Russo-Turkish War of Liberation 1877-1878

Chapter Three - Small arms of the warring states - Russia

"Baranov"

The re-armament of the Russian army on the eve of the war turned out to be an extremely complex issue. On one hand, the sad experience of the Crimean War had demonstrated that the front-cartridge firearms were entirely out of date and its further use could lead to new military defeats. On the other hand, the emerging quick-firing rifles did not enjoy the complete acceptance of the senior military commanding staff as well as of the Weaponry Commission leadership. Moreover, the economic aspects of the rearmament began to have a more decisive influence on the final decisions of the military establishment.1

Under those circumstances, the arms specialists sought to bring their projects in line with the requirements of the new period and of the military establishment. Newly proposed systems were tested literally every day. Six different systems of bolt rifles – four “re-made” and two completely new – were accepted for armament within a period of four years only

One of the rifles proposed in 1865 as remodeling of morally outdated front-cartridge systems was constructed by Nikolai Mihailovich Baranov, lieutenant from the Russian navy. He was director of the Sea Museum in Petersburg at that time. Baranov started constructing hi model as early as 1854, when he was 18-year old.

The constructor's idea was to cut off the rear parts of the barrels of the front-cartridge rifles and to fix a breech-bolt swinging onwards and upwards. There was a firing pin inside the bolt clutched with a spring. The mallet was to have a new form curved to the left. Four channels were cut through the barrel. The gun-stock, the sight device and the trigger mechanism remained unchanged.

The Baranov rifle had a number of good qualities, which were highly valued by the members of the Weaponry Commission. The simple construction, the high reliability and the relatively quick firing, i.e. 9-10 shootings in a minute, were highly assessed. For that period, this rifle fell into the category of quick-firing arms. The rifle also had some considerable drawbacks alongside its good qualities. These were mainly the difficult cleaning of the barrel and the cartridge chamber, the difficult extraction of the cartridge case, and others. During the tests it came out that when declining the rifle at 40-45 degrees, the breech-bolt would fall backwards under its own weight, which made re-charging quite difficult.2

Despite its drawbacks, the Baranov rifle was accepted for the armament. The remaking of the first 10,000 pieces was commissioned to the Putilov factories at the cost of 7.50 rubles.

Baranov constructed his rifle on the basis of the bullet made by T.F. Gan, lieutenant colonel. The bullet was of 15, 24 mm caliber and had a red-copper cartridge case. The bullet of colonel Veltishtev was used inside. The copper had to be replaced with red brass. The production was commissioned to the navy workshops.

The Baranov rifles were used mainly in the Russian navy. Sailors on ships traveling in the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean were the first to be armed.3

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