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RIFLE
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RIFLE , a firearm which may be shortly defined as a See also:musket in which, by grooves (cf. Ger. riffeln, to groove) in the See also:bore or otherwise, the projectile is forced to rotate before leaving the See also:barrel. This rotatory See also:motion, maintained during See also:flight, equalizes any irregularities in the See also:form or See also:weight of the See also:bullet, and so lessens the tendency to depart from a straight See also:line, and also in a measure overcomes atmospheric resistance. Rifling was invented about 1520, by Gaspard Koller or Kollner,, a gunmaker of See also:Vienna, according to some authorities; by See also:August Kotter of See also:Nuremberg, according to others. It has been said that at first the grooves were made straight, with the See also:object of admitting a tight-fitting bullet and relieving the effects of fouling, and that the virtue of See also:spiral grooving was subsequently discovered by See also:accident. But this theory is unsupported. The earliest known rifle barrels have spiral grooving. The amount of turn varied in old rifles from a See also:half or three-quarters turn to one turn in two to three feet. The form and See also:depth of the grooving and the number of grooves also greatly varied. See also:Historical Development of Military Rifles.—For the See also:chief See also:infantry firearms that preceded the See also:modern military rifle, see See also:GUN, ARMS AND See also:ARMOUR (firearms), See also:ARQUEBUS, &c. Rifles were at first used for amusement. There are, however, in-stances of their occasional employment in See also:war in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1631 the See also:landgrave of See also:Hesse had a See also:troop of riflemen. Ten years later See also:Maximilian of See also:Bavaria had several troops armed with rifled arquebuses. See also: Its weight with See also:bayonet was 11 lb 51 oz.; length of barrel, 2 ft. 6 in., with two grooves making one turn in the length of the barrel; weight of spherical belted bullet, 557 grs.; See also:diameter, •704 in.; See also:charge of See also:powder, 21 drs. This rifle was not easily loaded, soon fouled, and shot See also:wild beyond 400 yds. In 1835 W. Greener produced a new expansive bullet, an See also:oval ball, a diameter and a half in length, with a See also:flat end, perforated, in which a See also:cast metallic See also:taper plug was inserted. The See also:explosion of the charge drove the plug See also:home, expanded the bullet, filled the grooves and prevented windage. A trial of the Greener bullet in August 1835 proved successful. The range and accuracy of the rifle were retained, while the loading was made as easy as with a smooth-bore musket. The invention was, however, rejected by the military authorities on the ground that the bullet was a See also:compound one. In 1852 the Government awarded Minie, a Frenchman, £20,000 for a bullet of the same principle adopted into the British service. In 1857 Greener received a belated See also:reward of f moo for " the first public See also:suggestion of the principle of expansion. " The Minie bullet contained an iron See also:cup in a cavity at the See also:base of the bullet. In 1851 a rifled musket of the Minie See also:pattern was introduced into the British army, and, though not generally issued, was used in the Kaffir War of 1851, and in the See also:Crimea. Its weight with bayonet was to lb 81 oz., length of barrel 3 ft. 3 in., with four grooves making one turn in 72 in.; diameter of bore •702 See also:inch;
The percussion principle, invented by the Rev. See also: It fired a bullet of cylindro-conoidal form with hollow base, weighing 530 grains, made up into cartridges and lubricated as for the Minie rifle, adapted to this rifle by Pritchett, who was awarded £r000 by the Government. This bullet was wrapped in greased See also:paper See also:round the cylindrical part half-way up its length. See also:Short rifles of the same pattern, with five-grooved barrels 2 ft. 9 in. long and a See also:sword bayonet, were supplied to the 6oth Rifles and to the Rifle Brigade. Two small carbines of the same principle were at this See also:time introduced for the See also:cavalry and See also:artillery, also a rifled See also:pistol. In 1854, on the suggestion of General See also:Lord See also:Hardinge, See also:Sir See also:Joseph See also:Whitworth, the first mechanician of the See also:day, began to consider the subject of rifling, and after a long series of experiments the Whitworth rifle was produced with hexagonal bore, 45 in. calibre, and with one turn in 20 in. It was tried at See also:Hythe in 1857, and completely defeated the Enfield rifle up to 1800 yds. upon a fixed See also:rest. This trial and Whitworth's experiments proved the advantages of a sharp twist, a smaller bore, and elongated projectile; but Whitworth's rifle was never adopted into the Government service, probably because the hexagonal rifling wore badly, and owing to the difficulty of equal See also:mechanical perfection in all similar rifles and See also:ammunition. Several improvements were subsequently made in the sighting, grooving and some other details of the Enfield rifle. In 1855 a See also:boxwood plug to the bullet was used. Between 1857 and 1861 four breech-loading carbines were experimentally introduced in the cavalry-viz. Sharp's, See also:Terry's, See also:Green's, and Westley-See also:Richards'. Sharp's and other breech-loading carbines and also See also:Spencer repeating carbines were used by the Federal cavalry in the American See also:Civil War. The general See also:adoption of the breech-loading principle may be said to date from 1867. The
Prussians were the first to see its great advantages, and about 184r had adopted the celebrated See also:needle-gun (q.v.), a See also:bolt-See also:action weapon. In 1864 and 1866 committees were appointed by the British War See also:Office to See also:report on breech-loading arms, and after protracted experiments, See also:Jacob Snider's method of See also:conversion of the muzzle - loading En-See also: All these were breech-loaders firing paper cartridges containing their own means of ignition. After further experiments by a fresh See also:committee the See also:Martini-See also: In 1886 the question of the best calibre for small arms was reopened in See also:England. In this year, 1886, See also:Austria had adopted a Mannlicher rifle, •433 bore, with a straight-pull bolt. This rifle was the first adopted by any See also:European nation embodying See also: Metford had carried out an exhaustive series of experiments on bullets and rifling. He invented the important system of See also:light rifling, with increasing spiral with a hardened bullet. The Metford match rifle was prominent in all N.R.A. competitions from 1871 to 1894. In 1887 he laid down for the Small Arms Committee the proper proportions for the grooving, spiral and cartridge chamber of the •3.03 military rifle. This weapon proved satisfactory and was adopted by the War Office as the Lee-Metford rifle, See also:Mark I., in See also:December 1888. It had a magazine of eight cartridges. In 1891 the Mark II. pattern was approved, with a ten-cartridge magazine, a simplified bolt, and many See also:minor improvements. A magazine See also:carbine with barrel 21 in. long and a six-cartridge magazine, otherwise identical with the Lee-Metford Mark II., was also approved. The Lee-Metford Mark II. rifle was subsequently further improved in its rifling to resist the See also:wear of smokeless powder, and also in its bolt action, and became known as the Lee-Enfield rifle, and under that name was officially adopted as the rifle of the British army. The number of grooves were reduced from seven to five. Neither the Lee-Metford nor the Lee-Enfield has increasing spiral grooves, which are found inconvenient for military arms from a manufacturing point of view.l The L.M. and L.E. carbines are similar to the shorter See also:models of the rifles, but are covered for the whole length of the barrel by a wooden handguard and take only six cartridges; the fore-sights are protected by wings on the See also:nose-cap, and the long-range sights are omitted. These, as also the Martini-Metford and Martini-Enfield carbines (falling-block action small-bores), have practically been replaced by the "short" rifle described below. The efficiency of the modern small-bore magazine rifle is largely due to the See also:production of smokeless nitro-compound powder. France was the first See also:country to adopt, about 1885, a smokeless powder with the Lebel magazine rifle. It was known as " Vieille " powder, or " Poudre B " (after General See also:Boulanger). Since then smokeless See also:explosives have been universally adopted in all small-bore magazine military rifles. The smokeless explosive known as " See also:Cordite " or " Cordite M.D." (see CORDITE) is used for the cartridges of the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles and rifle-calibre See also:machine guns. (H. S.-K.) Military Rifles of To-day.—About 1900, the various armies were 'equipped with weapons of nearly equal efficiency. The weights varied between 84 and 94 lb, the lengths between 49 and 52 in.; the calibres were •315, •311, •303, with one or two •256. None of the rifles were sighted to less than 2000 yds., and nearly all had a " fixed " or " See also:battle " sight. All were bolt-action rifles, and had a muzzle velocity of about 2000 f.s. (the •256 Mannlichers, about 2300 f.s.). Except France, with the tube-magazine Lebel, See also:Denmark and the U.S.A. with the See also:horizontal-box Krag-Jorgensen, and Great Britain, all nations used multiple-loading by clip or charger. With Lebel and Krag-Jorgensen weapons, multiple-loading is a See also:practical impossibility, but in Great Britain the charger was deliberately rejected. It was desired to use the rifle normally as a ' Of all modern military rifles, the See also:Italian 1891 weapon alone has an increasing twist. is •.~\~ W~ ~. j Isl. ~I7<is m rcWB/~d~ ^2 ZaH3r-ImIm1*'S _ d single-loader, and to reserve the magazine (which held ten cartridges, or twice as many as the multiple-loading Mausers, Mannlichers, &c.) for emergencies. But from about 1903 this equivalence of infantry weapons began to be disturbed by two new influences: the tendency towards a " short " rifle, and the introduction of the pointed bullet. In the first, See also:Switzerland took the See also:lead with the short See also:Schmidt-Rubin in 1900. But amongst the greater powers, England and the See also:United States alone have followed her example. At the See also:close of the See also:South See also:African War Great Britain issued 1000 short Lee-Enfield rifles experimentally, and in 1903 the " short rifle " was actually approved and issued generally. Since then it has been improved in details. The barrel was shortened by 5 in., multiple-loading by charger was introduced, and by the Musketry Regulations of .1909 magazine See also:fire was laid down as the normal, single-loading being forbidden: The See also:change met with very considerable opposition, especially from See also:target-See also:shooting experts, who maintained that a long rifle, so perfected in details as to be equal to the short in every point except in length, must be more accurate. The view of the military authorities, which was maintained in spite of See also:criticism, was that for service purposes, and especially for prolonged snap-shooting, the handier weapon was preferable. One important See also:factor in the decision was the See also:desire to give the cavalry a weapon with which, when dismounted, it could fight the infantry rifle on equal terms. A more serious objection than that of want of superfine accuracy in See also:bull's-See also:eye shooting was the loss of 5 in. of reach in bayonet fighting. This objection was met in 1907 by the introduction of a new pattern bayonet with a blade 5 in. longer. In 1908 the long Lee-Enfield and Lee-Metford rifles in See also:store were converted for charger-loading (fig. 3), fitted with safety catches and new sights, and issued to the infantry of the Territorial Force in 1909 and 191o. For target purposes many rifle shots prefer this converted. weapon to the short rifle (fig. 4). by permission.) The United States in 1904 replaced the Krag-Jorgensen (hand-loading horizontal magazine) by the short See also:Springfield. A sort of See also:spring bayonet was at first fitted to this rifle, but it was soon replaced by an See also:ordinary sword bayonet. The pointed bullet (" Spitz-geschoss " or " S ") was introduced by Germany in 1905, and her example was quickly followed by France (balle D) and other powers. Its advantage is a considerable flattening of the trajectory, chiefly on See also:account of the lessened resistance of the See also:air. This latter allows of a reduction in the sectional See also:density and consequently in the weight of the bullet. Thus velocities up to 2900 See also:foot-seconds are realized, which enables the " dangerous space " to be very greatly augmented (see fig. 2o). The " fixed sight " range with the " S" bullet is 700 yds., as against the Lee-Enfield's 500. It was announced, in the See also:House of See also:Commons in 1910 that a modified bullet was being experimented with, and that some increase in the fixed-sight range was expected to be obtained, but the relatively weak breech action of the Lee-Enfield—which is due chiefly to the rearward position of the locking lugs—does not allow designers much freedom in the See also:matter, of increasing velocities, as the chamber pressure has to be kept See also:low. Itwill be seen from the table that other rifles are constructed to stand a much higher pressure. But both these improvements are destined to be eclipsed in importance by the adoption of the automatic rifle. The application of the automatic principle to the modern high-velocity small-See also:arm of precision has been occupying the See also:attention of the small-arms experts of all armies and of numerous private inventors for some years past. These numerous attempts have, in the case of the rifle, been largely doomed to failure because of the necessary limitations of space and weight; although the automatic principle has been successfully applied both to machine guns (q.v.) and to pistols (q.v.). In these weapons the See also:work of extracting the empty cartridge-case, re-loading and re-cocking, is accomplished either by the See also:motive power of the recoil or of the See also:gas generated by the explosion of the powder, thus enabling a rapid and continuous fire to be maintained to the full capacity of the weapon's magazine. In the case of machine guns the firing also is automatic, but self-firing rifles are not very desirable as infantry weapons and in addition are so heavy as to approximate to machine guns. Of the recoil-operated class of automatic rifles there are two subdivisions, " short-recoil " and " long-recoil. " In the former, which is most favoured by inventors, the barrel, See also:body and bolt recoil together for a short distance, about 4 in., in which space the bolt is unlocked, and the bolt then recoils freely in the body. The bolt is run forward in reloading by a spring. In the long-recoil type the barrel, body and bolt recoil the whole distance, and the barrel and body are run up by one spring, the bolt by another. Several such rifles have been shown at the N.R.A. meetings at See also:Bisley; the Rexer, Mauser and Woodgate rifles being on the long-recoil, the See also:Halle on the short-recoil principle. Gas-operated rifles, like the Hotchkiss and See also:Colt machine guns, have fixed barrels and are worked, by a portion of the powder-gases which is allowed to See also:escape from the barrel through a small hole near the muzzle, thence entering a See also:cylinder and working a See also:piston in connexion with the breech mechanism. No automatic rifle has as yet (August 191o) been issued as a service weapon by any power, the problem of ensuring certainty in action under service conditions—i.e. with grit and dirt in the working parts—being the See also:principal difficulty. Great Britain.—There are two principal types of Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles in the service, the " short " and the " charger-loading." The former is carried by all See also:units (cavalry included) of the See also:regular army, by the See also:yeomanry cavalry of the Territorial Force, and by units of the See also:Officers' Training Corps. The latter is used by the infantry of the Territorial Force. There exist, further, the older, non-charger-loading Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles, a few carbines of the same. type, and some Martini-Metford and Martini-Enfield carbines which have the .303 barrel and cartridge with the falling-block Martini action. .45 Martini-Henry rifles and carbines, and even Sniders, are still used by See also:local See also:police forces in some of the smaller colonies. The " long " charger-loading Lee-Enfield is converted from earlier patterns by the addition of a charger See also:guide, the stripping of the bolt-See also:cover, and improvements in the sighting. The action of the breech mechanism 1 is as follows (the breech mechanism of the " short " rifle being practically the same): The breech is closed by a bolt (I) which slides in a bolt-way cut in the body; the bolt-See also:head (Io) abuts against the base of the cartridge when the rifle is loaded, and when the knob is turned down the whole is locked. On the right See also:side of the bolt is a solid See also:rib, and on the left side a See also:lug; these support the bolt on firing by contact with the " resisting See also:shoulder ' on the right, and the rear See also:face of the " lug seating " on the left of the body. Underneath the bolt there are two recesses and two studs. The bolt-head is screwed to the bolt and is fitted with an extractor claw. The bolt-head, instead of being rigidly attached to the bolt, is so far See also:independent that it remains stationary while the bolt is revolved. Inside the bolt is the arrangement of striker (V) and spring (W), and at its rear end, forming the working connexion between trigger and striker, is the " cocking-piece " (X) which is fitted with a safety-catch (not in the old pattern rifle illustrated). This cocking-piece (which cannot turn) has a long See also:tongue projecting to the front, lying along the under side of the bolt, and the front end of this tongue (Y), called the " full-See also:bent," ' The annexed figures show the old pattern weapon. In both the existing patterns a safety catch is fitted, the magazine spring is of a different shape and there is no bolt-cover.. But the essential parts of the action remain the same. s7 right of the body and the extractor attached to it flings out the fired cartridge-case. Another cartridge then comes up from the magazine and lies in front of the bolt-head ready to be pushed home. At this moment (the beginning of loading) the See also:stud on the cocking-piece has fallen into one of the grooves on the bolt, and as the bolt is pushed forward the tongue or full-bent comes against the nose of the trigger sear and is held there, while the rest of the bolt mechanism goes on. Thus between the moving bolt and the fixed cocking-piece the striker spring is further compressed, and when the sloping faces of the bolt lugs and ribs engage the resisting portions of the body a last forward push is given to the bolt and the spring is completely compressed, ready to propel the striker forward when the full-bent is released from the nose of the sear. See also:Figs. 5–8 of the older pattern rifle show the working of the breech mechanism. Instead of the older single pull-off of the trigger the "short" rifle, like many Continental weapons, has a See also:double pull-off. This is provided fore by suitably shaping the portion of the trigger which is in contact with the short arm of the sear. The " short " rifle has also a sornewhat different pattern of safety-catch. The sights of British service rifles up to 1903 were of a very See also:simple type, the fore-sight a " barleycorn " of triangular shape, and the back-sight a See also:plain See also:leaf with sliding See also:bar into which a V was cut, the tip of the fore-sight seen in the See also:middle of the V being brought on to the mark. In the long charger-loader this form of back-sight has been greatly modified, and in the " short " rifle it has been altogether abolished. The barleycorn fore-sight has been replaced in both cases by an upright blade, protected from injury by two ears or wings, and the V by a U See also:aperture. For See also:elevation the long rifle has still a slide on a See also:vertical leaf, but the See also:movement of this slide is controlled no longer merely by its tight See also:fit but by a clamping See also:screw. The sight,of the short rifle is larger and also quite different in See also:appearance and principle. There is a leaf and on it a slide, but the slide (controlled by clamping studs) See also:works on a See also:cam-shaped See also:bed; its position on the leaf, affecting the point of contact with the cam-shaped bed, elevates the leaf to the required amount, the actual sighting U being on the extremity of the leaf. The short rifle has also a ' See also:fine See also:adjustment " which, admits of minor changes of elevation within the usual 50 yds. See also:graduation. Both the long and the short rifles have " See also:wind-gauges," or mechanisms for fine lateral adjustment of the central U sighting aperture, so as to point the See also:axis of the barrel a little to the left or the right of the line of sight to compensate for wind, See also:error of the individual rifle, &c. In both rifles, on the left side of the stock, is. a long-distance sight (graduated to 2800 yds.), which consists of an aperture sight near the bolt and a See also:dial and movable pointer near the hand-guard. The short rifle is cased from breech to muzzle in a wooden hand-guard; all patterns of long rifle have only a short wooden hand-guard just behind the back-sight bed. The bayonet in the long rifle is secured to. the fore-end by a spring catch and to the barrel by a See also:ring passing over the muzzle. This traditional,_ and still, usual, arrangement has been abandoned_ in the short. rifle, as the vibration of the barrel on See also:discharge is more or less checked by the extra weight of the bayonet, and therefore the shooting of the rifle differs according as it is fired with or without the bayonet fixed. With the short rifle the bayonet is fixed to two See also:metal fastenings, a plug for the ring and a catch for the handle. Continental European Rifles.—These are for the most part of4he Mauser and the Mannlicher types. The Mauser is a bolt weapon with box magazine. The bolt is simple, without See also:separate bolt-head, and is held by two bolt-lugs at its front end engaging with recesses in the body (the See also:German Mauser has an extra lug near the rear end). Near the rear end 'there is a cam-shaped See also:recess, which, engaging with a stud on the cocking-piece, partially forces back the cocking-piece and spring when the bolt is revolved. When the bolt See also:lever is turned up and the bolt begins to revolve, the cocking-piece and bolt plug, which together form the connexion between the bolt and the trigger, do not revolve; but are forced back slightly, so as to begin the See also:compression of the striker spring. Then, the bolt lever being so shaped as to See also:bear against an inclined-See also:plane edge on the body, the bolt comes back a little, and with it the extractor See also:jaw and the empty cartridge-case. Lastly, when the bolt has turned through a right See also:angle, all studs are opposite their slots and ways in the body, and the bolt can be See also:drawn back. At the farthest rearward position of the bolt the cocking-stud on the cocking-piece is well behind the nose of the trigger sear, and is thus held when the bolt is pushed forward again, the spring being thereby compressed. All Mauser rifles have a safety-catch and a double pull-off. None have cut-offs except the Turkish pattern. Allure constructed for clip or charger loading, but the box magazine contains only five See also:cart-ridges as against the 'Lee-Enfield's ten. Mauser rifles, which are perhaps the strongest and least complicated of magazine arms, are used in the German, Belgian, See also:Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish armies, and were also used by the Boers in the South African War. The type adopted by each of these nations differs from the rest in details only. The German rifle has a long guardless sword bayonet, fixed to the fore-end only and not connected with the barrel, and a See also:peculiar form of back-sight, 'which bears some 'resemblance to the engages the nose of the trigger sear when the weapon is loaded (a groove in the tongue, called the " half-bent " (Z), serves as a half-See also:cock arrangement, and could be used as a safety-catch if the proper safety-catch were damaged). The trigger sear (K) is a See also:bell-See also:crank lever, the upper long arm of which is put in and out of contact with the " full-bent," and the See also:lower or short arm is connected to the trigger. The magazine holds ten cartridges, which rest on a See also:platform, underneath which is the magazine spring that pushes the platform and cartridges up. A " cut-off," is fitted in the " long_" and in some marks of the " short " rifle. This is a sort of lid to the magazine, enabling the magazine to be kept full while the rifle is being used as a single loader. But the See also:present musketry regulations forbid single-loading, and the cut-off is now only closed for See also:special purposes, such as unloading a single cartridge (See also:miss-fire, &c.) without unloading the magazine. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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