Textbook Of Small Arms 1929

509 Pages·2009·11.13 MB·English

TEXTBOOK
OF
SMALL ARMS
1929

LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE
To be purchased directly from H. M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses:
Adastral House, Kingsway, Loudon, W. C. 2; 120, George Street, Edinburgh; York Street, Manchester; 1,
St. Andrew’s Crescent, Cardiff; 15, Donegall Square West, Belfast;
or through any Bookseller.

1929.
Price 5s. 0d. net.
EDITOR’S PREFACE

The Textbook of Small Arms, which appears to have been first printed in 1863, was a thin volume
specially intended for Officers under instruction at the School of Musketry at Hythe. Reprints or revised
editions, called for by changes in armament, appeared in 1868, 1877 and 1880. The next edition, that of
1884, was almost entirely re-written; it bore the title of “Treatise on Military Small Arms and Ammunition
. . . a Textbook for the Army,” by Lieut.-Colonel H. Bond, R. A., Assistant Superintendent Royal Small
Arms Factories. This work contained abbreviated ballistic tables and showed the method of using them. A
fresh edition appeared in 1888.
The adoption of the magazine rifle and a smokeless propellant made a new book necessary, and the
name Textbook was again used in 1894 for an enlarged work. The next edition, that of 1904, was an almost
completely new volume, double the size of the last; for this Captain W. B. Wallace, Inspector of Small
Arms, was responsible; it contains some remarks on automatic rifles. A fresh version of the same book was
issued in 1909, the ballistic tables being separately bound.
For the present edition the name Textbook has been retained; it has, however, been almost completely
re-written. The extended use and the rapid development of all kinds of Small Arms which have taken place
during and since the Great War, have made it necessary for its scope to be greatly widened in the endeavour
to provide a general survey of all matters concerning Small Arms. It would be impossible to deal
exhaustively with each particular topic within the limits of a single volume, nor could any single writer
cover authoritatively the whole range of differing subjects which have now to be included. It has been
thought well to allow considerable latitude in method of treatment in the different sections of the book.
Principles of design and methods of calculation have been treated suggestively rather than dogmatically,
and endeavour has been made to bring out the interest of the various subjects. The object has been to
provide an introduction to technical matters for the practical soldier rather than a complete work of
reference for the technical expert only.
In dealing with rifles and pistols, and with the great subject, new to the Textbook, of machine guns, the
system adopted has been that of describing the different types of mechanism employed, and of indicating
the variants within those types, rather than of attempting to describe exhaustively each separate variety of
weapon. The Chanters on ammunition contain, among other things, much information on manufacture,
inspection, and storage. Grenades are for the first time included in the Textbook.
The gradual obsolescence of the arme blanche has been thought to justify the historical treatment of the
sword by an admitted authority on that subject.
Although general laws always hold good, rifle ballistics require somewhat different treatment from
those of large ordnance. It seemed therefore superfluous merely to repeat what already appears on this
subject in the Textbook of Ballistics and Gunnery. Instead of doing this, an attempt has been made to show
the great interest of the subject, and to indicate some other lines on which it may be treated, it being
understood that the factors to be taken into account are many, and that the results of calculation will be
correct in proportion as they approximate to actual results, but, apart from this, have no inherent
infallibility.
The Editor desires to acknowledge his great indebtedness to the various helpers, official and unofficial, who
have contributed to the work.
CORRIGENDA.
Outside cover — For “FOR” read “OF.”
Page 405 (last column), under Norway For “1910” read “1894”. (Changed)
Page 22, under “Krag-Jorgensen Rifle” For “Norway, 1910” read “Norway, 1894”. (Changed)
TEXTBOOK OF SMALL ARMS

CONTENTS
Part I — Small Arms
II — Small Arm Ammunition
III — Ballistics or Small Arms
IV — Appendices and Ballistic Tables

Part I
Chapt. Sect. Small Arms Page

I. The Rifle
1 The history of the rifle 1
2 A review of the systems of modern rifles and a comparison of their principal 10
components
3 The British service rifle 41
4 Outline of manufacture and inspection of the British service rifle 49
5 Considerations affecting the accuracy of the rifle 50
6 Sights 58
7 Rests for rifle shooting 65
8 Definitions pertaining to the rifle and rifle shooting 67

II. The Sword, Lance and Bayonet
1 The history of the sword, lance and bayonet 69
2 Outline of the manufacture and inspection of the British service bayonet 84

III. Revolvers and Self-Loading Pistols
1 The revolver 86
2 Self-loading pistols 95

IV. Grenades
1 The history of grenades 105
2 Considerations affecting the design of grenades 116
3 Fuzes, igniters and bursters 118
4 Means of projection 124
5 British and foreign grenades 131

V. Machine Guns and Light Machine Guns
1 The history of machine guns 150
2 The characteristics of an efficient automatic weapon 154
3 Features of design found in modern automatic weapons 159
4 Tests and adjustments pertaining to automatic weapons 193
5 Mountings 198
6 Blank firing attachments 202
Part II
Small Arm Ammunition

I. History or the Development of the small Arm cartridge 205

II. Notes on the Design of the Modern Military Cartridge 208

III. Explosives
1 General remarks 215
2 Historical outline 216
3 General characteristics of small arm propellants 218
4 Manufacture of small arm propellants 221

IV. Small arm cartridge manufacture
1 General considerations 223
2 General factory organization 224
3 Case manufacture 225
4 Bullet manufacture 230
5 Cap manufacture and filling 233
6 Loading 236

V. Proof of Small Arm Ammunition with Special Reference to ·303-inch Mk. VII
1 Selection of proof 237
2 Accuracy trials 238
3 Velocity and pressure trials and the use of standard ammunition 239
4 Freedom from defects and functioning trials 242

VI. Inspection of ·303-inch Mk. VII Ammunition
1 Necessity for complete inspection 247
2 Break down and chemical analysis 248
3 Weighing 249
4 Gauging 250
5 Visual examination 253
6 Packing 253
7 Assessment of quantities 255
8 Inspection of packing accessories 265
9 Storage 256

VII. Miscellaneous military ammunition
1 The ·303-inch Mk. VI cartridge 257
2 The ·303-inch armour-piercing cartridge 257
3 Tracer ammunition 258
4 Special ammunition for the Royal Air Force 259
5 Rifle grenade cartridges 261
6 The ·303-inch blank cartridge 262
7 Drill ammunition 263
8 Pistol ammunition 263
9 Miniature rifle ammunition 265
Part III
Ballistics of Small Arms

I. Interior ballistics (descriptive) 267

II. Exterior ballistics (descriptive) 275
1 The sub-division of the trajectory into three parts 276
2 The parabolic or unresisted trajectory, and the recognition from earliest times of the effect of a 277
resisting medium
3 Early experiments from Newton’s time up to the introduction of Rifled Ordnance, with remarks 279
on the velocity of sound in air
4 Bashforth’s work with his Chronograph 280
5 Ballistic Tables and the value of “C “ 285
6 The wind problem 285
7 The principle of the rigidity of the trajectory 287
8 The twist of rifling, drift, yaw and the rotation of the earth 288

III. Interior ballistics (numerical) 292
1 The principle of mechanical similitude 294
2 The practical method used by Housman 295
3 Rational or formal methods of calculation following Charbonnier and Hezlet’s methods 297
4 The energy contained in the powder and the amount carried away by the bullet 300
5 Mr. F. W. Jones’ articles in Arms and Explosives 303
6 The Monomial method 305

IV. Exterior ballistics (numerical) 308
1 Methods not requiring ballistic tables 309
2 The Ballistic Tables and their use 317
3 Given the values of C, R and V, to construct a full range table 323
4 Detailed numerical example of all the trajectories of one rifle, for elevations from 0° to 90° 326
5 Practical methods of determining the value of the Ballistic Coefficient 329
6 Long range fire analysis in two arcs 332
7 The Ballistics of low power weapons and revolvers 336

V. The “le boulenge” chronograph 337

VI. Instruments for Measuring the Pressure in the Rifle and how to use them 341

VII. Ballistic Pendulum and Theory of Recoil 347

VIII. Probability of Fire 352

IX. The Strength of Guns 359

X. Wounding effects of Bullets 362

XI. Definitions and Units 366
Part IV
APPENDICES

I. Range table of ·303 Mk. VII from Hythe firings 371

II. Abstract of results of Ordnance Committee calculations 372

III. Ordnance Committee calculations plotted and pricked off 373

IV. Table II used for V = 2600 f.s. 374
C = 0·284

V. Use of S. & T. tables of Table I to determine R. and L. when V, C and v are given by formulae 374

VI. Table I 375
Table Ia 381
Table II 387
Table III 393
Table IV 395
Table V 398

VII. Index to Formulae, Part III, Chap. IV 401

VIII. Details of the rifles of various Powers 403

IX. Details of the machine guns and Light machine guns of various Powers 408

X. Details of the small arm ammunition of various Powers 418
1

TEXTBOOK OF SMALL ARMS

PART I – SMALL ARMS

CHAPTER I – THE RIFLE

Chapter I — Section 1 - The History Of The Rifle

I

The following is an outline of the development of firearms.
The composition of gunpowder is first given by Roger Bacon, who recorded it in the year 1248; it is
almost certain that he was its discoverer. The belief that it was known to the Chinese and other Eastern
nations at an earlier date seems not to be justified. They used incendiary mixtures, but not explosive ones,
and had not differentiated saltpetre from other salts. This was only accomplished a few years before
Bacon’s discovery.
It was not he, however, who applied gunpowder to the propulsion of missiles; this was a later invention,
and is usually attributed to Bernard Schwarz, a German monk, who lived in the fourteenth century. There is
no trace of firearms before 1300. The tradition that the idea of a gun arose from the explosion of gunpowder
in a mortar, the lid of which was violently blown off, may very well be true. There is evidence that the
earliest guns were pot-shaped vessels, and that cannon were first evolved from this form. The earliest
missiles were arrows padded out to fit the bore.
The hand-gun (as the artilleryman still calls it) was derived from the cannon and does not appear till late
in the fourteenth century. At first it consisted of a short iron tube, prolonged behind the breech into a rod
which was used to manipulate it and was tucked under the arm when the piece was fired; the charge was
ignited by applying a match to a touch-hole on the upper side of the piece.
The uncertainty of ignition of the earliest hand firearms was so great, and the ingredients of early
gunpowder so impure, that their efficiency can only have been of a low order. But their force was at least
sufficient to penetrate armour, and their noise demoralized the mounts of the men-at-arms. It may be
observed that there were influential believers in the superiority of the bow even so late as the reign of
Elizabeth.
To the primitive hand-gun a wooden stock had been added by 1400; it was straight, and rested on the top
of the shoulder; the shorter curved stock, to rest against the breast, was a later development. The wooden
stock seems to have led to the touch-hole being placed at the side, and furnished with a pan to hold the
priming, and a pan cover; the match was now held in a cock or split lever attached to the stock and hinged so
as to lower its end into the pan when actuated by the movement of a simple system of levers controlled by
the movement of the “tricker.” The match lock so arranged was known as the “harquebus.” Similar
weapons are still in use in many parts of the world.
The drawbacks of carrying, and of keeping dry, lengths of slow match hung to the girdle, with a shorter
piece having two smouldering ends held in the fingers, were obvious enough; but the essential improvement
of producing the fire only at the moment at which the piece was to be fired took many years to assume a
practical form. The wheel lock, too costly and too complicated for the ordinary soldier, was produced in
Germany early in the sixteenth century, and was prominently in use for pistols and for sporting weapons,
until after 150 years it was definitely superseded by the flint lock. In the wheel lock, the cock was armed
with pyrites, which, when lowered, it pressed against the serrated edge of a steel wheel projecting through
the bottom of the pan.
2

The action of pulling the trigger released a spring, the wheel revolved, and sparks were struck which ignited
the priming. The simpler snap-hance lock, developed during the seventeenth century into the flint lock,
dates from the same period. It also had a cock carrying pyrites; when the cock fell, this struck against a
piece of steel, throwing sparks into the pan. The first use of flint dates from about 1600; the flint lock
approached its perfection when the motion of the cock in falling not only struck sparks against the hammer,
but also opened the pan which had up to that instant protected the priming. A good flint would fire 30 shots
with some certainty before it was worn down.
The flint lock came into the British Army about the time of the Restoration; all Marlborough’s wars
were fought with it, and it changed little until after Waterloo, when Forsyth’s invention of ignition by the
percussion of fulminate (which dates from 1805) gradually brought about its extinction. The percussion
system was not adopted for the British Army till 1836. The percussion cap has proved itself perfectly
adaptable to the change from muzzle loader to breech-loader and magazine rifle, and from black to
smokeless powder.

II

The hand-gun had been in systematic use for more than a hundred years before rifling was invented by
some unknown genius. It is clear that the invention dates from the early days of the sixteenth century, and
from the school of armourers in Nuremburg; but authentic details of its origin are lacking. The knowledge
that spinning a projectile adds to its steadiness in flight belongs to primitive times. The difficulty in the case
of firearms lay in the application of the principle. Spiral grooving would spin a ball if the ball were gripped
by it firmly from breech to muzzle; this required that the ball should fit tightly when rammed down from the
muzzle in loading. But powder was foul, and, in early days, made of very impure ingredients; the crust left
on the bore made it a slow and laborious process to force the ball down after once firing. This difficulty was
perennial, and though rifling came into use on the Continent for sporting weapons, for pistols, and for target
purposes, for which accuracy was of more importance than rapidity of fire, the invention was 200 years old
before any material success attended it for military use. The endeavour had many times been made. The
mountaineers of the Continent used their hunting rifles in the field with success on many occasions, but the
rifle was essentially a specialist’s arm. Christian IV of Denmark had a number of wheel-lock rifles made for
his troops soon after 1600, but it does not appear that his experiment met with any success. Marshall
Puysegur in the seventeenth century recommended the arming of two men in each company of the French
infantry with rifles, and some of their cavalry regiments were armed with the rifle before 1680.
Rifling does not seem to have been known in this country till about 1580, when the invention was
probably some 60 years old. The first scientific investigator of the subject was Benjamin Robins
(1707-1751) who proved that the very wild flight of musket balls was due to their receiving a rotary motion
from their last contact with the bore on leaving the muzzle, and also that a rifle ball in its flight kept
foremost that part of the ball which was uppermost in the barrel after loading. His prophecy in his “New
Principles of Gunnery,” 1742, is too remarkable not to be quoted. “Whatever State,” he says, “shall
thoroughly comprehend the nature and advantages of rifled barrel pieces, and having facilitated and
completed their construction, shall introduce into their armies their general use, with a dexterity in the
management of them, will by this means acquire a superiority which will almost equal anything that has
been done at any time by the particular excellence of any one kind of arms.”
3

Not long after this utterance British troops began to use rifles in the field. In the backwoods of America
the settlers used their hunting rifles with so much effect that the only effective rejoinder was to pit rifle
against rifle; for this purpose Jaegers were recruited on the Continent. With these as a foundation, the Royal
American Regiment, afterwards the 60th Rifles, was raised in 1756. Colonel Bouquet, who commanded it,
obtained 16 rifles for use in the Battalion in 1758; the use of this arm was afterwards extended, and the
officers carried rifles; that carried by Wolfe (who died in 1759) is still preserved in the Museum of the
R.U.S.I; it is of American make. In 1794, one battalion of the regiment was armed throughout with the rifle,
and its 5th battalion was raised expressly as a rifle battalion in 1798, and was dressed in green. The rifles
used by this regiment appear to have been made on the Continent, but no doubt some American rifles were
used.
A remarkable interlude in the eighteenth century was afforded by Lt.-Col. Patrick Ferguson of the 71st
Highlanders, a man who suffered the usual experience of those who are too far ahead of their time. He
invented, and had made in this country, a breech-loading rifle fit for service purposes, with which he gave
successful demonstrations in 1776 at Woolwich. In this arm the breech was opened and closed by a vertical
plug threaded with a steep screw, so that it only needed a single turn of the lever forming the trigger guard to
open or close it. He used this rifle himself in the American war, and armed some of his men with it, but his
force met with disaster and he himself was killed at King’s Mountain in 1780, and no further use was made
of the first breech-loader and the first rifle of English manufacture used in war by British troops.
In 1800 the Rifle Brigade was raised and armed with the Baker rifle, the production of the Whitechapel
gunmaker of that name. It was shorter and lighter than the musket, having a 30-inch barrel. This rifle was
afterwards issued to light infantry companies and other units, and was the only rifle in use in the British
Service up to 1838. In that year the Brunswick rifle superseded it, a rifle with ignition by percussion and
having a belt cast on the ball, which a deep notch across the muzzle guided into the two deep grooves of the
rifling. This rifle was not a success; it also suffered much from difficulties caused by the fouling particulars
of these rifles are given on page 5, together with those of the British Service rifles which preceded the
introduction of magazine arms. An attempt to arm troops with a better rifle than the Brunswick was made
by the issue to the 1st Batt. Rifle Brigade during the Kaffir War (1846-52) of Lancaster rifles firing a
flat-based conical bullet cast with two wings to fit the grooving, and some useful work was done with this
rifle. But it was not free from the defects of its predecessors.

III

Many endeavours had been made to increase the rapidity of loading the rifle by devising a projectile
which would pass easily down the bore and yet, when fired, expand into the grooving. Delvigne and
Thouvenin in France led the way to real improvement (1830-50), and the first solution was found by Minie,
who in 1849 produced a cylindro-conoidal hollow-based bullet which fired satisfactorily from a rifle with
an ordinary breech. This bullet had a deep taper hollow in the base, with a hemispherical iron cup fitted to it;
this was forced into the hollow by the explosion, so expanding the bullet.
Minie’s principle met with immediate success. It was adopted in this country in 1851. The “English
Minie” rifle, however, was not found to be very satisfactory, and was never generally issued, though it was
used by some of the troops in the Crimea. As a makeshift arrangement a number of 1842 pattern muskets
were rifled and issued to the Royal Marines. These were known as Sea Service rifles.
In 1852 a committee was formed to decide on a new rifled arm for the British forces, and after trying
many rifles of private manufacture recommended the Enfield rifle of 0·577 calibre, fitted with a leaf
backsight which could be folded down either forward or backward, and in 1853 the Pritchett bullet
(suggested to Pritchett by Mr. Metford) which had a hollow base, without plug or cup to assist expansion,
was adopted for it. Other alterations were afterwards made, and in its final form (1859) the bullet, which
had a plug fitted to its hollow base, and was heavily lubricated, was of only ·55-inch diameter, so that it had
to expand 0·027-inch into the bore of 0·577-inch, and, further than this, to expand into the grooving.