THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
VI 
The origin of the rifle has already been alluded to. As it emerges from 
the mists of its earlier days we find it established for sporting purposes, 
but incapable of being utilized for military purposes in spite of many 
attempts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The musket, if 
ineffective at any long distance, was well established, simple, rapid to 
load. With the rifle, the ball had to be spun by the spiral grooving, with 
which it had to be in effective contact. The area of contact of a sphere 
fitting in a cylinder is but a line; hence either the ball was in danger of 
“ stripping,” i.e., of escaping from the control of the grooving as it passed 
up the barrel, or it had to be forced down, being almost deformed so as 
to fit into the grooves. Such an operation became extremely difficult when 
the barrel became foul, as happened after firing a few shots. Thus, when 
the Rifle Brigade was organized in 1800, in the light of the success of the 
rifle in the American War of Independence, and armed with the Baker 
rifle, wooden mallets were issued to the men with which the ball was 
forced into the grooving at the muzzle before being rammed down. This 
procedure was ultimately condemned as too cumbrous and slow, but the 
rate of fire was always deliberate; if the rifle could shoot accurately to 
three times the distance of the musket, the latter could fire three shots to 
one of the former. But the Rifle Battalions in the Peninsula fully justified 
their creation. This was the first step in fulfilment of the remarkable 
prophecy made in 1742 by Robins, the first scientific investigator of the 
rifle, as to its future importance as a soldier’s arm. 
Hitherto, the rifle, developed as a sporting weapon, had been applied 
to use in war; thus, both Continental Jaegers and American backwoods- 
men were men expert in the use of the sporting weapon. ” The Field ” 
published recently some trials made with a Baker rifle still in use on a 
deer forest in Scotland. With the successful adoption of the rifle for soldiers 
began an era of fresh developement. The Volunteers of the period used it, 
and military experts endeavoured to improve it. The substitution of a 
cylindro-conoidal bullet for the spherical ball was worked out in France, 
and Captain Minie’s rifle produced in 1849 revolutionized the arms of 
all Europe. Thenceforth development on the new lines was rapid. The 
automatic expansion of the bullet into the grooves of the rifle was 
perfected, and the accuracy, rapidity and certainty of fire were soon 
immensely improved. 
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