The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-05
WEAPONS OF THE FOES.
Russia Can Stop an Adversary at
Long Range-MikadO's Men Carry
Modern Mausers.

Long NbnSc-uAAAhuOS
Modern Mausers.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.
The Japanese infantrymen shoulders
a very small calibre rife carrying a
light ball to great distance, says the
New York Globe. The Russian gun
shoots much larger and heavier bail
with considerably smaller range. But
in actual warfare it may be doubted
whether a gun that shoots five miles
shoots two miles and half, since it
is hardly practicable to do any effective
firing at the greater distance.
The Cars soldiers are armed with
a rifle of the model of 1891. The caliber
is 1852 millimeters or about the same
as that of nearly all the guns used
in European armies up to 1890. Since
that time the tendency has been to-
ward a smaller caliber, but Russia has
resisted this innovation as well as
many others in gunmaRing. 1t would
be "a mistake to suppose that this con-
servatism means unprogressiveness; 1t
is due simply to the fact that the
Russian military authorities believe
that the new style rifles, carrying
small, light balls to great distances,
have no stopping" powers.
line nlGCldIllSIll VI lltC russian sun 10
very simple and very easily manipu-
lated The central magazine is con-
structed so as to hold a bunch of five
cartridges, introduced from above into
a. chamber at the. bottom of which is
a straight, strong spring. This spring
steadily pushes up the cartridges as
they are discharged; the only move
ment required of the marksman is that
of pulling down the bolt or lever. The
-f,-i6 loo &c x1rl Y
grams Smokeless powder is supposed
to be used throughout the army, but
II is known that DIT has not been pos
sible to provide smokeless powder cart
ridges for all the troops sent to Man
churia since the war began. The in
itial velocity of this projectile is 2,O40
feet a second. 1t may be interesting
to compare this with the new SPRING
field rifle. with which our army Is now
being served. This has an initial We
iocity of $500 a second, which is 300
feet a second faster than the Krag
The maximum danger zone of this arm
is estimated at 1925 feet. This, of
course. does not mean that the gun is
not effective at twenty times that
range: it can be sighted up to 1000
yards
Generally speaking, the Russian gun
is most nearly like the French Lebel
rifle. II weighs about nine and one
half pounds 0he same as our new
Snringfield and a pound lighter than
the Krag) and is sixty inches long
with the bayonet-an old-style socket
affair dating back couple OF CEN
turies. The sabre bayonet is another
innovation that has been resisted by
the Russians, who object to its weight.
part of these guns are made in Rus
sian foundries and part in france.
The national gun factory at Chatelle-
rault. France, lately delivered 100000
of these 1901 model rifles to the Rus
sian government at an average price
of s11.2O. It is stated by friendly au-
thorities that the Russian gun is easy
TO clean and does not get out of order
with rough usage. Ordnance authori-
ties at Washington look upon 1t as be-
ing obsolete in some respects. but they
also admit that its strength, sim
plicity and "stopping" powers may
count strongly in its favor before the
war is over.
Japan's soldiers carry variety OF
weapons, but the gun with which the
most efficient part OF the army is pro-
vided was invented by Col. Arisaka IN
1897. II is OF the Mauser type and Is
supposed to embody the latest ad-
vances in ballstics and gun making.
The Japanese are extremely proud Of
II. although Il is merely the result OF
the combination Of the best features OF
the Mauser aud the Italian Mannheim
Careano. and Is not az al what the