not altered, thus radicaly 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 harpoon guns intended for the dual purpose of hunting seals and shooting rescue lines to boats in distress.
See also
External links
- Trond Wikborg's (norwegian gun collector) page on the Jarman M1884
- Page with some pictures and information on the Jarmann
- More pictures of the Jarmann
- Closeups of the Jarmann bolt assembly
References
- "Norske Militærgeværer etter 1867" by Karl Egil hanevik (ISBN 82-993143-1-3), chapter 3