Experimental Rifle Špitálský 1882

Exhibit of the Month 3 / 2019

Experimental Rifle Špitálský 1882

At the end of the 1870s, a number of new modern designs of repeating rifles emerged, driven by the desire to increase the rate of fire. Designers aimed to achieve this through various additional feeding devices or by directly integrating different systems of repeating mechanisms.

Among the group of well-known Austro-Hungarian designers, such as Alfréd Kropatschek, Josef Schulhof, and Franz Fortelka, the name of the Czech gunsmith Anton (Antonín) Špitálský (*1831 – +1909) also appears, who later served as the technical director of the armory in Steyr (German: Steyr) from 1889 to 1896. Špitálský worked as a workshop master in the factory of Josef Werndl, a well-known founder of the Styrian armory (Oesterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft, now Steyr Mannlicher). Together with Karel Holub, he contributed to the improvement of Werndl's rifle and later worked on his own design of a repeater with a spool magazine.

For the development of his weapon, Špitálský utilized the French rifle Gras M 1866/74, which was manufactured under license in Steyr. He subsequently supplemented it with a feeding device in the form of a spool housed in a compartment beneath the weapon's bolt. He obtained a patent for his design in March 1879, and although he continued to work on its development for the next three years, he was unable to have it adopted into the armament of the Austro-Hungarian army.

A rare well-preserved example of this experimental rifle with serial number 17 is also located in the collection of the Regional Museum and Gallery in Most. Aside from the functional cut of the weapon's mechanism, which is owned by the Military Historical Institute, this is the only documented rifle of this system in the Czech Republic.