Snider–Enfield

Last updated • 5 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Snider–Enfield
Snider Springfield Armory.jpg
Type Breech-loading rifle
Place of origin United Kingdom
Service history
In service1866–1901
Used by
Wars
Production history
Designer RSAF Enfield
Designed1860
Manufacturer RSAF Enfield
Produced1866–1880s
No. built~870,000
VariantsLong Rifle, Short Rifle, Engineer's Carbine, Cavalry Carbine, Artillery Carbine, Yeomanry Carbine, Naval Rifle, Royal Irish Constabulary Carbine
Specifications
Mass8 lb 9 oz (3.8 kg) (unloaded)
Length49.25 in (1,250 mm)

Cartridge .577 Snider
Calibre .577 in (14.7 mm)
Action Side-hinged breechblock
Rate of fire 10 rounds/minute
Muzzle velocity 1,250 ft/s (381 m/s) (original black powder load)
Effective firing range600 yd (550 m) [7] [8]
Maximum firing range2,000 yd (1,800 m)
Feed systemSingle-shot
SightsSliding ramp rear sights, Fixed-post front sights

The British .577 Snider–Enfield was a breech-loading rifle. The American inventor, Jacob Snider created this firearm action, and the Snider–Enfield was one of the most widely used of the Snider varieties. The British Army adopted it in 1866 as a conversion system for its ubiquitous Pattern 1853 Enfield muzzle-loading rifles, and used it until 1880 when the Martini–Henry rifle began to supersede it. The British Indian Army used the Snider–Enfield until the end of the nineteenth century.

Contents

Design and manufacture

(From Left to Right): A .577 Snider cartridge, a Zulu War-era rolled brass foil .577/450 Martini-Henry Cartridge, a later drawn brass .577/450 Martini-Henry cartridge, and a .303 British Mk VII SAA Ball cartridge. Snider-Martini-Enfield Cartridges.JPG
(From Left to Right): A .577 Snider cartridge, a Zulu War–era rolled brass foil .577/450 Martini–Henry Cartridge, a later drawn brass .577/450 Martini–Henry cartridge, and a .303 British Mk VII SAA Ball cartridge.

In trials, the Snider Pattern 1853 conversions proved both more accurate than the original Pattern 1853s and much faster firing; a trained soldier could fire ten aimed rounds per minute with the breech-loader, compared with only three rounds per minute with the muzzle-loading weapon. From 1866 onwards, the Enfield rifles were converted in large numbers at the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) Enfield beginning with the initial pattern, the Mark I. The converted rifles received a new breechblock/receiver assembly, but retained the original iron barrel, furniture, lock, and hammer.

The Mark III rifles were newly made. They featured steel barrels which were so marked, flat nosed hammers, and a latch-locking breech block instead of the simple integral block lifting tang.

The Snider–Enfield used a new type of metal-cased cartridge called a Boxer cartridge after its designer. The breech block housed a diagonally downward sloping firing pin struck with a front-action lock mounted hammer. To operate the weapon, the rifleman cocked the hammer, flipped the block out of the receiver to the right by grasping the left mounted breech block lever, and then pulled the block back to extract the spent case. There was no ejector, so the firer turned the rifle to the right and upside-down to allow the case to drop out.

Service

Snider breech-loading mechanism. Snider breech loading mechanism.jpg
Snider breech-loading mechanism.

The Snider first saw action with the British/Indian Army at the battle of Magdala (Aroghee) in Ethiopia on 10 April 1868, against the forces of Tewodros II of Ethiopia; during the battle the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot alone fired 10,200 rounds. [9] The Snider–Enfield served throughout the British Empire, including Cape Colony, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, until its gradual phaseout by the Martini–Henry, beginning in 1871-1880. Volunteer and militia forces continued to use it until the late 1880s. It stayed in service with the Indian Army until the mid-1890s, because between the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and 1905 the British kept the Indian Army one weapon generation behind British units. The Hunza Scouts may have been the last to use it in action (in the carbine version), in the Chitral campaign of 1895. [10] The Indian units received the Martini–Henry when the British adopted the Lee–Metford. The Ijeshas used large numbers of Snider–Enfields against Ibadan during the 16-year-long Yoruba Civil War (1877 to 1893).

Frank Richards, who served on the Northwest Frontier between 1902 and 1908, records in Old Soldier Sahib that the British army still used Sniders during that period. Sentries on night duty in camps and cantonments would carry a Snider and buckshot cartridges. Should tribesmen try to get into the camp to steal rifles, the buckshot would give the sentries a better chance of hitting the thief, and unlike a .303 round, would be less likely to wound or kill a comrade should the sentry miss.

The Snider was notably powerful. Rudyard Kipling gave a graphic depiction of its effect in his poem, "The Grave of the Hundred Head":

A Snider squibbed in the jungle—
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.

Variants

New Zealand Military issue, 1881 Snider Mk II .577 calibre artillery carbine Carbine (AM 2003.99.10-18).jpg
New Zealand Military issue, 1881 Snider Mk II .577 calibre artillery carbine

The Snider–Enfield was produced in several variants. The most commonly encountered variants were the Rifled Musket or Long Rifle, the Short Rifle, and the Cavalry and Artillery Carbines. The Long Rifle has a 36+12-inch (93 cm) barrel and three barrel bands. Its total length (without bayonet) is 54+14 inches (138 cm) in length. It was issued to line infantry and has three-groove rifling with one turn in 78 inches (200 cm). The Short Rifle has a 30.5-inch (77 cm) barrel and two barrel bands with iron furniture. This variant was issued to sergeants of line infantry and rifle units. It has five-groove rifling with one turn in 48 inches (120 cm). The Cavalry Carbine is half stocked and has only one barrel band. It has a 19+12-inch (50 cm) barrel, with the same rifling as the Short Rifle. The Artillery Carbine has a 21+14-inch (54 cm) barrel with a full stock and two barrel bands, and the same rifling as the Short Rifle and Cavalry Carbine.

The Snider was the subject of substantial imitation, in both approved and questionable forms, including the Nepalese Snider, which was a nearly exact copy, the Dutch Snider, Danish Naval Snider, and the "unauthorised" adaptations of the French Tabatière and Russian Krnka.

There were also "Trade Pattern" Snider–Enfields, being Snider–Enfields made for private purchase by various English gun-makers. These were often intended for sale to members of volunteer military units, or simply to anyone who might wish to purchase a rifle.

Modern usage

Enthusiasts still use these rifles today, with the number in circulation boosted by the acquisition by Atlanta Cutlery and International Military Antiques of a vast quantity of antique weapons held in the Royal Nepalese Armory in the Lagan Silekhana Palace for over a century. Ammunition is reloaded into either modern production .577 Snider cases, or re-formed 24-gauge brass shotgun shells. Black powder or modern black-powder substitutes are used. The Halifax Citadel Regimental Association does live-fire demonstrations in the Halifax Citadel; they have around 60 of these rifles. In addition, the Fort Henry Guard at Fort Henry, Kingston also uses the various variants of this weapon for their re-enactments. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single-shot</span> Firearm that holds one round of ammunition

In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have no moving parts other than the trigger, hammer/firing pin or frizzen, and therefore do not need a sizable receiver behind the barrel to accommodate a moving action, making them far less complex and more robust than revolvers or magazine/belt-fed firearms, but also with much slower rates of fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action (firearms)</span> Functional mechanism of breech-loading

In firearms terminology, an action is the functional mechanism of a breech-loading firearm that handles the ammunition cartridges, or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all those are single-shot firearms with a closed off breech with the powder and projectile manually loaded from the muzzle. Instead, the muzzleloader ignition mechanism is referred to as the lock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee–Enfield</span> British Bolt-action rifle

The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of the British Armed Forces from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breechloader</span> Class of gun which is loaded from the breech

A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the (muzzle) end of the barrel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martini–Henry</span> British breech-loading single-shot lever-actuated rifle and derivatives

The Martini–Henry is a breech-loading single-shot rifle with a lever action that was used by the British Army. It first entered service in 1871, eventually replacing the Snider–Enfield, a muzzle-loader converted to the cartridge system. Martini–Henry variants were used throughout the British Empire for 47 years. It combined the dropping-block action first developed by Henry O. Peabody and improved by the Swiss designer Friedrich von Martini, combined with the polygonal rifling designed by Scotsman Alexander Henry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee–Metford</span> Service rifle

The Lee–Metford is a British bolt action rifle which combined James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system and detachable magazine with an innovative seven-groove rifled barrel designed by William Ellis Metford. It replaced the Martini–Henry as the standard service rifle of the British Empire in 1888, following nine years of development and trials, but remained in service for only a short time until replaced by the Lee–Enfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breechblock</span> Part of the firearm action

A breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a breech loading weapon before or at the moment of firing. It seals the breech and contains the pressure generated by the ignited propellant. Retracting the breechblock allows the chamber to be loaded with a cartridge.

A rifled musket, rifle musket, or rifle-musket is a type of firearm made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels replaced with rifled barrels. The term later included rifles that directly replaced, and were of the same design overall as, a particular model of smoothbore musket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M1819 Hall rifle</span> Rifle

The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded by the Harpers Ferry M1803. It used a pivoting chamber breech design and was made with either flintlock or percussion cap ignition systems. The years of production were from the 1820s to the 1840s at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. This was the first breech-loading rifle to be adopted in large numbers by any nation's army, but not the first breech-loading military rifle – the Ferguson rifle was used briefly by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War. The Hall rifle remained overshadowed by common muskets and muzzleloading rifles which were still prevalent until the Civil War. The early flintlocks were mostly converted to percussion ignition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.577/450 Martini–Henry</span> British rifle cartridge

The .577/450 Martini–Henry is a black powder, centrefire rifle cartridge. It was the standard British service cartridge from the early 1870s that went through two changes from the original brass foil wrapped case to the drawn brass of two parts, the case and the primer. The .577/450 Martini–Henry was introduced with the Martini–Henry, in service it succeeded the .577 Snider cartridge and was used by all arms of the British armed forces as well British colonial forces throughout the British Empire until it was itself succeeded by the .303 British cartridge after an unsuccessful trial of a .402 calibre.

The Springfield Model 1873 was the first standard-issue breech-loading rifle adopted by the United States Army. The rifle, in both full-length and carbine versions, was widely used in subsequent battles against Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British military rifles</span> Rifles used by the British Armed Forces

The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. While a musket was largely inaccurate over 100 yards (91 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheap to produce and could be loaded quickly. The use of volley or mass firing by troops meant that the rate of fire took precedence over accuracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martini–Enfield</span> Service rifle

Martini–Enfield rifles were, by and large, conversions of the .577/450 Martini–Henry rifle, rechambered for use with the newly introduced .303 British cartridge. Whilst most Martini–Enfields were converted rifles, a number were newly manufactured as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pattern 1853 Enfield</span> Rifled musket

The Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket was a .577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifled musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867; after which many were replaced in service by the cartridge-loaded Snider–Enfield rifle.

The Minié rifle was an important infantry rifle of the mid-19th century. A version was adopted in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captain Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The bullet was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles and was an innovation that brought about the widespread use of the rifle as the main battlefield weapon for individual soldiers. The French adopted it following difficulties encountered by the French army in North Africa, where their muskets were overtaken in range by long-barreled weapons which were handcrafted by their Algerian opponents. The Minié rifle belonged to the category of rifled muskets.

During the American Civil War, an assortment of small arms found their way onto the battlefield. Though the muzzleloader percussion cap rifled musket was the most numerous weapon, being standard issue for the Union and Confederate armies, many other firearms, ranging from the single-shot breech-loading Sharps and Burnside rifles to the Spencer and the Henry rifles - two of the world's first repeating rifles - were issued by the hundreds of thousands, mostly by the Union. The Civil War brought many advances in firearms technology, most notably the widespread use of rifled barrels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starr carbine</span> Carbine

The Starr carbine was a breechloading single-shot rifle used by the United States Army. Designed in 1858, the Starr was primarily used by cavalry soldiers in the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swinburn–Henry</span> Weapon

The Swinburn–Henry rifle was a breech-loading lever-actuated single-shot rifle that was used by British Commonwealth forces in the late 1870s as substitute for the Martini–Henry, which was at the time in short supply.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green percussion rifle</span> Serbian infantry rifle of the late 19th century

Green percussion rifle was a breech-loading percussion rifle used in the army of the Principality of Serbia in the second half of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serbian Peabody rifle</span> Service rifle

The Serbian Peabody rifle is a single-shot breech-loading rifle made and used in the Principality of Serbia in the second half of the 19th century. It was the first Serbian military rifle to use metallic cartridges.

References

  1. Esposito, Gabriele, The Paraguayan War 1864–70: Osprey Publishing (2019)
  2. Imperial Chinese Armies 1840–1911 by Philip S. Jowett, pp. 19, 22 (2016)
  3. PANKHURST, RICHARD (1971). "Linguistic and Cultural Data on the Penetration of Fire-Arms into Ethiopia". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 9 (1): 47–82. ISSN   0304-2243. JSTOR   41965823.
  4. Esposito, Gabriele, Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879-83: Osprey Publishing (2016)
  5. McLachlan, Sean (20 September 2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896: The Italian Disaster in Ethiopia. Men-at-Arms 471. Osprey Publishing.p 37. ISBN 9781849084574.
  6. Jowett, Philip (2012). Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912-13 : the priming charge for the Great War. Osprey Publishing. ISBN   978-1-299-58155-5. OCLC   842879929.
  7. The Army quarterly and defence journal Vol 104. West of England Press. 1973. p. 91. ...Snider-Enfield, which had an effective range of 600 yd.
  8. Macdonald, John Hay Athole (1909). Fifty years of it: the experiences and struggles of a volunteer of 1859. W. Blackwood and Sons. p. 232. The Snider-Enfield even at 600 yards, which was the limit of the really effective range of the rifle for accurate shooting.
  9. Markham, Clements R (1869) A History of the Abyssinian Expedition (Macmillan & Co); p. 325.
  10. Beynon, L. (1895) With Kelly To Chitral
  11. Holt Bodinson (March 2006), "Britain's big .577 Snider", Guns Magazine