24 AUGUST 1951, Page 18

Breech-Loading Rifles

SIR,—In the interesting article Shooting It Out in your issue of August 17th ,the writer says: " In 1871 the British Army adopted the Martini-Henry, its first breech-loading rifle." This is not quite correct. The first breech-loader was the Snider, which was superseded by the Martini because the block action would clog and jam in wet weather. ' Robert Blatchford, who enlisted in 1871, has something to say about it. See pages 143-4 of his My Life in the Army, where he describes the trouble the weapon gave to the troops during the Dartmoor manoeuvres. The Martini-Henry was the rifle in use when the present writer enlisted in 1883, and it was replaced by the Lee-Metford in 1888,

as stated by Mr. Colquhoun.—Yours faithfully, R. G. M.