THE LEE-METFORD RIFLE

Evening Star, Issue 10817, 29 December 1898, Page 2

THE LEE-METFORD RIFLE

The first detachment of the victors of Omdurman has arrived home, and has been duly welcomed, and the British taxpayer will wait in no grudging spirit to learn in due course the cost of the campaign. There is one item, however, very gravely affecting his purse, which is unlikely to appear in any tangible form in the bill, and about which information will probably be difficult to obtain. We allude to the deterioration of the Lee-Metford rifles ! under the stress of rough service in a hot j climate. Many would be glad to know, for instance, how many rounds it takes before the j weapon's initial accuracy for long-range firing begins to fall off; whether great heat affects | this accuracy at once, even before wear begins jto tell; how far the regulations to use the j " pull through" immediately after firing are found to be practicable on service, and what I consequences follow a neglect of them. These ! and other similar questions will certainly be j asked, and we wish we could think that they would be answered fully, and at an early date, j In the meantime, we might not unprofitably I try to learn what the "shooting man" voluni teer has to say about the endurance of thi» weapon when used under the very different conditions of home target practice. The influ- ! ence which he has exercised on the question ! of infantry armament is now generally ad- { mitted to have been powerful in the past, if not on account of superior knowledge, at any i rate, from greater freedom to express his views. • It cannot be denied that at this, the close of ■ the second year of experience with the Leej Metford, very unkind things are being said by volunteer crack shots as to its staying powers. Some aver that after a few hundred rounds of volley or rapid firing it is necessary to keep the weapon for such uses only, and to procure a new one for deliberate long-range shooting. It is stated that the musketry returns for longrange classing promise unfavorably for the year now closing, and that musketry instructors lay the fault on the deterioration of the rifle. It may be that these views are partial or exaggerated, but if there is any substance in them the matter is a serious one. If such ; tilings are done in tbe green tree of home ' practice, what has been done in the drv—the very dry—of foreign service in the Soudan P—» j Army and Navy Gazette.'