This is the rifle than started it all, found at a tag sale one humid summer day in the early 1980's, before this rifle I had the typical .22's and shotguns for hunting yummy wild critters. The car coasted to the side of the road with the temp gauge in the red.....again....while I was waiting for the radiator to cool enough to fill it I noticed a small tag sale just down the road and having nothing better to do I went over to take a look. I almost missed it, the long, dark shape leaning in the shadow of a tree, covered with dust, and a little tag asking $60. I didn't know what it was, but after some dickering the price fell to $50, and I took it home. What I eventually found out was that it is a model 1869/71 Swiss Vetterli, it fired a .41 rimfire cartridge that hasn't been available since 1940. It's got a spotless bore, matching serial numbers, it's never been refinished, and has spent most of the last 30 years in storage. The Vetterli was the first magazine fed bolt rifle to be adopted by a military power, in 1869 it was the most modern infantry rifle in the world, the rifle that set off an arms race, a few years later it was outdated, and replaced in 1889. Most were sold by the Swiss in the 1890's, outfits like Bannerman Arms bought them and then tried to sell them for less than ten bucks, or at times less than five bucks for the next 40 years, but with cheap milsurp ammo nonexistent, and commercial ammo expensive, they were not big sellers. Most were never fired by their owners, the few that were tended to be the sporterized "carbines" some company's offered along with a small pack of ammo to people going west who needed a cheap firearm. Through luck, and some help from someone here on the forum who knows who he is
I now have three of these unaltered 69/71 Vetterlis, all three matching and with spotless bores, I am having one of the bolts from my three sporterized Vetterlis altered to centerfire so these rifles can be fired again. The Vetterli is a big, and heavy rifle, barrel is 33" long, the rifles weighs more than 10 pounds empty, the craftsmanship is second to none, Swiss perfect fit and finish, these rifles have three separate stampings on each part, serial number, or last two digits of it, model number ( in this case 69) and the Federal acceptance stamp. This rifle was used by members of the Swiss army stationed in Canton Luzem Switzerland, and was manufactured by Sig in 1869-70.
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
