The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-11
BRITISH SERVICE RIFLE.
Experts Dissatisfied With the New
Weapon for Use in the Army.


Bisley Letter in London Times.
new service rifle exists. 1t has
been tried officially at home and
abroad, principally abroad, and the
special machinery for manufacturing
it in thousands was, to my knowledge,
ham, and elsewhere at the time of the
Bisley meeting. Yet the public, or that
section of it which is interested in
rifles and rife shooting, has been jeal-
ously excluded from knowledge of the
details of the new rifle, so far as ex-
clusion has been feasible, and it was
matter of general and adverse COM
ment at the time OF the Bisley meet
ing that not a single specimen of the
new weapon was on view or on trial
at the most important assembly of
riflemen in Great Britain or in the
world. The result was precisely that
which the authorities, If they had any
knowledge of human nature. might
have anticipated. The new rifles be
came suspect. Since some thousands
of them were known to exist, it was
inferred that the reason why they were
not obtainable was that they would in
all probability prove to be inferior in
point of accuracy to the various rifles
in use on the Common. Although.
since they are not yet the service
weapons in general use in our army,
they could not have been used by the
competitors for the Palma Trophy
there were plenty of other oDportuni-
ties for using them, at all kinds of
targets and under all sorts of condi-
tons. They were not to be obtained.
that was all. But a good deal of in
formation was to be gathered about
them, indirectly by apparently casual
discussion of articles appearing in the
public press, with officers and other
experts who were as the saying goes,
lin the know" and, where authorities
are reticent without adequate cause,
such methods are quite legitimate.
The plain fact of the matter is that
the form of rifle which has been fixed
upon has been chosen for reasons which
are neither adequate nor rational, and
that it is considered gravely unsatis-
factory by those members of the Small
Arms Committee who have expert
knowledge of rifle-shooting and of
rifles.
1t has been stated, and, as l have
strong reasons for believing, accurate
ly stated, that Lord Roberts and those
who are most closely associated with
him came back from South Africa con-
WINGED that it was imperative that iden-
teal rifles should be carried by cavalry,
mounted infantry, and infantry on foot;
in a word, by every British soldier who
uses a rifle at all. With all respect for
a great soldier, who has, however, lit
tie sympathy with the delicacies of
rife-shooting. an absolute dissent must
be expressed in limine. No sane person
denies that calibres should be Identical
so. that ammunition may be inter
changeable; and, as there is always
something to be said in recommends
ton of Standardization, it is no doubt
desirable that all the rifles and carbines
used in the service should be Identical
in point of mechanism, so that, for ex-
ample, rife which has lost its bolt
may be supplied with one from car
bine. But there the necessity for, and
even the desirability of, uniformity
ends.
And the results of cutting down the
barrel to this extent-a blunder which
is in the act of being perpetrated and
will certainly be completed unless there
is persistent agitation against it-are
inevitable. They are a decrease of
muzzle velocity in a weapon which is,
with it's present ammunition, already
inferior in that respect to the Mauser,
the Mannlicher, the Krag- Jorgensen,
and very likely to other rifles also and
the corollaries of that decrease. They,
in their turn, are shorter range, more
recOil, impaired resistance to wind. and
higher trajectory. Yet the more one
reflects upon the matter the more plain
1t becomes that there is no essential
argument in favor of the slayish uni
formity of pattern, which cannot fail
10 end, If it be finally adopted, in leaV-
ing our infantry worse armed even than
they are at present.
1t may be taken that nearly every
genuine expert who knows about the
new rife is dissatisfied with it, and,
apart from the considerable obstacles
which may be imposed upon him by
official position, will do his best to re-
sist its adoption to the last. To ex-
perts, therefore, these words are not
addressed; nor are they the words of an
expert, but ather of one who knows
enough to be aware of his inadequate
knowledge. To touch the public with
view to rousing resistance to this
retrograde movement, is my object,
and hence comes the necessity of ex-
planning one or two points in studious
ly untechnical language.
Everybody will realize at once that
diminished accuracy, less range, and
increased recoil are evils to be avoid
ed; but it may, perhaps, be as we'll
~ SApldlll the QiSelQN elAlNdSC VI NAAN~N
high trajectory which is involved in
diminished muzzle velocity. 1t means,
roughly, that, whereas with a fiat ira
Jectory a riheman may misjudge dis
lance and still hit his mark; he will
surely miss it with high trajectory
unless his judgment of distance is
right. Other points besides the above
are vital. OF these the most important
are included in the word "ammuni-
uon.' Given a bullet that will not
strip at high velocity, and the best
explosives, whatsoever that may be,
SOB bullet will travel as fast and as
true as any in the world. Men have
preferred Mannlichers for competition
SIMPLY and solely because the quality
Of Mannlicher ammunition is more reg
ular and trustworthy than that of 1903
ammunition, and it is difficult to lay
100 much stress on the fact that in
the Palma trophy with special am
munition, but with rough and imper-
fect sights to their 1903 rifles, the Brit
lsh team performed a feat which no
Elcho team, with Mannlichers and
match-sights, has ever approached.
lhey shot clean through the three
ranges of 800, 800 and 1000 yards, hav-
ing, 1t is true, the advantage of sight
ing shot, which are not allowed in
me Elcho, without a single miss and,
they were beaten by the splendid
team from the United States rif1emen
was not because the Krag-Jorgen-
sen is a, better barrel than the 1903