The Swiss Vetterli rifles combined the American Winchester Model 1866's tubular magazine with a regular bolt featuring for the first time two opposed rear locking lugs.

The Vetterli was the replacement for the Eidgenössischer Stutzer 1851, an Amsler-Milbank metallic cartridge conversion from previous Swiss muzzle-loading rifles.

It was discovered soon after that the cleaning rod in its current placement was easily damaged and was subsequently moved to the under-barrel position.

It was designed by Johann-Friedrich Vetterli (1822–1882), a Swiss riflemaker, who worked in France and England before becoming director of the Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft's armament factory in Neuhausen Switzerland.

The Stutzer were equipped with a sensitive Stecher (double set trigger) action and featured a shorter barrel.

To accelerate the sluggish production of the Vetterli rifles, the federal authorities built a new arms factory in Bern, the Eidgenössische Waffenfabrik (W+F), in 1875.

As a stop-gap measure, hundreds of thousands of Vetterli-Vitali rifles and a few carbines and musquetoons were converted in Rome and Gardone to fire the 6.5x52mm Carcano round, by adding a 6.5 mm barrel liner and a Carcano-style magazine.