History of The British Army - Official Rifle of The Army 1722-2005

Official Rifle of The Army 1722-2005

See British military rifles

The British army has mixed extreme conservatism, 'penny-pinching', and extraordinarily exacting standards in its rifles. For example the move to percussion-caps was not made until 1842, while an 1866 trial examined 104 weapons and declined to award a first prize, or that the specifications for an SLR in the 1930s were so stiff "it is doubtful if any... rifle of the present day could meet it in its entirety."

Changes were usually forced on the Army as a result of conflict or the actions of other armies. Note the rapid pace of change in the period 1850-1895 as the Crimean War forced changes and then the foreign demonstrations of the needle-gun, the Chassepot, and the Mannlicher-Mauser designs frightened the Army.

In the 19th century the change-overs were not instant, many colonial units soldiered on with older weapons - some units missing two cycles of change - while some weapons (italicized in the list below) were only issued to specialist rifle brigades or in very limited numbers.

As happens, the Army's men often had the weapons to fight the last war by the time of the following conflict. Most of the 19th century weapons were technologically obsolete at their introduction or within five years, and despite the apparently exhaustive testing many inadequate weapons were issued.

• Brown Bess 1722-1838
  • Long Land Pattern 1722-1802
  • Short Land Pattern 1777-1802
  • New Land Pattern Musket 1802-1842
• Baker rifle 1800-1835
• Pattern 1836 Brunswick rifle 1836-1851
• Pattern 1851 Minié rifle 1851-1855
• Enfield
  • Pattern 1853 1855-1860
  • Pattern 1860 1860-1864
• Snider-Enfield (or Converted Enfield) 1864-1871
• Martini-Henry 1871-1888
  • Enfield-Martini 1884-1888
• Lee-Metford 1888-1895
• Lee-Enfield 1895-1956
  • SMLE 1903-1956
• L1A1 SLR 1957-1985
• L85 1985-