Invention of the rifle.
We shall now direct our attention to the rifle,—its invention is ascribed to Gaspard Zollner, of Vienna, towards the end of the fifteenth century.
1466.
The first society for firing with the arquebuss was founded at Bâle, in Switzerland.
Rifles at Leipsic, 1498.
In the practice of firing at a mark, at Leipsic, 1498, the greater part of the Sharpshooters or Marksmen, were armed with the Rifles.
Rifles used first for amusement.
At first, Rifle arms were used only for amusement, and sometimes for the defence of places, but very rarely as weapons of war in the field.
Rifles used in war.
Their employment in a campaign only dates from a little before the middle of the seventeenth century.