The Australian Braedlin Albini rifle,During the 1870’s every nation conceived of some way to t

The Australian Braedlin Albini rifle,During the 1870’s every nation conceived of some way to transform their out of date muzzleloading muskets into breechloading rifles that used metal cartridges.  One of the most common muskets at the time was the 1857 British Enfield, which was shipped all around the world and copied by many nations.  Once such conversion was the Braendlin Albini rifle, conceived by the Englishman Francis Braendlin and the Italian Augusto Albini. tThe conversion was simple, with a flip up breechblock that exposed the breech to load a cartridge. The Braendlin Albini conversion was adopted by Belgium and Italy, who had large stocks of enfield muskets and enfield copies.Meanwhile in the 1870’s on the other side of the world, a very irrational panic was sweeping the British colony of Australia.  Due a combination of souring relations between Britain and Russia as well as fallacious reporting by yellow journalists, the people of Australia seemed to believe that Russia would soon invade Australia.  Journalists and newspapermen reported secret documents, orders, and reports of a Russian armada being prepared for the conquest of Australia.  Peaceful and friendly Russian naval visits to the colony only made things worse. In response to the “threat”, the government of South Australia contacted the British gunmaker Holland and Holland for 500 Braendlin Albini rifles.  Chambered in .577 Snyder, the rifles were identical to the Italian version with the exception of the Australian version using iron furniture instead of brass.  Unfortunately the rifle was very unpopular.  Fortunately the were never used, as Russian never invaded Australia.  After the “crises” most of the rifles were converted to shotguns for use in Australia’s penal colonies.  Paranoia over a possible Russian invasion would not settle down until 1889. -- source link

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