BTFLFS FOR VOLUNTEERS.
To find the most effective weapon and at the same time the one most easily used and the cheapest, is a subject for consideration with those who are now engaged in arranging our volunteer corps. The Enfield Rifle so very lately ordered to be placed in the hands of all our soldiers, is now called the old Enfield." It is as we very well know a good weapon of its kind, and will serve for the army until the breech-loading rifle has been so simplified as to become fit for the use of the stupidest man ever likely to be in the ranks. But for a body of men who are to pay for their own rifles and have an interest in taking care of them and keeping them in perfect order, the breech-loader is the most admirable implement ; and mainly for the reason that it is by far the most handy under all circumstances. It is loaded with greater ease and rapidity, and may be charged while lying on the ground or even while running along, and we need scarcely say that as it is loaded so quickly it is capable of being fired with corresponding rapidity. We should say decidedly that it is also a safer fire-arm, not being liable to accident from loading at the muzzle, or from leaving the ramrod in the barrel, a piece of forget- fulness not at all uncommon in the hurry of firing. The breech-loader is unquestionably much easier to understand and manage than the old muzzle-loader. This is to our minds a very important thing for amateurs.
Two or three kinds of breech-loaders are now in use in the Army and -Navy, on approbation as it were. They have all gone through pretty severe preliminary tests. Good serviceable breech-loader rifles may be bought in quantity at something .less than 71. each, and some with •a ' bayonet included. The Enfield rifle costs about 31. 108.— so that it has the great consideration in its favour cf cheapness; but it requires care in loading, otherwise it dogs and is sometimes useless in the field, though, we ourselves have frequently fired 100 rounds in succession without a single miss-fire from it. Terry's breech-loader is certainly one of the most reliable weapons, it is easily managed, and the cartridges used have the advantage of always leaving a greased wad in advance of the bullet in the barrel thus always tending to prevent "leading." Eighteen hundred rounds have been fired with this rifle, under inspection, without a miss- fire. The Blues and sane other cavalry carry a carbine, of this make, and it is also in use in the Navy. A rifle of this kind. may be bed fel 6/. or 71. the' ball-cartridges cost about 78. per 160, -Another ex- cellent breech-loader rifle is Sharp's an Ancelican invention, in which the breech is drawn downwards through the stock by a small lever, the end of the barrel-being thus opened to receive the cartridge, the breeok is 'then -returned. The loading is here very simple, and the great strength of the breech gives it recommendation on the score of safety ; but its apt to dog at the breech. It is fired by a very ingenious, self-acting, and detonating fuse, a kind of ribbon match which uncoils- and comes upon the nipple in the act of cocking. The rifle on the hinge- breech principle, token from a French invention, is well enough in the hands of a sportsman and for double barrel guns. It has also the advantage of allowing the barrels to be examined and cleaned very perfectly. But it is not well adopted for soldiering, on account of the chances of getting the hinge overstrained and broken by the tendency of the barrel to sway downwards in the act of loading ; especially in action, the man might forget to bolt the guard that prevents this separation. The cart- ridges for this piece are very compact and adapted to resist damp, and they are armed with a cap inside them, so that no capping is required as in Terry's rifle, but then these cartridges are expen- sive, costing fourteen shillings per hundred. It would be impossible without drawings to describe accurately any of the new rifles, so that we should recommend a visit to some of the principal makers—as Reilly's, in Ox- ford Street; Lang's, in Codnigur Street; Egg's, in the Opera Colonnade; Furdey's, in Oxford Street. Feeling that ,the subject is of grea interest at the present time we shall take the opportunity of mentioning some of the other kinds of rifle now proposed.
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