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bullets - Volunteers & the NRA - rifling - the small-bore rifle |
Memoirof William Ellis Metford |
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In the course of his experiments with explosive projectiles, Mr. Metford had found that the hollow-fronted bullet was not less accurate than that of the usual form, and in his later experiments he discovered that, with the Enfield bullet, which had a hollow rear, the accuracy of flight was very considerably increased by the hollow in front. The whole subject of rifle shooting had been brought into fresh prominence by the rise of the Volunteer movement and the formation of the National Rifle Association in 1859-60. Mr. Metford, though his shooting was much handicapped by his health, and he did not shoot very often in competition, found that he could hold his own by using this form of bullet, and indeed had some small advantage over competitors using ammunition of the ordinary pattern. He won, at rifle meetings in the West of England, two first prizes of 100 pounds each, in 1862, and one in 1863. At the Rifle Conference, in January, 1864, he read a paper on the handicapping of men and of weapons, and alluded to the advantage which he considered to be given him by his method of loading. But he felt that, having won enough prizes to repay the cost of his experiments, the best course was to give the secret to the public, and, almost immediately after the close of the Conference, he wrote a letter to the secretary of it, describing the modified bullet on which his success depended; and a full description of it, with diagrams, was published in a pamphlet on Rifling and Rifle Sights," edited by Lord Bury, for the National Rifle Association, in the same year. Mr. Metford, of course, did not patent this bullet, but Sir J. Whitworth, early in 1864, applied for, and obtained, a patent for an exactly similar bullet. When challenged by Mr. Metford, however, he could not prove either originality or priority of invention. The value of this form of bullet may be judged from the fact that when rifle shells were no longer admissible, the form of the bullet was retained unaltered, and continued to be used as the "Metford-Enfield" bullet until the Snider was superseded by the Martini-Henry. In 1865 we find that in the "Volunteer Service Gazette" competition, at Wimbledon, for long Enfield rifles at 800 yards, "any ammunition" was allowed expressly in order to permit the use of Metford bullets, and that the first prize was won by a competitor using them. Advantage was taken by Mr. Metford of the form of this bullet with its considerable hollow in front, to enable the position of the hit on an iron target to be indicated. He filled the hollow with vegetable charcoal, which, as the bullet broke up, made a momentary cloud, easily visible from the firing point. Mr. Metford also pointed out how a similar bullet, made of hardened lead (1 of tin to 15 of lead), would make good shooting at long ranges if fired from a rifle of .577 calibre with a spiral of 1 turn in 3 to 4 feet, and 3 shallow grooves of .01 inch deep. In 1862 the late Sir Henry Halford came to the front at the Wimbledon meeting as a winner of several important prizes, and Mr. Metford's acquaintance with him, which soon ripened into a lifelong friendship, dated from that time. Henceforward they were associated in all their rifle work, and if Mr. Metford's was the guiding spirit of their partnership, all the zeal, skill, and resources of his friend were ungrudgingly placed at his disposal. They co-operated when in 1864-5 the National Rifle Association gave prizes for a special competition at 2,000 yards with muzzleloading rifles, weighing not more than 15 lbs. Mr. Metford specially made for this competition a rifle of about .5 inch bore with telescopic sight, which gave fair results. It was the only rifle entered in 1865, and in the competition of 1866 the only other competing rifle failed to find the target. |
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