Swift training rifle

Last updated December 21, 2023

The Swift Training Rifle was a rifle shooting training device made in Great Britain during the Second World War.^[1] This rifle did not actually fire a cartridge, but shot out a forked probe that punctured a paper target barely an inch from the "muzzle". The system illustrated, to a recruit or trainee, the required sight picture and the correct hold of the rifle as well as the correct operation of the action, the finesse of trigger pull, and the importance of prevention of cant of the rifle.

The device, in a transit case and with its associated target frame and targets, was sold mainly to the Royal Air Force to train recruits; whilst the army treated the system with a degree of unjustified^{[ citation needed ]}, but perhaps typical, disdain. There were two main models of Swift training rifle made available over a period of about three war years. These were the A and B series, which were each loosely based on the Lee–Enfield No.3 rifle (P14 in .303" calibre and P17 in 30.06" calibre) and there was the later Mark IV Rifle which was more closely modelled on the British Lee–Enfield No.4 rifle. A similar training rifle was manufactured in Canada at the Long Branch factory. It is arguable whether the latter was a better training rifle, but it was a far cheaper production item at a time when funds were needed to produce the real weapons for which these training rifles were simply economical teaching aids.

The Swift Training Rifle came with a stand that folded out in "Deck Chair" fashion, and onto which was clipped the paper target. The rifle was held at a constant distance from the target by a steel rod bridle hinged from the target frame and hooked into a sling-swivel-like fitting under the rifle's fore-end woodwork. The targets were printed in a series of four different images, each illustrating a particular training scenario.

Related Research Articles

The SA80 is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle. The prototypes were created in 1976, with production of the A1 variant starting in 1985 and ending in 1994. The A2 variant came to be as the result of a significant upgrade in the early 2000s by Heckler & Koch and remains in service as of 2023. The A3 variant was first issued in 2018 with several new improvements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolt action</span> Type of firearm mechanism

Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by directly manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm.

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">Ross rifle</span> Canadian bolt-action rifle

The Ross rifle is a straight-pull bolt action rifle chambered in .303 British that was produced in Canada from 1903 until 1918.

The Webley Revolver was, in various designations, a standard issue service pistol for the armed forces of the United Kingdom, and countries of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, from 1887 to 1970.

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.

The .303 British or 7.7×56mmR, is a .303-inch (7.7 mm) calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows the traditional black powder convention.

The Lee–Metford rifle was a bolt-action British army service rifle, combining 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 rifle in 1888, following nine years of development and trials, but remained in service for only a short time until replaced by the similar Lee–Enfield.

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.

The L42A1 is a bolt-action sniper rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. Used in the past by the British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force RAF Regiment, the L42A1 entered service in 1970. It was replaced by the Accuracy International AW in 1985.

The M1917 Enfield, the "American Enfield", formally named "United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917" is an American modification and production of the .303-inch Pattern 1914 Enfield (P14) rifle, which was developed and manufactured during the period 1917–1918. Numerically, it was the main rifle used by the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I. The Danish Sirius Dog Sled Patrol on Greenland still use the M1917, which performs reliably in Arctic conditions, as their service weapon.

The Pattern 1913 Enfield (P'13) was an experimental rifle developed by the Royal Small Arms Factory for the British Army as a result of its combat experience in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902. The weapon was to serve as a replacement for the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield (SMLE). An advanced chamber design allowed for a high-velocity .276 Enfield rimless round, which was more powerful than the service-issued .303 British cartridge. Introduction of the P'13 was rendered impractical by the outbreak of the First World War.

The Rifle, .303 Pattern 1914 was a British service rifle of the First World War period, principally manufactured under contract by companies in the United States. It was a bolt-action weapon with an integral 5-round magazine. It served as a sniper rifle and as second-line and reserve issue, until declared obsolete in 1947. The Pattern 1914 Enfield was the successor to the Pattern 1913 Enfield experimental rifle and the predecessor of the U.S. Rifle M1917 Enfield.

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Paris Lee</span>

James Paris Lee was a British Canadian inventor and arms designer. He is best known for having invented the Lee Model 1879 rifle, which is the first bolt-action detachable box magazine fed rifle. These features would be incorporated into more successful repeating rifle designs later on, such as in the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield rifle series.

The Boer Commandos or "Kommandos" were volunteer military units of guerilla militia organized by the Boer people of South Africa. From this came the term "commando" into the English language during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902 as per Costica Andrew.

The Whitworth rifle was an English-made percussion rifle used in the latter half of the 19th century. A single-shot muzzleloader with excellent long-range accuracy for its era, especially when used with a telescopic sight, the Whitworth rifle was widely regarded as the world's first sniper rifle.

A cadet rifle is a rifle used by military cadets and others for basic firearms and marksmanship training. Generally .22 caliber and bolt-action, they also come in semi-automatic versions. They are often miniature .22 caliber versions of standard issue service rifles.

The Pattern 1907 bayonet, officially called the Sword bayonet, pattern 1907 , is an out-of-production British bayonet designed to be used with the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) rifle. The Pattern 1907 bayonet was used by the British and Commonwealth forces throughout both the First and Second World Wars.

References

↑ "The British SWIFT Training Rifle". Historic Arms Resource Centre. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2018.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "The British SWIFT Training Rifle". Historic Arms Resource Centre. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2018.

[1]