Kropatschek rifle

Kropatschek is the name given to any variant of a rifle designed by Alfred von Kropatschek, whose tubular magazine, built of nickel-plated steel, gave the family its character. The same type of magazine was used in the Japanese Murata Type 22 and the German Mauser Gewehr 1871/84. The action was made for black powder yet proved strong enough for smokeless powder. The French Lebel Model 1886 was a modified Kropatschek, and the French Navy adopted the rifle in 1878 as an 11 mm navy rifle with a seven-round tubular magazine. Austria-Hungary, France and Portugal each fielded their own variants, including an 8 mm Portuguese infantry rifle of 1886. Buyers included Russia, which bought 150,000 in 1915, and Chile, Brazil and Spain. Soviet stocks were shipped to Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, and Portugal kept the rifle with colonial troops until 1961.