Various commercial, or "trade," rifles are also encountered. The British wanted a breech-loading firearm, so in the Snider Enfield was adopted as an interim measure. Early Sniders are conversions of Pattern Enfields with a hinged breech block and barrel designed to accept the a.
Later Sniders were newly manufactured. In , the British adopted the Martini-Henry rifle, a falling-block single-shot breech-loader actuated by a lever under the wrist of the buttstock. The Martini-Henry rifles went through several model variations, and carbines were introduced as well. The Martini-Henry was the standard British service rifle for nearly two decades. For further information on the early rifles from Enfield, see the appropriate entries on the "Enfield-Related Web Sites" page.
The Bolt-Action "Long Lees" The "Lee" in Lee-Enfield is James Paris Lee , a Scottish-born American arms inventor who designed, among other things, the box magazine that allowed for the development of bolt-action repeating rifles.
Another important name is that of William Ellis Metford , an English civil engineer who was instrumental in perfecting the. The first British bolt-action magazine rifle was developed through trials beginning in , with adoption of the Magazine Rifle Mark I in December It has an overall length of In November , changes in the rifling and the sights were made to accommodate smokeless powder cartridges, and the new rifle was designated the Lee-Enfield Magazine Rifle Mark I , or in common parlance, the "Magazine Lee-Enfield" MLE.
In , a carbine version of the Lee-Metford was approved, having an overall length of With an overall length of In , the No. The Mk VI eventually became the No. In , the British government changed the nomenclature of its rifles, redesignating the.
While it is true that the British government adopted the No. In addition, the Ishapore factory in India manufactured more than , No. All of the No. Production of No. In the mids, Ishapore developed a version of the No. The Pattern No. Field experience with Mauser and Springfield rifles had indicated the desireability of a one-piece stock, a receiver-mounted aperture rear sight, and forward-mounted bolt locking lugs. Also under consideration was a rimless cartridge with a smaller caliber, higher velocity bullet.
Over the next two years, various prototypes were examined and trials were conducted, leading to extended field trials in of over new rifles.
In October , the. A contract was let to Vickers, Ltd. Production began in January Winchester manufactured the P at its New Haven, Connecticut plant. In December , a new bolt with a longer locking lug was approved. By April , the manufacture of 1. An additional , had been sent to India. The Lee-Enfield No. Its history is somewhat peculiar, too. A derivative of the venerable and much appreciated. Why did the British War Office looked for a new service rifle? Actually, the SMLE was good indeed: the Lee bolt action, featuring rear-locking lugs and a detachable bolt-head, was the fastest and smoothest of all issue battle rifles of its time — a trained soldier could shoot aimed rounds in a minute with no difficulty.
Moreover, in the harsh conditions of the Great War trenches the rifle proved to be rugged, accurate and reliable. It even sported a round, stripper clip-fed detachable magazine , as opposed to other famous issue rifles such as the German Mauser Gewehr 98, whose internal magazine held just 5 rounds. So, what was wrong with the SMLE? Basically, it was expensive and time-consuming to make, and its production engineering was stuck in the late 19th-early 20 th century technology.
That's why in the s they tried to introduce many modifications and simplifications. Some further simplifications in — including a simplified bolt release — led to the No.
When it was finally adopted in , the No. They had tried to do both things, in fact — the rebated-rim. Anyway, when it was finally issued the No. The No. In particular, it had a heavier floating barrel, a different forend without the distinctive nose cap of the SMLE, and better "peep" sights of aperture type the No.
Four different backsight types were used, including a double-aperture only simplified version the Mk 2. Yet, the Rifle No. A bladed version war later issued, but it did little to boost morale.
During the war, the No. The rifle we test fired is a Canadian No. Depending on the manufacturer and date, in the No. Our rifle had the more common 5-groove, left hand twist barrel, and is equipped with a Mk 4 sight with Mk III diopter leaf. Even if the No. For use with the Hiscock-Parker magazine, the bolt head required an under-chamfer to permit its smooth passage over the ramp of the magazine platform.
The bolt-head illustrated is not so modified, and is for use only with an empty. The empty magazine then became a perfect receptacle for the fired cartridge cases. By way of comparison, we illustrate the parts diagram and listing of the full-bore "Long Lee-Enfield" -. Most of the components in the. Below are four images showing the actioning of the Hiscock Parker magazine mechanism.
The Birmingham Small Arms Company specifically advertised the merits of their. We replicate their pamphlet to the trade on the subject below. Note the comment on the change in the regulations by the N. We can find no mention of. The only permissible. Mid Range Miniature Rifle allowed any ammunition not exceeding 1, ft. This latter also allowed bullets "not needing to be inserted in the cartridge-case" at gr. Cadet rifles of. Miniature rifles were brought into competition by the NRA somewhere between and We will confirm this date more precisely in due course.
This rifle is in every respect similar to the actual Long Service Rifle, except that the barrel is bored and chambered to take either the. The N. These labour under the disadvantage that a barrel, bored, rifled, and chambered in the first place for service cartridges, is prima facie unsuitable for low power cartridges of a radically different specification.
The primary intention of a Morris Tube is to provide a means of firing practice cartridges in a service rifle without interfering with the original functions of the arm. Experience has, however, shown the undesirability of utilising the same rifle for the two purposes, and the use of tubes is accordingly limited by the War Office to rifles which are unserviceable for ordinary work.
Such rifles are distinguished by the letters M.
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