Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-05-16
A Few words about Rifle..

A Few words about Rifles. .
The sudden importance of effective in
fantry weapons induces us to venture
few words about guns, rifles, &c.
The Enfield Gun, so suddenly brough
to our notice, and of which such romanti,
marvels are related, takes its name from
small market town, ten miles from London
celebrated for its gun mandatory, in which
some 1900 men are employed, and il
turns out about HOO guns per week.
The terms enfield" denotes no particu
lar improvement, but the result of all the
Improvements in the old musket. The
guns are manufactured by machinery, af
ter the American manner; a royal com
mission sent to this country in 1861, hay.
ing reported in favor of our system.
The "En6eld Gun" is rifled musket
loaded at the muzzle, of very great range
and accuracy. The Enfield ball, cone OF
pickit, is intermediate between the MIME
and Harper's Ferry picket.
The MINIE.-Properly speaking, there
is no "Minie Rife;;" although French Of
ficer of that name experimental on rifle
barrels, among other things.
His great invention, from whence the
name was taken, is the MIME Ball, which
consists of an elongated cylinder, conical in
in front, and hollow behind, and fitted with
a cap of thin iron, which by expansion, fills
the grooves of the barrel, as the ball is
forced out; and it acquires an accuracy and
range before unknown.
The "Minnie Ball' of course can be used
effectively in any good rifed gun. It's pow
er of enlargement prevents acindage, thus
securing the whole force of the powder,
while its form gives it the advantage of a
heavy heaped arrow. Another great ad-
vantage is the ease of loading, as it may
be dropped in at the muzzle. The Amer
ican Harper's Ferry Ball and the English
Enfield, are notifications of this, though
it may be doubted whether either is an i'm
provement.
SHARp's R1FLE.-This celebrated gun is
an American breech-loading weapon, and
perhaps the best of its kind, in which ac-
curacy must be sacrificed to facility in
loading. When the complication of mech
anism, and danger of being disabled by
accident in hurried loading, is taken into
account, it may be doubted whether a
breech-loader offers compensatory advan-
tages. --a
No breech-loader can be so trustworthy
as muzzle-loader, for in spite of all pre-
cautious, the balls will go out with more
or less irregularity. Government reports
on breach-loaders have always been averse
to them, we think. -
As for US, in our ignorance and conf
dence, give us the latest and best improved
common American or Kentucky Rifle.
1t is true, no government ordinance
has ever reported upon it, but thousand
practical rifle shooters from the Atlantic
westward, have experimental and improv-
ed upon it, arriving at safe practical results
securing all that is needed, either to the
hunter or sharp-shooter.
Without the scientific application of a
single rule these innumerable smiths have
properly adjusted the practical proportions
of weights, caIiber and length, and have
brought the rifle up to about all that can
be got out of it..
1t is true, in their hands, its range may
be below that claimed for some others, but
in accuracy, in good hands, no other equals
it, while its range is equal to all that can
be secured by the unaided eye and human
arm and nerve; and we insist upon it, that
no ball or picket, dropped into gun, will
or can be discharged with the same precision
with one put down with a creased or wet
patch. It is true, balls dropped in offer
greater facility for rapid loading, but one
fatal sho. is worth hundred at random.
1t is said that an Enfield will, at single
kill seven men at two miles; and
that Capt. Mine colud kill segle man at
one mele. Both of these statements are
simply absurd. The rare shots of which
We hear are chance shots. .t.-.
No mortal can sight man at mile,
aud no human nerve has the steadiness,
at that distance, to seriously endanger life.
The best common rifle. in practical hands,
will, with proper allowance for wine, DC,
kill turkey at 800 or 400 yards, and a
man at thousand. Whoever wishes to
see an American rifed musket, in every
respect equal to the Enfield, will find fifty
at the Gray's Armory, in this city.