M1807 Infantry musket


There is strangely little in writeng about this M1807 infantry rifle with the Kyhl flintlock, both in Denmark and in Norway. As far as I have seen, neither Th. Møller nor his successor has mentioned it at all, neither have I found it in Hærmuseets årbøker.

The M1807 is really more or less identical to the M1794, with the exception of it having the Kyhl’s flintlock instead of the more conventional lock with the hammer on the outside of the lock plate, a different side-plate and another angle of the butt-plate. The M1807 just seems to have replaced the M1794 “in running production” and due to the English blockade, few of these ever came to Norway.

In 1808 it was decided that a number of the M1794′s should have the barrel shortened to 89 cm and the front sight and bayonet stud moved. Why the Danes then continued producing of the M1807 in full length when they at the same time were shortening down the M1774 beats me. It would have been a lot less expensive producing shortened versions than shortening existing ones. The M1811 is a further simplified version of the M1807.

M1807kyhlinfantl_sThe picture shows from the top the M1807 Kyhl flintlock, a rather sorrowful looking M1794 in M1794/1841 percussion conversion and a conventional “old style” flintlock (M1774).

There are Norwegian percussion conversions of both the M1807 jäger rifle and the musket, but they are few and far between. They do, however, prove that both these long-guns were in use in Norway, even if it probably was in very limited numbers.