Swiss 41 Rimfire

The 1878 Vetterli was a modified version of the 1871 and came in both Rifle and Sharpshooter versions. The easiest way to spot the difference is that the Sharpshooter has a double set trigger. The 1878 is different from the 1871 as it has a Rear sight that has been graduated to 1200 meters while the 1871 was only 1000 meters. Your rifle was made by either SIG, Neuhausen or Bern, you can find the name of the manufacture on the left hand side of the receiver above the serial number. One of the great things about the Vetterli over many other designs of it's day was the 11 round capacity backed up with a side loading gate allowing the soldier to top off the magazine as needed. Remember, during that time the US was still shooting Trapdoor Springfield's.

Your Vetterli is chambered in the 10.4X38R, or what has been known in the US as the 41 Swiss, it is very unusual as very few military cartridges were of rimfire construction. There are 2 different versions of this brass as there is the original military rimfire as well as a centerfire case used in Europe, if you are able to find ammo you need to make sure that it is the rimfire version. Both the rifle and cartridge were discontinued from military use in 1889, however it was very popular in the US and most companies provided loadings till 1942. In it's original black powder load it used a 334gr lead bullet at 1345 FPS, the later smokeless loading increased the velocity to 1427 FPS. Hopefully this helps.