What did Henry Lehmann mean

[4v50 Gary]

when he used the term, "needle gun?" He also distinguishes long range guns (buffalo hunters guns) and Winchesters (lever actions and rimfire which he had for a while - 1866), Spencer, and I know about the Dreyse Needle Gun used by the Prussian Army but what did he mean by that term? The Dreyse production was not extended to the American consumers. Could the term describe a meallic cartrige centerfire gun?

Henry Lehmann was a child when captured by the Apaches (probably Lipan clan) and remained with them until his "father" was killed. He killed the medicine man who killed and father and then fled from the Apaches. A year later, he walked into a Commanche camp and remained with them until Quannah Parker convinced him to return to the whites (whom he hated). Book is Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879. Book is a very good read and I'm going to have to go over it again more slowly and mark it up.

 

[hawg]

Maybe a copy or take off of Klein's patent that were made inn the 1850's.

 

[shootemup58]

I do believe that trapdoor Springfields were sometimes referred to as needle guns because of the long firing pin. I'm sure I have read that some where.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

I do believe that trapdoor Springfields were sometimes referred to as needle guns because of the long firing pin. I'm sure I have read that some where.

This is correct.

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

Maybe a Morse type rifle?

 

[LonesomePigeon]

I have also read somewhere that the Trapdoor Springfield was called a needle gun due to the long firing pin.

 

[PapaG]

Prussian guns with an inside primed case that had to have the base wad punctured by a "needle" firing pin to set them off. Fairly common in the late 1860s, '70s.

 

[hawg]

I've read stories about American made needle guns that predated the Trapdoor but I think they were just that, stories.