thats what many dreyse rifles looks today after 150 years of hard use.
sorry no range report till now, first I was waiting for nice and dry weather to go shoot it and now its every weekend something different and problems arround. the things you get with children in the house.
he is right in the video the Dreyse with its 16,5mm groove diameter is the last of the old muskets and the Chassepot with a 11,54mm groove diameter is the next step to the modern rifle. in fact we must says the Chassepot is the great grandfather of the Mannlicher Schönauer, Mauser 71 is the grandfather and the Modell 88 is the father. The Mauser 71 was developt with the Chassepot on the table of the Mauser brothers. many things are very similar including shape and size of the action just taking the last step to a bolt cock on opening when you cock the chassepot by hand before.
of course I have an Mauser 71 hunting rifle project to go buts now in my gunmakers rack waiting for the proof house where it go for nitro proof so I can't compare the three actions here but we will see it in the future.

make some progress with my Chassepot sporting rifle project

the unloadrod is ready now and the trigger plate

the 1866 rubber seal opturator is not so outdated as you may believe. this technology is still in use with heavy artillery shooting powder bags without cases.

http://www.riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/ord/breech.htm

I think its some kind of internet myth the original Dreyse was unsafe to fire and it was common to get gas into the face. such an action would never have been put in service. what Ian shows in the video is an Beck adapted action like my own made after 1868. Beck build an rubber opturator into the action similar to the 1866 Chassepot and with an good rubber ring its perfectly gas-tight.

here you see the Chassepot and the Dreyse opturator side by side

the original action was not completly gas-tight but safe to shoot and you dont had to close the eyes before you fire it. the cone on cone was working very well and in the end the dreyse concept was the better working action especially on the long run when black powder dirt and dust build up shoot by shoot. the needle can be changed in seconds when you need tools to disasemble the Chassepot bolt. the blackpowder dirt problem is growing with smaller chambers and barrels.

the main advantage of the Chassepot was the flatter and longer trajectory of the smaller bullet fired by a higher powder charge. this was surprising anyone who was growing up with muzzle loader and killing energy of such bullets on game was surprising for them too. same effect you had 30 years later with nitro powder rifles in the 8x57 class they called kliometre rifles than.

11,15x60R Mauser case and paper patch bullet, original Chassepot cartridge and new Dreyse roundball bullet cartridge

The Mauser cartridge is practical a Chassepot with a brass case, same bullet weight and similar powder load.

the Dreyse needle

another internet myth is the sabot bullet was not shooting precise, up to 300 meters it was shooting similar or better than any rifled muzzle loader.
nonetheless an 16,0 mm roundball with an paper patch shoots best in this rifles.

this is the best target shoot on the 20. german Dreyse Championship in Sömmerda last year
http://sv-oeschingen.de/aktuelles/meisterschaften/

4 rounds on 50 meter, standing and free handed