Staring at the target with a bullet hole in the distance, Jero Bonaparte felt slightly embarrassed, because the bullet from the Mauser Rear-loading Rifle almost missed the target.
Valerovsky, standing by his side, didn’t feel embarrassed at all. He imdiately applauded and flattered Jero Bonaparte, saying, "Well! Your Majesty, great shooting!"
Old Mauser and his sons, realizing what was happening, also began to applaud, praising Jero Bonaparte’s sunset red marksmanship.
"Hehe!" Jero Bonaparte felt even more embarrassed.
So, he handed a paper cartridge to Valerovsky, with a friendly smile, saying, "Minister Valvesky, why don’t you give it a try too!"
Valerovsky was taken aback for a mont, then accepted the paper cartridge and the Mauser Rear-loading Gun handed to him by Jero Bonaparte.
When Valerovsky opened the Mauser Rear-loading Gun, a wisp of white smoke drifted out of the barrel.
"Go ahead!" Jero Bonaparte said lightly, then added, "Valerovsky, I know your shooting skills, so don’t try to fool by missing the target!"
Upon hearing this, Valerovsky imdiately felt as if he had shot himself in the foot.
Why did he have to say sothing flattering earlier? Now the Emperor wouldn’t allow him to miss the target.
Seeing that he couldn’t bluff his way through, Valerovsky had no choice but to grit his teeth, load the paper cartridge into the barrel, close it, concentrate on aiming at the distant target, while thinking about how to score lower than the Emperor without missing the target.
anwhile, Jero Bonaparte folded his arms and conversed with old Mauser, "Mr. Mauser!"
"Your Majesty, what are your orders!" old Mauser inquired of Jero Bonaparte.
"Here’s the thing, Mr. Mauser, I noticed a piece of rubber at the striker of this Mauser Rifle, and I wonder, in the situation of switching to brass bullets, how would you ensure smooth extraction of brass cartridges?" Jero Bonaparte asked old Mauser, "Moreover, I don’t see an extraction chanism on your rifle!"
After a mont of silence, old Mauser responded to Jero Bonaparte, "Your Majesty, this rifle is not equipped with an extraction chanism!"
"So, this is a product entirely for paper cartridge shooting!" Jero Bonaparte inquired further of old Mauser.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" old Mauser nodded and responded to Jero Bonaparte.
"Can you tell why you didn’t follow the design ideas I gave you?" Jero Bonaparte asked old Mauser seriously.
"Your Majesty, this isn’t my father’s fault!" Paul Mauser spoke up, pleading with Jero Bonaparte, "This is all my fault!"
"Paul, I’m not trying to assign bla!" Jero Bonaparte quickly realized there was an issue with his tone and corrected himself, responding to Paul Mauser, "My question is, where did you encounter difficulties?"
Paul Mauser told Jero Bonaparte that they encountered so difficulties with the tallic cartridged ammunition.
Although tallic cartridge ammunition first appeared over 20 years ago (in the 1830s), it only truly developed in the 1850s.
It ans the whole developnt ti for tallic cartridges is only about 5 years, so there are many technical problems to be addressed.
If these issues with tallic ammunition are not addressed, even if an extraction chanism is completed now, it would require major adjustnts in the future.
Under these circumstances, it’s better to first test other performances.
Once the tallic cartridges are fully matured, then the extraction chanism can be considered.
Moreover, installing a magazine will need to wait until the extraction chanism is resolved.
"I understand!" Jero Bonaparte nodded to Paul Mauser in response.
Just then, a gunshot rang out, and Jero Bonaparte shifted his attention from the Mauser father and son to the target.
In the distance, more than 200 ters away, another small black dot appeared on the target, the black dot also positioned at the edge area of the target.
"Your Majesty!" Valerovsky put down the Mauser Rear-loading Gun in his hand, and felt a sense of relief inside.
"Not bad! Not bad!" Jero Bonaparte glanced at the sweat on Valerovsky’s forehead, hinting, "You’ve worked hard!"
"Not at all! Not at all!" Valerovsky showed a slightly embarrassed smile. That shot had indeed exhausted him imnsely; it was arguably the hardest shot of his life!
"Alright then! Wipe it, the sweat is about to drip down to your chin!" Jero Bonaparte said lightly, then took the rifle from Valerovsky’s hand.
Just when Jero Bonaparte was about to test another shot, the person sent to fetch brass bullets appeared and handed the bullets to old Mauser.
"Your Majesty, the bullets have arrived!" old Mauser handed a few brass bullets to Jero Bonaparte.
Holding the brass bullet with a diater of about 11mm in his hand (before smokeless powder was produced, bullet diaters were generally larger than after smokeless powder), Jero Bonaparte hesitated for a mont, then returned the brass bullet to Old Mauser.
"Your Majesty, aren’t you going to continue the experint?" Old Mauser looked at Jero Bonaparte with curiosity and asked.
"I’ll wait until you’ve completed the shell extraction chanism, then I’ll test it!" Jero Bonaparte replied to Old Mauser. "The current focus of the test is the rifle’s range!"
Then, Jero Bonaparte ordered Valvesky to call in the retired soldiers patrolling the industrial park.
The retired soldiers first saluted Jero Bonaparte and then asked what instructions Jero Bonaparte had for them.
Jero Bonaparte casually assigned one person and handed the Mauser Rear-loading Rifle and three paper-wrapped fixed cartridges to him.
"Now, I want you to shoot at the target from approximately 300, 400, and 500 ters!" Jero Bonaparte ordered the veteran, pointing at the distant target.
"Your Majesty, watch closely! Back then, I was also..." The veteran patted his chest and bragged to Jero Bonaparte.
After that, the veteran walked to about 300 ters away and began to open the paper-wrapped fixed cartridge, intending to pour it into the gun barrel.
"Wait a mont!" Jero Bonaparte hurriedly stopped him.
Under the veteran’s puzzled gaze, Jero Bonaparte pointed at the breech of the Mauser Rifle and said to the veteran, "This type of rifle doesn’t need the wrapped paper shell; you just need to load the whole thing into the rifle!!"
"Your Majesty, is this a rear-loading gun?" The veteran widened his eyes and asked Jero Bonaparte.
"Yes!" Jero Bonaparte nodded. "What’s wrong? Are there any difficulties?"
"No, none!" The veteran shook his head at Jero Bonaparte, then couldn’t help but remind, "Your Majesty, I’ve heard that the performance of rear-loading guns is far inferior to front-loading ones!"
"That depends on what aspect of performance you’re talking about!" Jero Bonaparte replied to the veteran with a smile, "If you’re simply evaluating power and range, currently, rear-loading guns can’t compare with front-loading ones! (The range of the Chasebo Rifle in 1866 was the sa as the Minie Gun, and its power slightly inferior to the Minie Gun)
But if you’re talking about firing rate and other aspects, rear-loading guns are far superior to front-loading guns.
Moreover, the potential of rear-loading guns is much greater than front-loading!"
"But I rember my previous officer saying he would rather die than use a rear-loading gun!" The veteran said to Jero Bonaparte once more.
Indeed, under the premise that rear-loading guns have not been tested in actual combat (Dreiser even lost face in Olomouc), the conservative forces in the military find it hard to let a Minie Rifle, which has proven itself in the Crian War, completely exit the stage!
"That’s not up to them!" Jero Bonaparte responded firmly.
Once the technology of tal fixed cartridges and Mauser Rifles is fully mature, he will implent it across the army.
No one should try to stop him!
The veteran said no more and began loading the bullet into the breech.
After a while, the sound of gunfire rang out, and Jero Bonaparte imdiately used a telescope to observe.
Through the telescope, Jero Bonaparte saw a new bullet hole appear on the target over 300 ters away from him, very close to the bullseye.
"Very good!" Jero Bonaparte patted the veteran’s shoulder, "You were indeed a skilled hand in the army!"
The veteran chuckled and then ran to the 400-ter mark for the second shot.
This shot was evidently not as good as the previous one, with the bullet hole very close to the edge of the target.
When the veteran ran to the target roughly 500 ters away, Jero Bonaparte imdiately ordered him to change the target. The veteran no longer aid at the target but at the large tree behind it, which was much easier to hit than the target.
"No problem!" The veteran raised the gun and fired again, and soon another bullet hole appeared on the tree.
"Continue!" Jero Bonaparte ordered the veteran to retreat to 600 ters, this ti with the bullet hole on the edge of the tree.
The veteran’s face showed a look of surprise, having used the Minie Gun himself, he understood that such a range was almost equal to that of the Minie Gun.
This ant that this rear-loading gun could completely replace the ecological niche of the Minie Gun, and its reloading speed was faster than the Minie Gun’s.
"Excellent!" Jero Bonaparte nodded, then said to the veteran, "You may leave!"
The veteran handed the Mauser Rear-loading Rifle to Jero Bonaparte and left. Jero Bonaparte said to Old Mauser, "Mr. Mauser, honestly, your rifle has reached the point where it can fully replace the Minie Rifle. I find it hard to believe you’ve created such a perfect piece in such a short amount of ti!"
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