British military rifles
While a musket was largely inaccurate over 100 yards (91 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheap to produce and could be loaded quickly.
The weapon was introduced to replace the Baker rifle and weighed from over 9 and 10 pounds (4.1 and 4.5 kg) without its bayonet attached, depending on the pattern.
The weapon was difficult to load but remained in production for about 50 years (1836 to 1885) and was used in both the United Kingdom and assorted colonies and outposts throughout the world.
Previous rifles, such as the Baker and the Brunswick, were designated for special troops, such as skirmishers or snipers, while the majority of shoulder-arms remained smoothbore muskets.
The Pattern 1853 was popular with both sides of the American Civil War; the Confederacy and the Union imported these through agents who contracted with private companies in Britain for production.
The Indian Service variant became the new standard issue and, when comparing the P1859 with the P1853, side-by-side, the difference would only become apparent if one was to feel just inside the muzzle for the presence of rifling or not.
The Mark III rifles were made from all new parts with steel barrels, flat-nosed hammers and are the version equipped with a latch-locking breech block.
[2] The Martini–Henry rifle was adopted in 1871, featuring a tilting-block single-shot breech-loading action, actuated by a lever beneath the wrist of the buttstock.
Initially, Martinis used the short chamber Boxer-Henry .45 calibre black powder cartridge made of a thin sheet of brass rolled around a mandrel, which was then soldered to an iron base.
The British followed the trend of using smaller diameter bullets, but the Lee–Metford design process overlapped the invention of smokeless powder, and was not adapted for its use.
However, this compromises strength as the fulcrum point has moved away from the force of the explosion, thus making the length of the bolt a lever working against the holding power of the rear lugs.
Another difference between the Lee and the Mauser designs was the use of "cock-on-closing", which also helped to speed cycling by making the initial opening of the breech very easy.
In each case, several variants of carbines were offered in the under 40-inch (1,000 mm) range for uses by cavalry, artillery, constabularies and special troops.
The Pattern 1913 Enfield (P13) was an experimental rifle developed by the British Army ordnance department to serve as a replacement for the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield (SMLE).
The major shortcoming was long range performance and accuracy due to the ballistics of the .303 round, but the bolt system of the SMLE was not believed to have the strength to chamber more potent ammunition.
With the outbreak of the First World War, the change to the ammunition for the Pattern 1913 was abandoned; however, to supplement SMLE production the new design was to be produced chambered for .303.
The Pattern 14 rifle did not gain widespread acceptance with the British since it was larger and heavier, held fewer rounds and was slower to cycle than the SMLE.
The P14 was well regarded as a sniper rifle (with telescopic and fine adjustment iron sights), but largely disregarded outside of emergency use.
To minimise retooling, the US Army contracted with Winchester and Remington to continue producing a simplified Pattern 14 rifle chambered for the US .30-06 ammunition.
Many M1917s were sent to Britain under Lend-Lease, where they equipped Home Guard units; these .30-06 rifles had a prominent red stripe painted on the stock to distinguish them from .303 P-14s.
A number of these rifles ended up being left behind in Finland or captured from Red Finns in the Finnish Civil War as the Soviets armed them with Arisakas.
Since the Ross .303 was a superior marksman's rifle, its components were machined to extremely fine tolerances which resulted in the weapon clogging too easily in the adverse environment imposed by trench warfare in the First World War.
4,000 Remington Model 14 1/2 pump action rifles in .44 Winchester calibre were bought for the Royal Naval Air Service.
During the Second World War, the British government also contracted with Canadian and US manufacturers (notably Small Arms Limited and Savage) to produce the No.
Britain started a programme to find a family of related weapons to replace the L1A1 battle rifle and the Bren gun titled "Small Arms for the 1980s" or SA80.
These problems led British troops to nickname the weapon the "civil servant", as, in their estimation, you could not make it work and could not fire it.
The most noticeable addition has been that of a Picatinny Rail Interface System designed and manufactured by US company Daniel Defense, which replaces the original green plastic front furniture.
The RIS system often sports rubber rail covers in coyote brown colour and a GripPod vertical down grip/bipod unit.
The Oerlikon Contraves LLM-01 laser and sight combo has been standard for some time but a new laser/light unit by Rheinmetall has been recently cleared for service.
[15][16][17] Lewis Machine & Tool's LM308MWS, was chosen by the MoD in 2010 to meet a £1.5 million urgent operational requirement in the Afghanistan conflict for a semi-automatic 7.62mm rifle with excellent accuracy, whose rate of fire and robustness made them usable within infantry squads, not just by specialised sniper teams.
