THE SERVICE RIFLE.
[TO THE ED/TOR OF THE "SPECTATOR-1
Sm—An officer now on active service in South Africa who has had much experience in rifle-shooting writes :—" Our rifle is certainly a rotten weapon. The stock is insufficiently • strong for Service purposes. Amongst hundreds I could have taken at Pretoria scarcely one was sound, many like a flail with the butt loose, many lashed together with bootlaces. The barrel is good enough, but the sighting has no relation to the range. No wonder 'Tommy' prefers the bayonet. 'Brother Boer' can pick off a man on a horse at 1,000 yards, but the sighting of the Lee-Enfield does not guide the user as to the same acre in which the bullet should pitch. It has some • good points. The magazine being in reserve, while it can be used as a single loader, is admirable; also the short extractor spring is better than the long one in the Mauser, which breaks easily. But the magazine is a clumsy arrangement, the rounds not going in without .much thumbing. The cup of the Mauser is by no means a certain arrangement, as they often jam. The Krag Jorgensen is undoubtedly a very superior rifle. Its magazine is more easily charged, and no clip required. But it only holds five cartridges, which is too few; and its bore is too small. Yet it is the best rifle in use here. Its sighting is simply beautiful, and most accurate in the hands of any intelligent man. I have annexed one from Brother Boer,' and have loosed it off frequently with good effect. The foreign-made rifles are superior to ours in design and workmanship because of their adoption of modern auto- matic machinery, slot-drilling and milling machines. Com- pare their finish with the hand-tool marks on our shoddy bolts. With respect to cordite, notwithstanding depreciatory statements, I have heard here no complaints of it, and it may be found to have done all that is claimed for it I sup- pose we shall be entirely rearmed after this war is over. Our field-guns are excellent, but they do not shoot far enough, and our shells act simply beautifully. The Boer shells, on the other hand, are not so effective, from defective, ill-timed fuses. But their high-velocity guns are better, and have a much longer range than ours."—I am, Sir, &c., UBIQUE.
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