OUR " ADMIRABLE " SERVICE RIFLE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR.')
Srn,—I am afraid that ordinary people who do not go in for rifle-shooting themselves will be quite panic-stricken on read- ing Mr. Baillie-Grohman's letter under this heading in the. Spectator of March 30th. I should like to try to allay their anxiety, as I think Mr. Baillie-Grohman has altogether overstated his case. I know two of the chief Continental rifles, the Mannlicher and the Mauser, nearly as well as our own, and they are certainly superior in many points: (1) lightness, as they are 2 lb. or so lighter than our own; (2) their bolt actions are simpler than ours; (3) their magazines are of a better pattern; and (4) their general finish and excellence of manufacture. But Mr. Baillie-Grohman went on to find fault with Lord Roberts and Mr. Brodrick for praising the accuracy, durability, and thoroughness of manufacture of our rifle. To begin with the last point, though our rifles are inferior in many details of mechanism to those in use on the Continent, do not remember ever having seen one of them go out of order or fail to work properly. In durability, in spite of the great erosion caused by cordite, I consider that our rifle has the best of it. I have never been able to get good work out of Mazinlicher barrel at long ranges after more than from five hundred to eight hundred' shots have been fired from it, but I have known our rifle to go oh shooting as well as ever after two thousand shots, or even more; and you simply cannot wear out the action. I have one rifle which has had five barrels worn out in turn, and the mechanism is as good as the day it was made. As to accuracy—though Mr. Baillie- Grohman is right in saying that most of the long-range shots at Risley use Mannlichers—the -303's that are used win, in proportion to their numbers, more than their share of prizes; the reason why so many Mannlichers are used in preference to our rifles is that there has been great difficulty in some years in obtaining good. -303 ammunition. Cordite does not seem to suit the back position, though it shoots well with the military sights, and eannonite, which most long-range shots use in the -303, has varied very much in quality from year to year. But with cannonite, when good. the .303 can beat the Mannlicher. The .303, owing to the greater weight of its bullet, only needs about two-thirds as much wind allowance as the Mann- licher, which is a great advantage. There are two more points of less importance :–:(1) Sights. The Continental plan is to slide the bar on the backsight into a. notch for every hundred yards. Consequently, the sights can only be altered by 100 yards at a time; also no allowance is possible for individual differences in aiming. With our pattern the most minute alterations can be made. As to faulty sighting, a very few shots on the range will show what corrections to make,—though I admit it would be better if the rifles could all be made to shoot alike : most of them do. (2) I think we have an advantage over Continental rifles in the "cut- off," by which the magazine may be cut off and kept in reserve, thus preventing waste of ammunition, and being always ready for an emergency,—the rifle till then being used as a single-loader. I fear I have been unduly. long, but I hope I have shown that our rifle is not quite SO bad as might be thought from Mr. Baillie-Grohman's letter. The .303 is not quite up to date in many respects, but its only great disadvantage in comparison with Continental rifles lies in its additional weight.—I am, Sir, &c., T. RANKEN. Lear' mouth Terrace, Edinburgh.
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