FRANCE'S NEW WONDERFUL RIFLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6069, 27 October 1887, Page 3

FRANCE'S NEW WONDERFUL RIFLE.

The Lebel rifle, the new arm with wjiich the French infantry will be supplied before next spring, is, according to all accounts, a wonder, and several models of the gun which have been received here have excited great interest. The new rifle is known by the name of ita inventor, Lebel, and is smaller and lighter than the rifles now in use; the French soldiers call it "tho little g«n." The most authentic descriptions given of the gun agree in attributing to it a carrying power beyond that of any rifle heretofore in use. The models received in New York are not known to be accurate copies of the Lebel gun, and experiments with them are impossible, owing to the fact that the powder used is a secret compound of which the French Government has the monopoly. According i to all accounts the Lebel gun will carry i its bullet more than a mile and a half, 1 with a more certain aim than has been possible with ordinary rifles. The bore of the gun is very small, and the ball, which is of steel and sharply pointed at one end, is said to revolve at a speed of a thousand revolutions a second. In the tests made by the French Government this bullet haß peneteated a brick wall eight inches ttrick at a distance of 500 yards ; it will go '. through any kind of armour which can be worn by soldiers, and at a distance of more than a mile -will pass through a : man as easily as at ten paces. The gun : has no recoil under fire, and the powder ' gives out no smoke whatever. It has been < said that the powder used must be a type ' of smokeless hunting powder already in ' the market; but this is denied by the 1 inventor, who says that he uses an entirely < new compound. Tho Lebel gun is, of 1 course, a repeater, and the cartridges are < so small that each soldier carries' 220 i rounds of ammunition, aa against 116 i rounds, formerly considered the maximum, j The French Government is now making « these guns at the rate of SOO a day at Saint i Etienne, and is preparing to turn out i double that number. Four factories, those 1 at Chatellerault, Tulle, and Saint Etienno < will soon be at work upon thein,~#cui ' i York Evening Post. " | \