December, 1917 
FOREST AND STREAM 
609 
The Enfield 1914 
sporting rifle among American sportsman 
and admirably fills the purpose of rapid and 
accurate alignment. 
There is but one peep in sight when the 
leaf is raised, instead of the multitude of 
notches and peeps on the Springfield leaf, 
and the slide, the movable portion carry¬ 
ing the peep, locks itself. Notches are cut 
along the leaf, and into these drops the 
locking lever when the soldier releases his 
squeeze of the sight between thumb and 
forefinger. Each notch is ioo yards. The 
hundreds of yards are plainly marked on 
the leaf of the sight. When the leaf is 
folded down between its protecting wings 
on the bridge, “the battle sight” peep is 
exposed to view, a peep of the same size 
as that on the leaf, and adjusted to hit 
center at 400 yards. This makes the shot 
strike a trifle high at 200 yards, but not so 
high as the shot from the Springfield, 
which has its battle sight adjusted for 530 
yards and which shoots 2 ft. too high at 
200 yards, which in these days of high 
power weapons is not an average range. 
The Springfield rear sight is ten inches 
or more from the eye, and the peep is too 
small, both because of its position and be¬ 
cause of its size, for use in hurried shoot¬ 
ing. When the leaf is up there are ex¬ 
posed to view three notches and one peep, 
and the green soldier is always sighting 
through the wrong one and missing a mile. 
The rear sight on our new rifle is supe¬ 
rior in position, design and protection to 
the sight of any rifle in the world of the 
military type. It is a complete turn-over 
on the part of the British, who used to be 
firm believers in the open sight and who 
lost regularly to American rifle teams, be¬ 
cause our peep sight, though poor, was so 
much ahead of the open sight on the Brit¬ 
ish rifle they held to so tenaciously. 
The new rifle is much heavier than the 
Springfield and the barrel is two inches 
longer. Where the Springfield weighs with 
bayonet fixed, about 9^3 lbs., the new rifle 
weighs 11 lbs., and it feels all of that. It 
requires a full sized man to handle the 
rifle quickly with the bayonet fixed, and 
the bayonet is a considerable portion of 
the modern fighting weapon. 
The new rifle is, like the Springfield and 
Mauser and Mannlicher, a clip-loader, that 
is a clip of five cartridges is loaded into 
the magazine by a single sweep of the 
thumb. The Enfield, however, holds six 
cartridges in the magazine, a point of little 
use unless our Government works out a 
six shot clip instead of the present five 
shot clip, because to put in the sixth shot 
would entail breaking a clip and this is not 
always advisable. The Italian Mannlicher 
holds six shots, but the Italians use a six 
shot clip and take fully advantage of it. 
The rifle, while better finished than the 
New Springfield, is not at all a pretty rifle 
in outline. The wide magazine, holding six 
Detail of actions; Top Lee Enfield; En¬ 
field, 1914; New Springfield and the Krag 
shots, and the high bridge on the receiver 
for the protection of the rear sight, gives 
the rifle a very clumsy, bulky look aft, like 
the built up poop deck of a long freight 
British and American rifles old and new. 
1914; third the New Springfield; 
steamer of the type so often seen plough¬ 
ing the waters of the Great Lakes. 
The stock is also very homely, having no 
comb, .and having a peculiar protuberance 
on the grip that is supposed to be a pistol 
grip and which looks as if the comb had 
been turned upside down. 
The stock is Y\ inch longer than that of 
our service rifle, the butt plate is not well 
shaped and bruises the shoulder. The bolt 
handle is bent back as well as down to 
enable the soldier to reach it in rapid fire 
from the shoulder without reaching so far. 
The bolt handle of the European military 
rifles is made to stick out straight horizon¬ 
tally, a homely and clumsy arrangement. 
The bolt of the new rifle is practically 
that of the New Springfield, save that the 
safety is on the receiver back of the bolt 
handle instead of on the bolt sleeve as on 
most military rifles. When uie safety is 
pulled back, a plunger engages the bolt 
handle and prevents it from moving while 
another slips out into a notch in the firing 
pin and prevents the rifle from being fired. 
The bolt handle is so far to the rear that 
the knuckle of the right index finger often 
strikes it, raises it a trifle in gripping the 
rifle, and prevents the soldier from firing 
the rifle or putting on the safety until the 
handle is again depressed where it be¬ 
longs. This is an evil point of the rifle, 
and an objection in that the soldier must 
be careful in gripping it, not to raise the 
handle. The handle also has a habit of 
bumping the knuckle in firing over a para¬ 
pet, due to the heavy recoil. 
The recoil of the rifle is a little lighter 
than that of the Springfield, due to the 
greater weight of the Enfield, but due to 
the longer stock and the poorly shaped 
butt plate, it tends to bruise the shoulder 
more than the Springfield. 
Both rifles shoot our army cartridge, the 
1906, firing 150 gr. sharp point bullet at a 
velocity of 2,700 feet per second. The 
Enfield adds on possibly 40 feet per second 
because of its longer barrel, but this is a 
difference entirely on paper. 
A feature of the new rifle, never seen on 
American rifles, is the left hand twist of 
the rifling, a British idea, and queer look¬ 
ing to the American. Instead of the four- 
groove rifling of the Springfield, this En- 
Top, Lee Enfield; second the Enfield, 
bottom the Krag Jorgenson 
