M1821/41/51 Kongsberg jäger rifle
M1821/41/51 Kongsberg jäger rifle
The first long-gun produced at Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk was to be a jäger rifle, very much like the Danish produced M1803 and fitted for the M1801 hirschfänger bayonet. This rifle is extremely scarce in flintlock and there probably only exist a total of two original of them – and those might even be from the rejects. One interesting thing about the flintlock version – the flash-pan is moulded in brass. The percussion version is also fairly scarce, there were only produced a total of some 800 of the rifle, but 500 were rejected due to poor quality. Many of these are to be found in the Kristiansand area where they were bought as “Citizen armament” – borgerbevæpning.
All Norwegian jäger rifles in fairly good condition were converted to percussion in 1841 and in 1851 they were converted to pillar breech rifles in order to enable faster loading and use of pointed bullets. They were also fitted with a new rear sight, a new bayonet and a new ramrod.
The hirschfänger bayonet was probably only used a few years and rifle was used without bayonet until 1851, when it was fitted with the bayonet on the picture. The rifle still shows signs on the lefthand side of the stock after the attachment for the hirschfänger bayonet.
The “new” M1851 bayonet was attached to the right hand side of the stock. The M1801 hirschfänger as bayonet is extremely scarce, the M1851 is also difficult getting hold of, but not all that impossible.
