Austrian lorenz

[Phil]

The rifles made at Tyler, Texas during the War are to this day very misunderstood, in no small part due to the abysmal treatment they receive in print. EoG and the recent book on Texas Civil War Artifacts come to mind.

[huntdaw]

Tell us more Phil. Can you give some details about the Tyler weapons? I don't know anything about them and would be interested to find out some info.

[Phil]

I've seen some good books on the topic, but unfortunately don't own any, as they all seem to be expensive! So, this is off the top of my head. I had some photocopies of the arsenal commander's letters from microfilm, but loaned those out many years ago to someone who moved way out West.

There were certainly crappy weapons produced by the Tyler Arsenal. There were some very good weapons as well. The new arms were more or less copies of existing firearms of the time, the Enfield Rifle, the Mississippi Rifle and the "Austrian Rifle" as it was termed. This last one didn't quite resemble the Lorenz. The type of rifle was stamped on the lockplate. The "Texas Rifle" and the "Hill Rifle" (named for the arsenal's commander) were cobbled together from miscellaneous new and refurbished parts, respectively. The quality of these latter two types left a lot to be desired. This is demonstrated quite effectively by the example in EoG.

The arsenal also repaired weapons, and produced other items from crates to infantry accoutrements and cartridges.

[Don Dixon]

I hate it when I make a typo. The difference between Federal .54 ammunition and Austrian ".54" bore diamter is .012 inches, not .12. Still much too large, but not as large as .12.

Craig,

13.9 mm equates to .547-8 inches, not .556 inches. The bores of Muster 1854 weapons that were not bored out to .58 caliber, and are in good condition, that I have measured with machinist's plug gauges do measure in the .547-8 inch range.

Regards,
Don Dixon

[Pete K]

A member of our unit found and original Lorenz at an estate sale for just under $600. It was issued to the 5th NJ and has all the correct inspector stampings and marks. Sometimes you find thngs in unexpected places.