Vetterli Mod. 1870

About the Vetterli Mod. 1870

The Vetterli Mod. 1870 was the Kingdom of Italy's first standard-issue metallic-cartridge service rifle, a single-shot bolt-action rifle adopted in 1870. Derived from Johann-Friedrich Vetterli's Swiss design but simplified for economy, the Italian version dispensed with the Swiss tubular magazine and was chambered for the centerfire 10.35x47mmR (10.35mm Vetterli) black-powder cartridge rather than the Swiss rimfire round. Its turn-bolt action used rear-mounted locking lugs and a coil-spring firing pin. The Mod. 1870 served as the basis for the later four-round Vetterli-Vitali Mod. 1870/87 repeater conversion that replaced it as the frontline rifle.

Adopted just as Italy completed its unification, the Mod. 1870 gave the young Kingdom a modern breech-loading service rifle of its own pattern. Most surviving single-shots were swept up in the 1887 Vitali conversion program, so unconverted original Mod. 1870s are comparatively scarce today.

Vetterli Mod. 1870 specifications

The Italian Vetterli differs from the Swiss Vetterli chiefly in its centerfire (rather than rimfire) cartridge and the deletion of the Swiss tube magazine, leaving the Mod. 1870 a true single-shot. From 1887 most were converted to repeaters with Giuseppe Vitali's internal box magazine.