M1807/41/51 Russian Jäger rifle
Russisk jegerrifle M1807/41/51
Just about all arms for the Norwegian armed forces came through or from Denmark throughout the 1700′s.
In 1807 The English Navy was on a friendly visit to Copenhagen and suddenly bombed the city, raided Danish armouries and took off with 33 of the Danish Navy ships. No war declaration, just a friendly visit turned into plain, simple and completely unexpected robbery! No wonder the Danes were pissed off and joined up with Napoleon.
Parts of The English fleet stayed on the Swedish west coast in order to block transports between Denmark and Norway, so getting arms to Norway was difficult. War was about to become a reality, but the Norwegian army lacked guns and gun powder. Through the Danish Consul in St. Petersburg it was arranged for supplies to be shipped to Norway over Arkangels. In this shipment were three hundred of the “Russisk Jegerrifle M1807″ that arrived in Norway in 1808.
In April 1808 the Swedes tried invading Norway from three places and were (as usual) thrown out even if the Norwegian army was outnumbered. The M1807 was kept on as a Norwegian rifle, converted to percussion in 1841 and rebuilt to a pillar breech rifle with new ramrod and the “new” bayonet in 1851.
