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A needle gun (or needle rifle for varieties with rifling) is a firearm that has a needle-like firing pin, which can pass through the paper cartridge case to strike a percussion cap at the bullet base.
In 1808, in association with French gunsmith François Prélat in Paris, France, Pauly created the first fully self-contained cartridges; the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated mercury fulminate primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing. The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun became a major feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly. Pauly made an improved version which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812. The cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux in 1836.
In 1809, Pauly employed the German Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse, who later invented the famous Dreyse rifle.
The early Dreyse needle guns were smooth-bore. Later Dreyse guns adopted by the Prussian army were rifles using self-contained combustible cartridges holding oblong lead balls held in a papier-mâché "sabot".
From 1848 onwards the new weapon was gradually introduced into Prussian service. Between 1849 and 1867, The British military inspector had trial an early bolt action variants. The Dreyse rifle became widely used during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 when it played a decisive role at the Battle of Königgrätz.
The Russian Empire was modernizing its army following the defeat in the Crimean War. A part of the modernization process required the Russian infantry to be reequipped with modern breechloading rifles. The low levels of industrialization in the Russian Empire prevented Russian manufacturers from designing and mass-producing an original rifle. Instead, the Russian army tried to find a design that could be used to recycle old Muzzleloader rifles and convert them into breechloading needle guns. In 1866, the Russian army became interested in the design of Carle and Sohs. After a brief period of testing and improvement, the rifle was adopted into service in 1867. Around 213,000~215,500 Carle rifles were manufactured.
The Carle rifle recycled the Russian M1856 muzzleloading rifled musket. The old breech was replaced with Carle's bolt action mechanism. The rifle was chambered with a 15,24 mm paper cartridge - known as six-line in Russia. The rifle could fire between 8 and 12 rounds per minute.
Soon after the rifle's adoption into service, needle rifles with paper cartridges were becoming obsolete. A lot of European armies were already adopting rifles that used metal cartridges. The Carle rifle was quickly replaced by other rifles including the Krnka rifle and the Berdan rifle.
Despite its quick replacement, the Carle rifle was used by the Russian army in several military conflicts including the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 and Russian conquest of Central Asia.
In the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) it proved greatly superior to the German Dreyse needle gun, outranging it by 2 to 1.
The Chassepot used a paper cartridge, that many refer to as being 'combustible', whereas in reality it was quite the opposite. It held an round-headed cylindro-conoidal lead bullet that was wax paper patched. An inverted standard percussion cap was at the rear of the paper cartridge and hidden inside. It was fired by the Chassepot's needle (a sharply pointed firing pin) upon pressing the trigger.
The Carcano Modello 1868 needle fire rifle had very few differences from the 1860/1867 model.
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