British Military Rifles - Lee-Metford Rifles

Lee-Metford Rifles

The first British repeating rifle incorporated a bolt-action and a box-magazine; this was developed through trials beginning in 1879, and adopted as the Magazine Rifle Mark I in 1888. This rifle is commonly referred to as the Lee-Metford or MLM (Magazine Lee-Metford).

The "Lee" comes from James Paris Lee (1831–1904), a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor who designed an easy-to-operate turnbolt and a high capacity box magazine to work with it. The box magazine, either Lee or Mannlicher designed, proved superior in combat to the Kropatschek-style tube magazine used by the French in their Lebel rifle, or the Krag-Jørgensen rotary magazine used in the first US bolt-action rifle (M1892). The initial Lee magazine was a straight stack, eight-round box, which was superseded by the staggered, ten-round box in later versions, in each case more than were accommodated by Mannlicher box magazine designs. The “Metford” comes from William Ellis Metford (1824–1899), an English engineer who was instrumental in perfecting the .30 calibre jacketed bullet and rifling to accommodate the smaller diameter.

During the development of the Lee-Metford smokeless powder was invented. The French and the Germans were already implementing their second-generation bolt-action rifles, the 8 mm Lebel in 1886 and 7.92 mm Gewehr 88 in 1888 respectively, using smokeless powder to propel smaller diameter bullets. The British followed the trend of using smaller diameter bullets, but the Lee-Metford design process overlapped the invention of smokeless powder, and was not adapted for its use. However, in 1895 the design was modified to work with smokeless powder resulting in the Lee-Enfield.

A contrast between this design and other successful bolt actions of the time such as the Mausers and US Springfield is the rear locking lug. This puts the lug close to the bolt handle, where the pressure is applied by the operator; in essence the force is close to the fulcrum point. Without great explanation, this results in an easier and swifter operation versus the Mauser design, resulting in a greater rate of fire. However, the sacrifice is strength as the fulcrum point has moved away from the force of the explosion, thus making the length of the bolt a lever working against the holding power of the rear lug. This was a limiting factor in the ballistics capacity of this design.

Another difference between the Lee and the Mauser designs was the use of "cock-on-closing", which also helped to speed cycling by making the initial opening of the breech very easy. The closing stroke, which is generally more forceful than the opening stroke, cocks the rifle, adding to the ease of use. The Lee design also featured a shorter bolt travel and a 60-degree rotation of the bolt; these attributes also led to faster cycle times.

Over the service life of the design, proponents and opponents would stress rate-of-fire versus ballistics respectively. The basic Lee design with some tinkering was the basis for most British front-line rifles until after World War II.