Rifle used prior to short mag Lee Enfield?

[eagleeye]

Hi,

The most common rifle associated with the British army in the Great War was the short magazine Lee Enfield.

However in lots of news footage of the war, especially in the early days there appears another rifle which must have been its predecessor.

Can anyone tell me what it was?

Rod

[gem22]

Rod

Try this for size:

http://www.rememuseum.org.uk/arms/rifles/armbsr.htm

Garth

[bkristof]

must be the long lee enfield or lee metford rifle. This was very common in WW1 too. A lot of territorials and volunteer bats used them.

[J T Gray]

This topic reminded me...

The Pitt-Rivers Museum here in Oxford has a 1909ish Mauser rifle with a card stating that the War Department were considering replacing the Lee Enfield, Metford, etc with the Mauser, but that WW1 - for obvious reasons - put an end to that.

Anyone know whether or not this is true?

Adrian

[T8HANTS]

The Mauser actioned rifle was the P14 which in its turn became the American P17 in 30- 06.

The British also used limited quantities of Japanese Arisakas and the cadets at Osbourne Collage were armed with a mark of Winchester repeater.

The Lee Metfords had been rebarrelled and the actions reworked by WW1.

Martini-Enfields were also used in training.