THE CHIEF ADVANTAGE OF THE NEW GERMAN RIFLE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 793, 13 May 1887, Page 20

THE CHIEF ADVANTAGE OF THE NEW GERMAN RIFLE.

The 73,000 German reserves have returned to their homes after a twelve days’ drill, and it appears that the new rifle which has been introduced into the army lias greatly impressed the Landwehr men. “ First of all,” says the Berlin correspondent of the Independence Beige, “it should be stated that the moral effect of the new rifle is powerful. It is, indeed, the greatest advantage of the gun. All the reserves declare that they consider themselves better armed than with the old Mauser rifle.’ Meanwhile they acknowledge that the rifle range is much more irregular. It was chiefly in order to rectify the rifle range that all the reserves were called out, but instead of applying themselves to this task nearly all the time has been occupied to explain to them the mechanism of the repeating rifle, which is very difficult to understand. They have also been instructed in the handlingof the gun, which, it appears, is somewhat difficult. Not more than twenty-five cartridges have been fired per soldier during the exercises. The rifle appears very heavy, because of the difficulty with which it is maintained resting against the shoulder. In fact, according to the view of the soldiers themselves, it i 3 far from being perfect, but the moral effect, as I said before, is considerable, and suffices to prove that at the present moment the German army rifle is the best in Europe. It is less important to be well armed than to believe that one is better armed than others.”