James Paris Lee James Paris Lee ( 9 August 1831 – 24 February 1904 ) was a Scottish - Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer , best known for inventing the Lee - Metford and Lee - Enfield series of rifle s . Early Life and Career . Born in Hawick , Scotland Lee emigrated with his family to Galt , Ontario in Canada in 1836 at age 5 . He built his first gun at the age of 12 , using an old horse - pistol barrel , a newly carved walnut stock , and a priming pan made from a halfpenny . The gun failed to function effectively when first fired , but started Lee ' s interest in gunsmithing and invention . In 1858 , James Lee and his wife Caroline Lee ( née Chrysler , of the later automotive family ) moved to Wisconsin in the USA , where they had two sons - William ( born in 1859 ) and George ( 1860 ) . In 1861 , Lee successfully developed a breechloading cartridge conversion for the Springfield Model 1861 Rifled Musket , managing to acquire a contract for 1 , 000 rifles from the US Army during the American Civil War . The Lee Civil War carbine was manufactured in Milwaukee , Wisconsin . 200 were delivered , but due to a bore diameter error , these were rejected by the army and the weapon did not see use in the Civil War . These guns are rare and highly collectible . The Lee Magazine Systems and Rifles . Perhaps Lee ' s greatest individual impact on modern small arms development came with his invention for a spring - loaded column - feed magazine system for centerfire cartridge rifles . Fitted with a charger bridge , the Lee magazine could be quickly reloaded with either single cartridges , like a tubular feed magazine , or a charger of five rounds , like the Lee or Mannlicher " en bloc " systems . With the magazine detached , the rifle became a single - shot weapon , a feature seen as desirable by some countries for training purposes or for maintaining control over sometimes unreliable colonial or indigenous troops . The Lee magazine was also adaptable to a variety of cartridges and bolt systems regardless of bullet shape or cartridge length . Because the cartridges were stored in a column , the Lee magazine could be easily lengthened to store additional cartridges in keeping with evolving small arms doctrine . In combat , the detachable magazine theoretically allowed a soldier to carry multiple loaded magazines , thus speeding reloading time . At the time Lee ' s magazine was introduced , rifle magazines were expensive to fabricate , and could not be regarded as expendable items . Lee ' s idea of carrying additional loaded magazines was not seen as an advantage by most major military forces at the time , who preferred to issue the soldier with loose cartridges or " en bloc " charger clips . However , in time Lee ' s detachable column - feed magazine system became the preeminent design used in all modern military small arms . Concurrently , Lee independently developed an " en bloc " charger - loaded magazine along the lines of the system developed by Ferdinand von Mannlicher , which was used in the M1895 Lee Navy rifle adopted by the U . S . Navy . In 1891 , Lee unsuccessfully sued von Mannlicher , claiming that the latter ' s design infringed upon his " en bloc " magazine patent . The Lee Model 1879 rifle , a landmark rifle design , incorporated a turnbolt action and the Lee spring - loaded column - feed magazine system , and was his first successful magazine - fed rifle . The Model 1879 was adopted by China and the US Navy , and two later designs - the Remington - Lee M1885 and the Winchester - Lee or Lee Navy M1895 - were also adopted militarily and sold commercially . His bolt and magazine design soon interested British ordnance authorities , and in 1889 , after extensive trials , the British Army decided to adopt the Rifle , Magazine , Lee - Metford as a standard issue arm . This in turn developed into the Rifle , Short , Magazine , Lee - Enfield ( or SMLE ) , the British service arm for many decades . James Paris Lee died in Short Beach , Connecticut on 24 February 1904 , having lived to see his rifles in service throughout several Colonial conflicts and the Boer War .