Monkey-Tail rifle

[Fabian23]

Along the lines of capping breechloaders such as the kammerlader, I present the monkey tail rifle by Westley Richards.



This was issued in Portugal in short rifle and carbine form and also used my the British cavalry.

The breech has a "tail" which is lifted to access the breech to push a paper cartridge in.  The cartridge is flammable paper with bullet and powder, the rear of the cartridge has a thick waxed wad.



When fired, the waxed wad is pushed against a mobile breechface on a rail of the "tail" which is forced into a cam slot under the "tail", locking the tail in place.  The waxed wad expands, sealing the breech.  As scary as it seems, the breech effectively shuts during firing.  Once fired, the tail is lifted which slides the mobile breechface forward out of its cam slot.

[Fabian23]

As a non-technical person my exlaination is that the plunger/bolt (e and d) can slide backwards and forwards on a rail under the top cover/lever (c). When you lift the lever to open the action they are drawn slightly forward and can lift up. When the gun fires they are pushed straight back and the inclined planes engage so that they cannot lift.


The first attempts I used a slightly too grade of powder and a slightly too small waxed wad, resulting in some soot shooting back from the breech (and up my nose :-|) .  I now have sorted the powder and have some tight fitting wads so things should be ok.

[Øyvind F.]

Interesting rifle. What's the calibre and how's the accuracy?

[Fabian23]

Accuracy I have not yet tested since I still have sealing problems.

Caliber is 0.468, rifling is 7 groove whitworth.

[J-K]

Hello Fabian23,

That is a beautiful example of a monkey-tail! And thank you for the description on how it works. A very unique weapon, and one hard to find in that good of condition.

John

[Fabian23]

I had a go tonight with a reduced load and a bigger waxed wad. This sealed properly so that is one problem solved. Accuracy was poor though :-(

I am using an original profile bullet.  Tests made by friend with the same mould and rifle also had little success up close, but did at long range indicating that the bullet needs a certain distance to stabilise.  I may switch to a different smaller lighter bullet for 50-100m.

[afmelo]

Hello,
I am a new user from Portugal, hoping this group is still alive!.
I have a Westley Richards monkeyu tail "caçadores" carbine from 1867 and monkey tail pistols from the lot of 1000 purchased by Portugal on 1867 as well.
I like to shoot them as they are one of the most interesting guns to shoot from this period! The felt wad to seal the breech must be  around 12mm diameter and at least 5mm deep well lubricated. Otherwise sealing may be a problkem!
All the best
Antonio Melo