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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1290, 19 November 1896, Page 9

For the first time at a meeting' of a colonial rifle association smokeless powder was used in one of the competitions at liandwick, N.S.W., on Saturday, 21th October. A special match at 500yds was arranged for this, and the ammunition was very highly spoken of by those who used it. Tho powdor was that known as rifleite, and was manufactured by the Smokeless Powder Company iu England. It is claimed for this powder, which is brown in colour, that, in addition to being smokeless, it has tho further advantages over the black powder of imparting a greater velocity to the bullet, ana of having less recoil, fouling less and being less heating. Although more expensive than the common explosive, it will, as a matter of fact, be eh apor to use, as only 37|gr are reauired lor a charge, as against Ssgr of tho other. Another interesting oojeet on the range was a Martini-Metford rifle, or a weapon with the Martini action and the Metford barrel. The first weapon of this pattern was made by Messrs Greener and Greener, of London at the suggestion of the Colonial Ammunition Company v and. its merits were so obvious that it was at once adopted by the English Government as a service rifle. The Canadian forces are at present being armed with this weapon, which may appropriately bo spoken, of as an Australian design, in preference even' ' to tho wfupssipe jifie,