Snider–Enfield
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Snider–Enfield | |
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Type | Breech-loading rifle |
Place of origin | United Kingdom |
Service history | |
In service | 1866–1901 |
Used by |
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Wars |
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Production history | |
Designer | RSAF Enfield |
Designed | 1860 |
Manufacturer | RSAF Enfield |
Produced | 1866–1880s |
No. built | ~870,000 |
Variants | Long Rifle, Short Rifle, Engineer's Carbine, Cavalry Carbine, Artillery Carbine, Yeomanry Carbine, Naval Rifle, Royal Irish Constabulary Carbine |
Specifications | |
Mass | 8 lb 9 oz (3.8 kg) (unloaded) |
Length | 49.25 in (1,250 mm) |
Cartridge | .577 Snider |
Calibre | .577 in (14.7 mm) |
Action | Side-hinged breechblock |
Rate of fire | 10 rounds/minute |
Muzzle velocity | 1,250 ft/s (381 m/s) (original black powder load) |
Effective firing range | 600 yd (550 m)[7][8] |
Maximum firing range | 2,000 yd (1,800 m) |
Feed system | Single-shot |
Sights | Sliding ramp rear sights, Fixed-post front sights |
The British .577 Snider–Enfield was a breech-loading rifle. The American inventor, Jacob Snider created this firearm action, and the Snider–Enfield was one of the most widely used of the Snider varieties. The British Army adopted it in 1866 as a conversion system for its ubiquitous Pattern 1853 Enfield muzzle-loading rifles, and used it until 1880 when the Martini–Henry rifle began to supersede it. The British Indian Army used the Snider–Enfield until the end of the nineteenth century.
Design and manufacture
In trials, the Snider Pattern 1853 conversions proved both more accurate than the original Pattern 1853s and much faster firing; a trained soldier could fire ten aimed rounds per minute with the breech-loader, compared with only three rounds per minute with the muzzle-loading weapon. From 1866 onwards, the Enfield rifles were converted in large numbers at the
The Mark III rifles were newly made. They featured steel barrels which were so marked, flat nosed hammers, and a latch-locking breech block instead of the simple integral block lifting tang.
The Snider–Enfield used a new type of metal-cased cartridge called a
Service
The Snider first saw action with the British/Indian Army at the
The Snider was notably powerful. Rudyard Kipling gave a graphic depiction of its effect in his poem, "The Grave of the Hundred Head":
A Snider squibbed in the jungle—
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.
Variants
The Snider–Enfield was produced in several variants. The most commonly encountered variants were the Rifled Musket or Long Rifle, the Short Rifle, and the Cavalry and Artillery Carbines. The Long Rifle has a 36+1⁄2-inch (93 cm) barrel and three barrel bands. Its total length (without bayonet) is 54+1⁄4 inches (138 cm) in length. It was issued to line infantry and has three-groove rifling with one turn in 78 inches (200 cm). The Short Rifle has a 30.5-inch (77 cm) barrel and two barrel bands with iron furniture. This variant was issued to sergeants of line infantry and rifle units. It has five-groove rifling with one turn in 48 inches (120 cm). The Cavalry Carbine is half stocked and has only one barrel band. It has a 19+1⁄2-inch (50 cm) barrel, with the same rifling as the Short Rifle. The Artillery Carbine has a 21+1⁄4-inch (54 cm) barrel with a full stock and two barrel bands, and the same rifling as the Short Rifle and Cavalry Carbine.
The Snider was the subject of substantial imitation, in both approved and questionable forms, including the Nepalese Snider, which was a nearly exact copy, the Dutch Snider, Danish Naval Snider, and the "unauthorised" adaptations of the French
There were also "Trade Pattern" Snider–Enfields, being Snider–Enfields made for private purchase by various English gun-makers. These were often intended for sale to members of volunteer military units, or simply to anyone who might wish to purchase a rifle.
Modern usage
Enthusiasts still use these rifles today, with the number in circulation boosted by the acquisition by Atlanta Cutlery and
See also
References
- ^ Esposito, Gabriele, The Paraguayan War 1864–70: Osprey Publishing (2019)
- ^ Imperial Chinese Armies 1840–1911 by Philip S. Jowett, pp. 19, 22 (2016)
- JSTOR 41965823.
- ^ Esposito, Gabriele, Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879-83: Osprey Publishing (2016)
- ^ McLachlan, Sean (20 September 2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896: The Italian Disaster in Ethiopia. Men-at-Arms 471. Osprey Publishing.p 37. ISBN 9781849084574.
- OCLC 842879929.
- ^ The Army quarterly and defence journal Vol 104. West of England Press. 1973. p. 91.
...Snider-Enfield, which had an effective range of 600 yd.
- ^ Macdonald, John Hay Athole (1909). Fifty years of it: the experiences and struggles of a volunteer of 1859. W. Blackwood and Sons. p. 232.
The Snider-Enfield even at 600 yards, which was the limit of the really effective range of the rifle for accurate shooting.
- ^ Markham, Clements R (1869) A History of the Abyssinian Expedition (Macmillan & Co); p. 325.
- ^ Beynon, L. (1895) With Kelly To Chitral
- ^ Holt Bodinson (March 2006), "Britain's big .577 Snider", Guns Magazine
External links