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Johann Nicholas Von DreyseJohann Nicholas von Dreyse (1787 - 1867) is most famous for producing in 1836 the "Needle Gun" thought of by some to be the first bolt-action rifle. It was eventually adopted by the Prussian army for service in 1841 as the Dreyse Zundadelgewehr, or Prussian Model 1849. In reality, this rifle bears very little semblance to modern bolt-action rifles, but was distinct for its time. As far as its use in the Franco-Prussian War, it seems that it may have been possible, but the war with the french began in 1870 (a full 21 years after the gun was adopted by the Prussian army, and almost 30 years after the gun was initially designed), and ended in 1871, it seems at best dubious. By this time, many other designs of bolt action rifles had emerged, and many countries had standardized on their own versions (the British notably had a contest with over a hundred different prototype weapons). There remains some ambiguity about the activities of von Dreyse after he created his needle-gun, as he seems to have dropped the "Johann" part of his name and simply gone around as Nicholas von Dreyse. The reasons for this are unknown, and make research on the subject difficult. The "name difficulty" is further compounded by various germanized spellings of Nicholas, including Nikolaus and others.
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