Enfield rifle

“ The Enfield rifle, however, is a long step in advance of the old smooth-bored musket, concerning which a veteran British officer has declared his opinion that “a man might sit at his ease in an armchair all day long while another at two hundred yards’ distance was blazing away at him with a brown Bess, on the sole condition that he should, on his honor, aim exactly at him at every shot.” ”

“ THE RIFLE AND BAYONET.—The rifle is the principal infantry weapon, and the British "Short-magazine {165} Lee-Enfield" rifle is the best rifle in action. A trained rifleman can fire 15 aimed shots in a minute, reloading with the butt in the shoulder and eyes on the mark. With the bayonet affixed the rifle is the principal weapon of close combat for delivering or repelling an assault, and in Night Assaults infantry depend entirely upon the bayonet. ”

“ The deliveries of Russian rifles totaled 280,049. This gave us a total equipment of 3,575,356 rifles. Since approximately one-half of the soldiers of an army as actually organised carry rifles, the number of rifles procured in all by the Ordnance Department was sufficient to arm both for fighting and for training an army of 7,000,000 men, disregarding reserve and maintenance rifles.
The Enfield thus became the dominant rifle of our military effort. With its modified firing mechanism it could use the superior Springfield cartridges with their great accuracy. ”

“ Metford's interest in rifle shooting began in boyhood, his father having established a rifle club with a range in the fields near Flook House, and he gave constant attention to it in the intervals of his engineering studies. Late in 1852 or early in 1853 he suggested a hollow-based bullet for the Enfield rifle, expanding without a plug. ”

“ The Lee-Enfield rifle, caliber .303, is the arm of the infantry and cavalry. In the Regular army the field artillery has an 18-pounder Armstrong gun, the horse artillery a 13-pounder, the field howitzers are 40-pounders, and the heavy batteries are armed with 60-pounders.
The Territorial army was organized along the lines of the American militia, and could scarcely be expected to distinguish itself when pitted against the German regulars. ”

“ At times our firing was so rapid that the gun barrels became heated to the point that they could not be grasped and the men held their guns by the sling strap. I had some personal experiences in this battle that were unique in my service. Our muskets were the Enfield rifle, an English gun, much like the Springfield. They were, of course, muzzle loaders, breech loaders then were the exception. The Minnie bullet had no device for cleaning out the barrel, and after a dozen shots it would become foul, and often it was difficult to ram the bullet home. ”

“ The first contained a three-pounder Q.F. gun, with a light mounting, the second a Maxim with both deck and field mountings, two others contained cases of quick-firing and small-arm ammunition, and the last a number of Lee-Enfield rifles, complete with bayonets, save one, a light sporting rifle. "This is a present for you, Reggie," said my father, placing the latter in my hands. "It is a thoroughly good weapon, and I hope you will appreciate and take great care of it. And, remember, a true sportsman never takes life heedlessly." ”

“ I half carried him for some distance, still holding to my Enfield rifle, with its beautiful curly stock, and then, seeing that I must either give up the role of good Samaritan or drop the rifle, I threw it down and continued to aid my unfortunate companion. All this time the bullets were whistling more fiercely than at any time during the engagement, and the woods were filled with flying men, who, to all appearances, had no intention of rallying on that side of the Tennessee River. ”

“ Making allowance for prejudice, it is impossible to doubt that good practical reasons exist where a hunter prefers to carry about a very heavy gun. A common proportion is a 36-inch barrel with a bore of 3⁄8-inch, equal to 96 diameters, and the accuracy is remarkable; but the shooting range rarely exceeds 100 yards, a distance that modern practice holds in contempt. Yet it is doubtful if an Enfield rifle will cut off a squirrel’s head on a tree-top at 100 yards without damaging the skin. ”

“ In 1864 and 1866 committees were appointed by the British War Office to report on breech-loading arms, and after protracted experiments, Jacob Snider’s method of conversion of the muzzle-loading Enfield to a breech loader (fig. 1) was adopted, with the metallic cartridge-case improved in 1867 by Colonel Boxer, R.A. All available Enfield rifles were thus converted, and new arms made with steel barrels instead of iron. Great Britain was the first to adopt for her army a breech-loading rifle with metallic cartridge-case, which secured the perfect obturation of the breech. ”

“ I take it that you are not bent upon big game shooting, and that if you come upon lions or elephants you will leave them severely alone. For your purpose the Lee-Enfield rifle will be the best, and should it turn out, as it very well may, that you are attacked by the beasts I have mentioned, then you must trust to slay them by means of a volley, for it is hopeless to expect that a single one of these small-calibre bullets will prove fatal. ”

“ A relative of mine, now dead, used to be a mighty seal-hunter. It was before the days of the modern ‘arms of precision,’ long before breech-loaders were in common use, and even before the Enfield or Minié rifles were invented. In those days, the old muzzle-loading rifle was found to be not a trustworthy weapon; he therefore used a very thick metalled fowling-piece, which was deadly up to sixty or eighty yards. ”

“ Notwithstanding, I kept firing as long as my cartridges lasted. These gone, a fierce sergeant, with a revolver in his hand, placed its muzzle close to my ear and fiercely demanded why I was not fighting. I told him that I had no cartridges. “Take cartridges from the box of the man there,” he said, pointing to the dead man who had just fallen upon me. Mine was an Enfield rifle, and my deceased neighbor’s cartridges were for a Springfield rifle. I had clung to this beautiful Enfield, with its maple stock, which my father had selected, and I was determined that it should not leave my hands. ”

“ In a comparison of the power of French, English, and American rifles, it was found that at two hundred yards the American gun averaged 4.8 vertical and 4.5 horizontal deviation. The Enfield rifle gave 7 in. vertical, 11.3 horizontal; the French rifle a tige, 8 vertical, 7.6 horizontal. ”

“ It is impossible to doubt that the large population of this country is armed to the teeth. Since the expiration of the Peace Preservation Act the purchase of firearms has been incessant. At the stores in Westport, where carbines are sold, more have been disposed of in the last five months than in the ten previous years, and revolvers are also in great demand. The favourite weapon of the peasantry, on account of its low price and other good qualities, is the old Enfield rifle bought out of the Government stores, shortened and rebored to get rid of the rifling. ”

“ It is true that the modern Lee-Enfield and Mauser claim to be the most precise and deadly weapons of destruction ever devised. But they were intended for proper, gentlemanly warfare, with the opposing sides set out in straight lines, a convenient distance apart. In the hand-to-hand butchery which calls itself war to-day, the rifle is rapidly becoming démodé. For long ranges you require machine-guns; for short, bombs and hand-grenades. Can you empty a cottage by firing a single rifle-shot in at the door? ”

“ Now England was obliged to turn to outside sources for an additional rifle supply, and in the United States she found the three firms named above willing to undertake large rifle contracts. Having to build up factory equipment anew in the United States for this work, England found that she might as well have the American plants manufacture the improved Enfield as the older type. To produce the 1914 Enfield without change in America and the older-type Enfield in England would complicate the British rifle-ammunition manufacture, since these rifles used cartridges of different sizes and types. ”

“ Camp-fires were burning in different places, on each side and behind the house.
These men were walking arsenals. Nearly all were each carrying two six-shooters, and among them were rifles of many different patterns. One man could be seen with a long-barreled Hawkins rifle, while his neighbor carried an army Enfield, one a Springfield, and one man an old brass-band American musket. Some had the Gallagher, some the Spencer, and some carried Sharp's carbine.
Not a man was there through idle curiosity, but either to kill the Odens or see fair play. ”

“ Any high-powered rifle is an intricate production. The 1917 Enfield is relatively simple in construction, yet the soldier can dismount his Enfield into 86 parts, and some of these parts are made up of several component pieces. Many of these parts must be made with great precision, gauged with microscopic nicety, and finished with unusual accuracy. To produce Springfields on a grand scale in private plants would imply the use of thousands of gauges, jigs, dies, and other small tools necessary for such a manufacture, as well as that of great quantities of special machines. ”

“ The modern long-range guns and improved howitzers [Pg 85] have, however, virtually superseded mortars. Machine-guns of various forms are comparatively small and light, transportable by hand, and filling a place between cannon and small-arms, the latter term embracing the soldier’s personal armament of rifle and pistol or revolver, which are carried in the hand.
A group of guns of the like design are generally given the name of their first inventor, or the place of manufacture: such as the Armstrong gun, the Vickers-Maxim, the Martini-Henry rifle, or the Enfield. ”

“ The artilleryman at one stride resumes the relative position to the soldier of the line which the Enfield rifle had so perilously deprived him of, and this mechanical country, after finding herself on the level of France, Russia, and other European States, is once more, as during the Peninsular campaigns, enabled to assert her natural superiority in the manufacture of cannon. We trust that no petty jealousies on the part of narrow-minded officials will be allowed to interfere with the course of Mr. ”

“ On the embarkation of the Regiment for the Crimea the Riflemen were armed with the Minié rifle, not differing from those carried by soldiers of line regiments. And while in the Crimea they received the long Enfield and bayonet, the same as those issued to troops of the line. These long weapons were also issued to the 3rd and 4th Battalions on their being raised. But subsequently, and before the embarkation of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions for India, the short Enfield and the sword was substituted. This was the three-grooved Enfield. ”

“ With an Enfield or Springfield rifle I think I could have made a better record, provided always that my nerves had not been rendered unsteady by the necessity for dodging minies for six or eight hours. George Harrison, who took care of the tree nearest me on the right has always insisted that I did redeem my reputation on that day, but with so many guns in possible range of the same point it was impossible for him to have known definitely whose shot was effective. ”

“ Ammunition.—Up to the present time the English Government have adhered to the use of the Boxer cartridge, the case of which is made up of thin coiled brass, attached to an iron base, which carries the ignition. For some years past all other European nations have used a solid metal cartridge case, i.e., a case in one piece stamped out of a flat disc. The English Government have now decided that the solid case shall be used, with the new Enfield-Martini rifle. A plant for the manufacture of these cartridges is being prepared at Woolwich. ”

“ The result is a rifle, compared with which, as manufactured by a dozen rifle-makers in the United States, the Minié, the Enfield, the Lancaster, or even the Sharpe's, and more recent breech-loaders, are bungling muskets. The last adopted form of missile, the sugar-loaf-shaped, of which the Minie, Enfieid, Colonel Jacob's, and all the conical forms are partial adaptations, has been, to our personal knowledge, in use among our riflemen more than twenty years. ”

“ Great Britain's missile is the Lee-Enfield, caliber 7.7 mm., the coating being cupro-nickel.
The French weapon is the Lebel rifle, of 8 mm. caliber, with bullets coated with nickel. Russia uses Mossin-Nagant rifles, 7.62 mm., with bullets cupro-nickel coated. Austria's chief small arm is the Mannlicher, caliber 8 mm., with a steel sheet over the tip.
Hitting a man beyond 350 yards, the wounds inflicted by all these bullets are clean cut. They frequently pass through bone tissue without splintering. ”

“ The diameter of the bore of all the new muskets was less than that hitherto in use, Elongated bullets.all the bullets were elongated and had auxiliaries for expansion, being metallic, or in one case a horn plug, one pattern had cannelures Reversed cartridge.and the whole required the cartridge to be reversed in loading. Best shooting from short rifle.It is worthy of remark that the best shooting at these trials was from a short rifle made at Enfield, which was named the artillery carbine, but not the one now used by the Royal Artillery. ”