A drill purpose rifle (also known as a parade rifle) is a rifle which has been altered so that it can no longer be fired. This is generally undertaken by either removing the firing pin or leading the barrel. These rifles are used solely for drill purposes, training and teaching, usually by cadet forces. These rifles can be marched with and can also be used to perform exhibition style individual or group maneuvers.
Australian Defence Force Cadets use replica or inert L1A1 SLRs, F88I Austeyrs or .303 SMLE (Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield). [1]
In the Canadian Cadet Organizations, cadets use decommissioned Lee-Enfields, chambered in either .22 or .303, as drill purpose rifles, labelled with a white band around the muzzle and the butt of the rifle with the letters DP stamped on the stock. [2] The bolt is also removed and destroyed.
In China, a drill-version of the Type 56-I, incapable of firing, is used for ceremonial purposes such as parades. [3]
In the United Kingdom an example of a drill purpose rifle was the L59A1 Drill Rifle, which was used mainly by the Army Cadet Force. The rifles are clearly labelled with a white band around the stock and the butt of the rifle with the letters DP written in bold black script. In addition, it may be stamped 'DP' above the serial number on the receiver. The rifle was used as a teaching aide. A drill purpose version of the L98A2 Cadet GP Rifle is available, the L103 Cadet Drill Purpose rifle. This rifle cannot be fired. It is only used by cadets for practicing rifle drill, weapons handling tests and are easily identified, as they have white top covers as opposed to the normal green. Some may have their front sight removed, some might not.
In the United States of America, active duty military groups have for many decades raised the profile of drill purpose rifles. These groups are hosted by all five services, with the most well-known being the United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon and the U.S. Army Old Guard Drill team. [4] However, the rifles in use by these two groups actually can fire if loaded. New Guard America, [5] the Hawaiian Village King's Guard Drill Team, and the Hawaii Royal Honor Guard are the most well-known private, non-military groups involving in using drill purpose rifles. [6] [7]
At the college level the Pershing Rifles is a national military oriented fraternity that focuses on rifle drills, mostly using the M1903 Springfield or M1 Garand.
Along with the performing groups listed above, military contractor Sports Network International, Inc. (SNI) hosts military drill competitions annually which bring together roughly 10,000 young high school drillers representing all four Junior ROTC service branches. Hosting these events for three of the four service headquarters, the largest of these remains the all-service National High School Drill Team Championships. [8] This event, annually hosted in Daytona Beach, Florida in early May, brings together over 4,000 individuals performing drill & ceremony, the majority using drill purpose rifles. In addition to the many drill events hosted by SNI, they produce an annual international magazine entitled DrillNATION viewed by over 2,500 JROTC units globally, host military drill camps where drill purpose rifles are used and proper drill execution is taught, while also filming and providing the Best of the Nationals Video Series since 1989. [9] [10] [11]
The most popular weapons used in America are replicas of the M1903A3 Springfield, M1 Garand, and the M14.
Currently, there are three main weapons designed exclusively for military exhibition drill. These are the DrillAmerica replica M-1 rifle offered by Glendale Inc; [12] the Parris Manufacturing Company and Daisy replica M1903A3 Springfield drill rifle, created at the request of the United States Navy; and the Mark-1 facsimile rifle, a light-weight replica weapon modeled after an M1903A3 with pistol grip stock.
A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. In contrast, a bolt-action rifle requires the user to cycle the bolt manually before they can fire a second time, and a fully automatic rifle fires continuously until the trigger is released.
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.
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.
The M1 Garand or M1 rifle is a semi-automatic rifle that was the service rifle of the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War.
The M14 rifle, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14, is an American select fire battle rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. It became the standard-issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1957, replacing the M1 Garand rifle in service with the U.S. Army by 1958 and the U.S. Marine Corps by 1965. The M14 was used by the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for Basic and Advanced Individual Training from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s.
The Ross rifle is a straight-pull bolt action rifle chambered in .303 British that was produced in Canada from 1903 until 1918.
A semi-automatic firearm, also called a self-loading or autoloading firearm, is a repeating firearm whose action mechanism automatically loads a following round of cartridge into the chamber and prepares it for subsequent firing, but requires the shooter to manually actuate the trigger in order to discharge each shot. Typically, this involves the weapon's action utilizing the excess energy released during the preceding shot to unlock and move the bolt, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case from the chamber, re-cocking the firing mechanism, and loading a new cartridge into the firing chamber, all without input from the user. To fire again, however, the user must actively release the trigger, allow it to "reset", before pulling the trigger again to fire off the next round. As a result, each trigger pull only discharges a single round from a semi-automatic weapon, as opposed to a fully automatic weapon, which will shoot continuously as long as the ammunition is replete and the trigger is kept depressed.
The M1903 Springfield, officially the U. S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1903, is an American five-round magazine-fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 20th century.
The Springfield Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Springfield located in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, was the primary center for the manufacture of United States military firearms from 1777 until its closing in 1968. It was the first federal armory and one of the first factories in the United States dedicated to the manufacture of weapons. The site is preserved as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Western Massachusetts' only unit of the national park system. It features the world's largest collection of historic American firearms.
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge, 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use until the late 1970s. In the cartridge's name, ".30" refers to the nominal caliber of the bullet in inches; "06" refers to the year the cartridge was adopted, 1906. It replaced the .30-03 Springfield, 6mm Lee Navy, and .30-40 Krag cartridges. The .30-06 remained the U.S. Army's primary rifle and machine gun cartridge for nearly 50 years before being replaced by the 7.62×51mm NATO and 5.56×45mm NATO, both of which remain in current U.S. and NATO service. The cartridge remains a very popular sporting round, with ammunition produced by all major manufacturers.
A battle rifle is a semi-automatic or select fire service rifle chambered to fire a full-power cartridge and a internal box magazine or detachable box magazine. The term "battle rifle" is a retronym created largely out of a need to better differentiate the intermediate-power cartridge assault rifles from full-powered rifles as both classes of modern firearms have a similar appearance and share many of the same features such as detachable magazines, pistol grips, or separate upper and lower receivers. Battle rifles were most prominent from the 1940s to the 1970s, when they were used as service rifles. While modern battle rifles largely resemble modern assault rifle designs, which replaced battle rifles in most roles, the term may also describe older military full-power semi-automatic rifles such as the M1 Garand, SVT-40, Gewehr 41, Gewehr 43, Type 4, FN Model 1949, and MAS-49.
Exhibition drill is a variant of drill that involves complex marching sequences which usually deviate from drill used in the course of ordinary parades. Teams performing exhibition drill are often affiliated with military units, but the scope of exhibition drill is not limited to military drill teams. Exhibition drill is often performed by Armed Forces Precision Drill Teams, the drill teams at service academies and ROTC and JROTC units, and civilian drill teams that perform at parades, drill meets, and half-time shows and other public venues.
The Grenade, Rifle No. 68 / Anti-Tank was a British anti-tank rifle grenade used during the Second World War and was one of the first operational weapons to utilise the shaped charge principle.
The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is a national organization dedicated to training and educating U.S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and airguns through gun safety training, marksmanship training, and competitions. The CMP is a federally chartered 501(c)(3) corporation that places a priority on serving youth through gun safety and marksmanship activities that encourage personal growth and build life skills.
A service rifle or standard-issue rifle is a rifle or carbine that a military issues to its personnel, typically to its regular infantry. In modern militaries, this is generally a versatile, rugged, and reliable assault rifle or battle rifle, suitable for use in nearly all environments and is effective in most combat situations. Almost all modern militaries are issued service pistols as sidearms to accompany their service rifles. The term can also be used to describe weapons issued by non-military forces, such as law enforcement or paramilitaries.
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 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.
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.