Great topic! The best battle rifles of each of the Breat Wars!

I've had both, still have my SMLE MkIII*, made by BSA in 1915, and it's a great shooter! I've done the "Mad Minute" thing with mine, and though I can't hit the broad side of a barn while shooting that fast, I can loose off the required 15 rounds, which was pretty cool, I thought. There is, however, a "trick" to it. :cool:

Douglas: I had a couple of the Remington-Lee's, and they are GREAT guns too! I lucked out and managed to score several spare magazines, and it was pretty cool to be out there with an original blackpowder cartridge rifle, switching out magazines for a quick reload, LOL! Probably the best of the 19th Century battle rifles, far superior (in my opinion) to the Krag, but sadly Remington was having serious financial difficulties during the period of testing by the US Army for a new smokeless repeater. Luckily the Brits were a couple of years ahead, and got the Lee for themselves... It would have been rather interesting had both the US and UK had Lee-based battle rifles, no?

Cheers!

Gordon

Gordon,
I never understood why the Lee rifle was passed on in favor of the Krag, especially in light of the
hefty royalty paid for each one we produced. Further, how can the board have found in favor of the
complicated (but admittedly really cool) loading port/magazine? In '77 I bought a Saddle Krag
with a sporter stock, probably a Bannerman job, for $75 at a garage sale. It was otherwise an
unmolested piece so I put on a proper stock and sling on it and enjoyed shooting it very much, or
at least as much as I could on a budget that didn't have alot of room for expensive hunting ammo
to burn at the range. I should have kept it............Oh well.
My Remington Lee is one from the Navy contract, and I haven't shot it yet, but as soon as I get a
box of Goex Black Powder .45/70 (and some .45 Colt for the '73's) I will make some noise with it.

Now about that WWII Lithgow Arsenal Enfield I passed on in '81.............no, it's too painful


Best,
Doug

"Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdes."
General Auguste Ducrot, 1 Sept. 1870

Douglas;

It's very sad that Remington was going through it's financial difficulties at the time of the US Army trials, for as you say, it's a better gun than the Krag, in my opinion. (Certainly the opinion of the British Board of Ordnance, too! :cool: ) I had a couple of Remington Lee's, a US Navy M1885 (marked "USS Monterey" #36, it's a very cool gun, but I traded it off for a wheellock pistol still in progress...) and a US Army 1882. Both are great pieces. A friend had a US Navy 1875 made by Sharps which I couldn't trade out of him, but he let me mess with a lot, and I could see lots of cool aspects to it as well. I also had a commercial M1899 in 7mm Mauser, and it was pretty nifty too. It's the version (in .30 US, aka 30-40 Krag) that Michigan, and a couple of other states adopted in preference to the Krag. Not sure if they saw service, but they're nice guns, and fully able to handle the pressures of the high-velocity loads of Mauser actions with no sweat. But by then the US Ordnance had it's heart set on the Mauser, since we got our asses handed to us by the Spaniards in Cuba by them (never mind the hokum that TR and the Yellow Press said about the affair, we just overwhelmed the Spaniards with numbers and enthusiasm).

The poor old Krag though is a great gun, just not great for a military rifle. I think that it has definite benefits for a hunting rifle, and they're as smooth as silk (oddly enough just like a Lee-Enfield...) My uncle, who was my hunting partner when I was a kid, said that while growing up in Wyoming his deer rifle was a .30-30 Winchester, his Elk gun was his .30-40 Krag. Plenty of power for Elk, and of course in those days (1930's) they were more proud of their ability to actually hunt an animal than knock it over at 800 yards from ambush. Anyway, I digress...

The Lee's, both the US and British models, are to my mind the best military bolt-actions that were ever produced. Slick, fast, accurate and with a high magazine capacity, an ability to withstand LOTS of mud and grime, and just all around nice handling capabilities make it a great gun. And as the Afghani's have proven over the years, still one to be treated with respect.

Cheers!

Gordon

These webpages provide a good introduction to the Mosin-Nagant in both it's Russian and it's Finnish versions.
Mosin-Nagants of Imperial Russia
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/RIFLES1.htm
Pre World War 2 Finnish Mosin-Nagant Designs
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/RIFLES2.htm
The Last of Mosin-Nagants
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/RIFLES3.htm

Thanks for that Daniel.
Heres another rather nasty peice of works, though very cool looking!

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Found this interesting pic from the small town of chappele, all that was left of the crucifix after the shelling.
creepy looking!

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