French 75 pics...

[Victor3]

 Don't know if this link has been posted here before...

http://www.figuren-modellbau.de/canon-75mm-MLE-1897.html

[cannonmn]

Thanks, nice pictures!  I have a couple of models of the gun mech, old ones.  I think one is the original patent model for the "eccentric breech mechanism."  The other one is a machinist's hobby gun chambered in .45-70, not realistic except for the breech.  I'll get some pix and post 'em later.

[cannonmn]

Here's a fairly precise drawing of the Hubbell patent for this concept, and it looks just like the model I have:

http://books.google.com/books?id=rXYDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=william+wheeler+hubbell+patent+april+7,+1874&source=bl&ots=67Ib8I7fYA&sig=VU45o0_ibMdykbD2-iOS0os_hHg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA31-IA12,M1

[cannonmn]

Some pix of the model.  I've had it for about 15 years and just found the info on it in the Googlebook today.  I was motivated to do that by this posting of the pic of the 75MM M1897, a very historic piece of ordnance.  The model does have the first eccentric breech I know of.  It was operated a bit differently from the French gun in that there was a crank with a high gear ratio which turned the breechblock, which had an external cog as you can see.  The French 75 had no gearing, therefore it was very fast in action, flip the handle about 180 degrees in a clockwise circle and it was open, the empty case ejected.  I never knew anything about Hubbell but he must have been kind of a national expert in ordnance to have been inviited to testify before the Congressional hearings.

[Victor3]

 Cool. I didn't know how the breech mechanism of the 75 worked 'till now 

 Something similar would be fairly simple to machine for use in a blank-firing model if you didn't have to have the ejecting feature and just popped the shell out from the front.

[cannonmn]

That's kinda what my other "eccentric breech" model is.  I'll take some photos hopefully today.  As i mentioned I think it is chambered for .45-70.  It is old but no idea who made it, no marks as usual with the craftsman-made items.