The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-06 00:00:00

THE RIFLE-MUSKET.

It was stated in the House of Commons, a few nights
ago, that the troops going to the East are to be armed
with two descriptions of weapon—the Mini 6 rifle, and
the rifle-musket. We believe only a comparatively
small number of our soldiers will carry the Mini 6 rifle,
which is, in point of range and efficiency, well adapted
to cope with the various improved systems of fire-arms
introduced all over Europe, although its mechanism is
somewhat too complicated, and its ball too heavy for
the requirements of the service. The Mini 6 gun is
rifled, the ball is cylindro-conical, with a hollow at the
hinder end, next the charge. In the ordinary rifles the
balls are forced down into the barrel and made to enter
the rifled grooves by means of two or three taps of a
hammer. In the Minie rifle the ball requires no forcing;
it is thrust down with the ramrod in the ordinary way
after the charge, and in the act of firing the hollow end
is, by the force of the explosion, expanded or driven out
so as to enter the grooves of the barrel, and this, with
the elongated form given to the projectile, enables it to
carry a much greater distance with much greater accu-
racy than the ordinary musket. The Minierifle will
hit the mark with much greater precision at a distance
of 600 yards than the common musket will at 300 yards,
and a range of 1,000 or 1,100 yards has been attained
with nearly as great accuracy. Nay, it has even
been asserted by Capt. Minie, that he will undertake to
hit a man at the distance of 1,420 yards three time out
of five shots ; a distance, he it remarked, of more than
three-quarters of a mile. We give the assertion for what
practical men may deem its worth, but we know that
respecting this, and the German zundnadelgezvehr, or
needle-gun, very apocryphal stories have been circulated
the latter being announced to carry and kill 1,700 or
1,800 yards, an English mile ! Our own private
opinion is that no rifle or needle-gun yet invented is of
any value or efficiency beycnd 1,200 yards—that to at-
tain even this range the elevation of the fire-arm
must be so great as to destroy entirely all accu-
racy of aim, and leave the fate of the projectile en-
tirely to chance, as towards the end of its flight at this
great range and high elevation it comes to the ground
almost entirely by the force of gravitation. The effi-
cient range of the Mini 6 rifle and the needle gun will
be found to be little beyond 800 yards, but at this dis-
tance, nearly half a mile, an expert marksman is almost
sure of his man ; and when we state that beyond 200
yards the old regulation musket was of little value, the
vast advance that has been made in the range and
power of small arms will be at once acknowledged.
The other weapon which has been served out to the
troops is the rifle musket, manufactured at the Govern-
ment establishment at Enfield. It appears that, in the
beginning of 1852, the Government ordered 28,000 rifle-
muskets of the Belgian Minie pattern for the British
work-
men, a n
considerable the Birmingham
delay
army,bt but in consequence of the disputes that took place
manufacturersoceurred i
n and their
completing
w otrbl ee-
order, and this gave the military authorities time to
make further inquiries and investigations. When
Lord Hardinge was appointed Master-General of the
Ordnance, heopened the competition to the leading British
gunmakers, who, however, were unable
the weapon submitted by the Government establish-
, merit at Enfield. We may state, in the first
instance, that
the old regulation musket, bayonet, and scabbard e'
111 b. 1 loz., the Minl6 rifle weighs 101 b. 131 b., thweEe's
field rifle musket weighs 911). 71viz. Sixty rounds of am-
munition for the old musket weighed 51b. 7' oz, , for the
Mini 6 rifle 61b. 120 z., and for the Enfield rifle 511). 31oz •
so that in this respect the advantage to the soldier
"'lb weight saved. The Enfield musket carries is
ee • a cyiln-
dro-conical ball, having a small hollow at the base like
the Mini 6 ball, but it requires no iron cup to expand it.
This projectile is the invention of Mr. Pritchett, of the
Poultry, and is a simplification of Captain Mini6's pro-
jectile, and, by making the projectile longer, the
danger of its being blown through and rendered use-
less by the force of the explosion, which it was the object
of the iron cup to guard against, is done away with.
The advantages of Mr. Pritchett's ball are said to be its
simplicity and economy, as no cup is required; it secures
more uniform loading, sure and uniform expansion, and
less danger from the accidental separation of the cup
from the projectile. These are the whole of the advan-
tages obtained, for we find from the description of this
weapon, just published by Captain Jervis, of the
Royal Artillery, that " The accuracy of the shoot-
ing has been so far improved with this Enfield
rifle musket, that at a distance of three hundred yards
a good marksman can generally hit a bull's-eye of twelve
inches diameter." We confess unless there is some
great mistake here, we cannot see the wonderful advan-
tages that have been gained by the substitution of the ,
Enfield for the Minie rifle, We are now sending the
flower of our army into active service, armed with
z weapon whioh, although ponegoing greater acou,