Vienna
After the Holstad Factory's new rifle passed its field trials, it entered the shortlist for adoption by the Austrian army and was named the Steyr M1852 Rifle.
This seemed to be a European habit: designers always liked naming the weapons they designed after themselves.
These were minor matters. Franz had no interest in getting to the bottom of them. Entering the army's list of candidate equipment did not mean it could be fielded on a large scale.
Breech-loading rifles had existed for over thirty years. The earliest was the Americans' Hall M1819 Rifle, but unfortunately, after 45.7 meters, its bullets would drift to the left.
Then came Prussia's Dreyse M1841 Rifle. The Prussian army had already begun issuing it, but many generals objected to it. Clearly, its performance had yet to win over the public.
This rifle truly shone in the Prusso-Danish War of 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War. Of course, its advantage over muzzle-loading guns was nowhere near as miraculous as later generations boasted.
That much could be seen from the fact that the Prussian army had not adopted it across the board.
Although its rate of fire was four or five times that of a muzzle-loader, its firing pin was prone to damage. When the M1841 was first industrially produced, some mocked it: "Don't go to war without spare firing pins."
Its breech also frequently leaked gas. The escaping gas could easily interfere with shooting; in serious cases, it could burn the skin, and with bad luck, it might blind the rifleman.
Later, production techniques improved, and its performance gradually stabilized. Only then did the Dreyse M1841 Rifle begin to shine.
Franz had encountered quite a few similar rifles. Many performed excellently in the laboratory, yet fell apart once put into mass industrial production.
Either the cost