engages the nose of the trigger sear when the weapon is loaded. (a groove in the tongue, called the “half-bent” (Z), serves as a half-cock arrangement, and could be used as a safety-catch if the proper safety-catch were damaged). The trigger sear (K) is a bell-crank lever, the upper long arm of which is put in and out of contact with the “full-bent,” and the lower or short arm is connected to the trigger. The magazine holds ten cartridges, which rest on a platform, underneath which is the magazine spring that pushes the platform and cartridges up. A “cut-off,” is fitted in the “long” and in some marks of the “short” rifle. This is a sort of lid to the magazine, enabling the magazine to be kept full while the rifle is being used as a single loader. But the present musketry regulations forbid single-loading, and the cut-off is now only closed for special purposes, such as unloading a single cartridge (miss-fire, &c.) without unloading the magazine. The magazine is loaded by inserting a charger in the “charger guides” (these, attached to the body, form a sort of bridge over the bolt) and forcing down the strip of cartridges into the magazine (charger guides not shown in diagrams). The action of the mechanism is as follows: Suppose that the rifle has been fired and the magazine is full. On beginning to turn up the knob of the bolt, the after is revolved, but the cocking-piece (the tongue being held by a groove in the body) and the bolt-head remain stationary. Soon, however, a cam on the bolt comes in contact with a stud on the cocking-piece and the latter is brought slightly to the rear, pulling in the point of the striker and partly compressing the spring. At the same time the lug on the left of the bolt, in contact with the front face of a recess in the body (both being cut slantwise to a screw pitch), forces the bolt and with it the claw of the extractor, which rips the base of the cartridge-case, to slide backwards a little. As the bolt continues to turn the rib on the right of it comes up clear of the body and the whole bolt, with the bolt-head, can thus be drawn back until the bolt-head comes against the resisting shoulder on the right of the body and the extractor attached to it flings out the fired cartridge-case. Another cartridge then comes up from the magazine and lies in front of the bolt-head ready to be pushed home. At this moment (the beginning of loading) the stud on the cocking piece has fallen into one of the grooves on the bolt, and as the bolt is pushed forward the tongue or full-bent comes against the nose of the trigger sear and is held there, while the rest of the bolt mechanism goes on. Thus between the moving bolt and the fixed cocking-piece the striker spring is further compressed, and when the sloping faces of the bolt lugs and ribs engage the resisting portions of the body a last forward push is given to the bolt and the spring is completely compressed, readly to propel the striker forward when the full-bent is released from the nose of the sear. Figs. 5–8 of the older pattern rifle show the working of the breech mechanism. Instead of the older single pull-off of the, trigger the “short” rifle, like many Continental weapons, has a double pull-off. This is provided for by suitably shaping the portion of the trigger which is in contact with the short arm of the sear. The “short” rifle has also a somewhat different pattern of safety-catch.
 Figs 5 and 6.—Lee Metford. |
 Figs. 7 and 8.—Lee-Metford. |
The sights of British service rifles up to 1903 were of a very simple type, the fore-sight a “barleycorn” of triangular shape, and the back-sight a plain leaf with sliding bar into which a V was cut, the tip of the fore-sight seen in the middle of the V being brought on to the mark. In the long charger-loader this form of back-sight has been greatly modified, an in the “short” rifle it as been altogether abolished. The barleycorn fore-sight has been replaced in both cases by an upright blade protected from injury by two ears or wings and the V by a U aperture. For elevation the long rifle has still a slide on a vertical leaf, but the movement of this slide is controlled no longer merely by its tight fit but by a clamping screw. The sight of the short rifle is larger and also quite different in appearance and principle. There is a leaf and on it a slide, but the slide (controlled by clamping studs) works on a cam-shaped bed; its position on the leaf, affecting the point of contact with the cam-shaped bed, elevates the leaf to the required amount, the actual sighting U being on the extremity of the leaf. The short rifle has also a “fine adjustment” which admits of minor changes of elevation within the usual 50 yds. graduation. Both the long and the short rifles have “wind-gauges,” or mechanisms for fine lateral adjustment of the central U sighting aperture, so as to point the axis of the barrel a little to the left or the right of the line of sight to compensate for wind, error of the individual rifle, &c. In both rifles, on the left side of the stock, is a long-distance sight (graduated to 2800 yds.), which consists of an aperture sight near the bolt and a dial and movable pointer near the hand-guard. The short rifle is cased from breech to muzzle in a wooden hand-guard; all patterns of long rifle have only a short wooden hand-guard just behind the back-sight bed. The bayonet in the long rifle is secured to. the fore-end by a spring catch and to the barrel by a ring passing over the muzzle. is tradition, and still usual, arrangement has been abandoned in the short rifle, as the vibration of the barrel on discharge is more or less checked by the extra weight of the bayonet, and therefore the shooting of the rifle differs according as it is fired with or without the bayonet fixed. With the short rifle the bayonet is fixed to two metal fastenings, a plug for the ring and a catch for the handle.
Continental European Rifles.—These are for the most part of the Mauser and the Mannlicher types. The Mauser is a bolt weapon with box magazine. The bolt is simple, without separate bolt-head, and is held by two bolt-lugs at its front end engaging with recesses in the body (the German Mauser has an extra lug near the rear end). Near the rear end there is a cam-shaped recess, which, engaging with a stud on the cocking-piece, partially forces back the cocking-piece and spring when the bolt is revolved. When bolt lever is turned up and the bolt begins in revolve, the cocking-piece and bolt plug, which together form the connexion between the bolt and the trigger, do not revolve, but are forced back slightly, so as to begin the compression of the striker spring. Then, the bolt lever being so shaped as to bear against an inclined-plane edge on the body, the bolt, comes back a little, and with it the extractor jaw and the empty cartridge-case. Lastly, when the bolt has turned through a right angle, all studs are opposite their slots and ways in the body, and the bolt can be drawn back. At the farthest rearward position of the bolt the cocking-stud on the cocking-piece is well behind the nose of the trigger sear, and is thus held when the bolt is pushed forward again, the spring being thereby compressed. All Mauser rifles have a safety-catch and a double pull-off. None have cut-offs except the Turkish pattern. All are constructed for clip or charger loading, but the box magazine contains only five cartridges as against the Lee-Enfield’s ten. Mauser rifles, which are perhaps the strongest and least complicated of magazine arms, are used in the German, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish armies, and were also used by the Boers in the South African War. The type adopted by each of these nations differs from the rest in details only. The German rifle has a long guardless sword bayonet, fixed to the fore-end only and not connected with the barrel, and a
peculiar form of back-sight, which bears some resemblance to the