The Snider Enfield Conversion,While the US were busy converting old stocks of Springfield muskets in
The Snider Enfield Conversion,While the US were busy converting old stocks of Springfield muskets into breechloading self contained cartridge rifles called Trapdoor Sprinfields, the British were also doing the same to their Enfield muskets. Created by an American named Jacob Snider, the Snider Enfield was similar in many ways to the Trapdoor Springfield. The chamber was machined away exposing the breech, allowing the user to insert a cartridge. Unlike the Sprinfields tradoor design, the Snider design used a hinged breechblock that moved off the right, exposing the breech. Unlike the Trapdoor Springfield, the Snider Enfield lacked and extractor, which meant that the user had to remove empty cartridge casing by hand, while with the Trapdoor the casing was automatically ejected when the breechblock was opened. They were chambered for a cartridge called .577 Snider.The Snider Enfield would see service alongside the Martini-Henry from the 1870’s up to the turn of the century. Typically a trained soldier could fire ten shot a minute compared to the earlier three shots a minute with a musket. Around 870,000 were converted or produced on their own, around the same number produced as the Martini Henry rifle. -- source link
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