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OUR RIFLE OF THE FUTURE
By EDWARD C. CROSSMAN
O N our fateful Good Friday
of this year, eight hundred
thousand short brown rifles
rested on the shoulders of
our boys in "olive drab",
or encumbered the shelves of our great
stone arsenals.
These rifles are the backbone of our
present military equipment. Are they
worthy and efficient? If we
supply the huge new army we
are raising with similar
weapons, is there any
danger that the enemies
this force will have to
oppose will be better
equipped ?
Reluctantly we must
admit that these rifles are
not up-to-date, and that if
a division of our troops
were to advance against
a wing of the German
line in France, the defenders
w o u 1 d oppose
them with superior
weapons.
The model of 1903 is
fourteen years old. Fourteen
years have seen the
gradual evolution of a military
rifle that operates itself
save for pulling the trigger
—a machine gun in so far as
the recoil or gas from a port
542
The Bolt Action Rifle
When firing this weapon the infantryman must relea]
his hold upon the pistol grip, jerk up and back the
bolt—ejecting the fired cartridge and bringing in a new one—and then
jam it back into place before aiming. This is inconveniently slow when
repelling a charge upon the trenches.
in the barrel does all the work of ejecting
the fired cartridge case, cocking the
striker, inserting a new cartridge and
closing the bolt again.
The exigencies of trench fighting, of
mass attacks, of increasing courage of
men who refuse to abide by the old rules
and hesitate when a certain per cent, even
as small as 10 per cent, of casualties
have been inflicted by the attacked force.
have made most desirable a rifle for the
Lieutenant George
Mortimer (World's
Champion Long Range Rifle Shot)
Demonstrating the Speed of Fire
of the Ross Canadian Service Rifle
nfantry that can fire rapidly
and continuously—up nearly
tii machine-gun speed—at a
critical moment.
Our New Springfield, the
"short brown rifle", is a turnbolt,
a modified Mauser, and,
being a turn-bolt, is akin to
the military rifle every other
nation has used to the present
time. After the shot is fired
the soldier seizes the bolthandle
sticking out on the
right side of the rifle,
turns it up, unlocking the
bolt lugs from their engagement
with the frame