Springfield rifle

“ SCHURZ. When the militia of the United States is still armed with muzzle-loaders, and there is a breech-loading Springfield rifle which is good enough to be used on the battle-field against the Prussian needle-gun, as it was in France, would not that be a better arm for the militia than the muzzle-loader? ”

“ 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. ”

“ This new automatic machine gun has been adopted by the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps. It is handled by two men, one to aim and fire it, the other to feed the cartridges which are held in brass clips of 30 each. The complete gun weighs only about 35 pounds, fires 400 shots per minute, using regular 30-caliber Springfield rifle cartridges, with a maximum range of 3 miles and an effective range of about 2,000 yards. The weapon is air cooled and can be fired steadily for about 10 minutes without undue heating. ”

“ Before long Private John J. Malone of B got a fatal wound just below the heart and then men began to fall thick and fast. As soon as the two companies had taken their positions they were ordered to fire, but the enemy's return for the first few volleys was payment with compound interest. The smoke from the Springfield rifles showed the position of our men and lifting slowly, made just the target which the enemy needed. At this time the line was about 900 yards from the advanced Spanish trenches and it must have been just like rifle practice for the enemy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With the rifle they practise the Parthian mode of warfare, shooting behind them as they fly; and, in order to be able to turn round more readily, and place themselves in the only position in which it is possible to acquire any accuracy of aim from the back of a galloping horse, they ride with one stirrup longer than the other. They also ride with a loose rein, which is found to be indispensable to secure the safe footing of their steeds over the precipitous ground which they traverse, because it leaves the animal to trust entirely to his own judgment and exertion. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The hunter who has no love for the saddle, and prefers stalking, should provide himself with some breech-loading rifle or carbine, carrying a heavy ball—the heavier the better. The most effective weapon is the needle-gun used in the army, having a bore the size of the old Springfield musket, and a [458] ball to correspond. A bullet from this weapon usually proves fatal. But there is little genuine sport in such practice. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The United States Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, is the largest, best appointed, and altogether the most productive establishment for the manufacture of small arms in the world,—those belonging to the Austrian Government at Vienna, and to the British at Enfield, being greatly inferior both in size and appointments; while the quality of the guns manufactured here is very superior to that at either of those important establishments. Indeed, the Springfield rifled musket is justly regarded as the most perfect arm of its kind which has ever been produced. ”

“ A brief examination of the industrial problem presented by the rifle situation in 1917 should make it clear even to a man unacquainted with machinery and manufacturing why it would be humanly impossible to equip our troops with the rifle in developing which our ordnance experts had spent so many years.
The Model 1903 rifle had been built in two factories and only two—the Springfield Armory, Springfield, Mass., and the Rock Island Arsenal at Rock Island, Ill. Our Government for several years prior to 1917 had cut down its expenditures for the manufacture of small arms and ammunition. ”

“ The operations at the Springfield armory have been chiefly confined to fabricating the necessary machines, tools, and fixtures required for converting the Springfield rifled muskets into breech-loaders, upon the plan recommended by the ordnance board in January 1868, and approved by the Secretary of War ”

“ When we called upon the colored men to become soldiers, we put the best Springfield rifles into their hands, for being under greater disadvantages than white soldiers, they needed the best possible weapons. ”

“ All hands are engaged just now upon the Springfield rifled musket, which has recently been adopted by the Government. The military precision with which every detail is attended to is the admiration of all who are shown through the Armory. ”

“ Fortunately the Volunteers, after training with the Springfields, were almost convinced that its single-shot action, except in rapid-fire target practice, was as effective as the newer magazine-type carbine, and that the Springfield's larger bullet was more deadly. Two large forces, one in the east and one in the west, assembled simultaneously. ”

“ Such tumbling causes a bullet to curve as a baseball thrown by a good pitcher, destroying its accuracy.
Early in our fighting with Germany we captured Mauser rifles and hastened to compare them with the Springfields and modified Enfields. We found in the American rifles a marked superiority in the rapidity of fire, the quickness and ease of sighting, and in the accuracy of shots fired. The accuracy was due not only to our standard Springfield ammunition, but also to the greater mechanical accuracy in the finish of the chamber and bore of the American [Pg 185] rifles. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While if he has only to stick in a cartridge and shoot, or turn a crank and pull trigger, he will fire fast, but he will fire wildly. I have seen some of the steadiest soldiers I ever knew, men who were dead shots with an Enfield, shoot as if they were aiming at the sun with a Spencer. The Spencer rifle would doubtless be an excellent weapon for a weak line to hold works with, where the men were accustomed to note the ground accurately, and would, therefore, be apt to aim low, and it is desirable to pour in a rapid, continuous fire to stagger an attacking line. ”

“ Small-bores have become the fashion of the day, and for military purposes they are decidedly the best, as a greater amount of ammunition can be carried by the soldier, while at the same time the range and trajectory of his weapon are improved. The new magazine rifle adopted by the Government is only '303, but this exceedingly small diameter will contain 70 grains of powder with a bullet of hard alloy weighing 216 grains. ”

“ Judging from what I have been told by some of my friends, however, it seems not unlikely that the best sporting rifle will ultimately prove to be the very small caliber repeating rifle now found in various forms in the military service of all countries—a caliber of say .256 or .310, with 40 grains of powder and a 200-grain bullet. These rifles possess marvelous accuracy and a very flat trajectory. The speed of the bullet causes it to mushroom if made of lead, and gives it great penetration if hardened. Certain of my friends have used rifles of this type on bears, caribou and deer ”

“ The general direction of the improvement in firearms is to lessen the size of the bore and increase the flatness of the trajectory. Thus the high-angled fire of the Snider, converted from the muzzle-loading Enfield, was changed for the Martini-Henry, in every way a more deadly weapon, and this, as has been already remarked, has given way to an even smaller bored rifle. And with the increased rapidity of fire and the larger number of rounds of the lighter ammunition that can be carried, the bayonet, that was lengthened in 1878, was reduced to its present dimensions. ”

“ The muzzle-loading rifle—and it was the pioneer's gun—with its long barrel and its fine sights, gave confidence to the American soldier who carried it, for he trusted the weapon in his hands.
Progressive inventions finally displaced this rifle in military use, but for the accuracy of the shot it has never been surpassed, and it is to-day a loved relic and a valued hunting-piece. Men trained to shoot with it, used to the slender line of its silver foresight and to the delicate response of its hair-trigger, have made rare records in marksmanship. ”

“ 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." ”

“ They began, of course, with trench-digging, and followed with live grenades, machine-guns, automatic rifles, service-shells, bayonet work, infantry formation for attack, and gas tests. Then they were initiated into light and fire signals, star-shells, gas-bombing, and liquid fire.
Last, they came in on the rise of the wave of rifle popularity, and trained at it even more intensively than the first of the doughboys. "The rifle is the American weapon," was General Pershing's constant reiteration, "and it has other uses than as a stick for a bayonet." ”

“ Manufacturers of fine guns from all parts of our own country, and many from Europe, flocked to the camp of the sharp shooters offering their goods, each desirous of the credit of furnishing arms to a body of men so well calculated to use them effectively, and many fine models were offered. The choice of the men, however, seemed to be a modified military rifle made by the Sharpe Rifle Manufacturing Co., and a request was made to the war department for a supply of these arms. ”

“ A few companies composed of young men from the cities, and [Pg 78] of rich planters, were armed with fancy guns, Maynard rifles, etc., altogether unsuitable for the armament of infantry. In September of 1861, there were probably not one thousand Springfield and Enfield rifles in the army which General Johnson was trying to concentrate in Kentucky, and it was several months later before these unequaled weapons (the right arms for soldiers who mean to fight) could be supplied in numbers at all adequate to the need of them. ”

“ High against the chimney, on two dogwood forks, rested the long rifle with its fishtail sight and the brass plate on the stock for the bullets and the "patching." Below it hung the old powder-horn, its wooden plug dangling from a string,—tools of the long ago. Closing one's eyes one could see the tall grandsires fighting in the beech forest, a brown patch of hide sighted over the brass knife-blade bead, and death, and to load again with the flat neck of the bullet set in the palm of the hand and covered with powder. ”