The demand for the rifles was much greater than what the Austrian state arsenals could produce, so much of the production was done by private manufacturers.

[3] Despite its superiority to the Augustin, the Lorenz suffered from slow delivery and was sometimes used ineffectively due to prevailing conservatism in tactics and training.

[4] The Lorenz rifle was a percussion-type muzzleloader, and as such was similar in design to the British Pattern 1853 Enfield and the American Springfield Model 1861 rifle-muskets.

This later variant was the main Austrian weapon during the Austro-Prussian War, where the Prussian Dreyse needle gun generally outclassed them.

Confederate-bought Lorenz rifles saw heavy use in the Army of Mississippi in 1863–64, with many of them being issued to re-equip regiments captured at the siege of Vicksburg and later exchanged.

Some were considered to be of the finest quality (particularly ones from the Vienna Arsenal), and were sometimes praised as being superior to the Enfield; others, especially those in later purchases from private contractors, were described as horrible in both design and condition.

A fair number of Lorenz rifles had also been used in the 1859 conflict with France and were worn and not in pristine condition when they reached the United States.

Although Austrian army manuals described proper usage and maintenance of Lorenz rifles, none of them were translated into English.

The Lorenz rifle was produced in three different variants, designed for short, medium, and long range combat.

A large number of Lorenz rifles purchased by the Union during the Civil War had their barrels bored to .58 caliber so that they could fire the same ammunition as the Enfield and Springfield rifle-muskets.