History of British service rifle
Service rifles from the United Kingdom, 1866-2023
It all started with Snider Enfield, adopted in 1866 and chambered in the brass cased .577 snider.
The Snider was notably powerful. Rudyard Kipling gave a graphic depiction of its effect in his poem, "The Grave of the Hundred Head":
A Snider squibbed in the jungle—
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.
In 1874, the Snider was getting replaced in frontline service by the Martini Henry.
The Martini Henry is one of the most popular rifles from the 19th century, used extensively during the Zulu and first Boer war. The Martini Henry was a breach block, lever action rifle chambered in the .577/450, using the same base as the .577 Snider. The Mark I was adopted for service in 1871. There were three further main variations of the Martini–Henry rifle, the Marks II, III and IV, with sub-variations of these, called patterns. In 1877, a carbine version entered service with five main variations including cavalry and artillery versions. Initially, Martinis used the short chamber Boxer-Henry .45 calibre black powder cartridge made of a thin sheet of brass rolled around a mandrel, which was then soldered to an iron base. Later, the rolled brass case was replaced by a solid brass version which remedied a myriad of problems. The Martini Henry started to be replaced by the Lee Metford, but the Martini Henry was still in use untill 1918, and saw action in World War 1 to shoot down observation balloons.
The Lee Metford, officialy adopted as the Magazine Rifle Mark I in 1888. The Lee Metford was a bolt action magazine fed rifle chambered in .303. During the development of the Lee–Metford, smokeless powder was invented. The French and 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.
The Lee enfield. In 1895, the Lee–Metford design was reinforced to accommodate the higher chamber pressures of smokeless powder; more critically, the barrel rifling was changed to one developed by the Enfield factory owing to the incompatibility of the Metford barrel design with smokeless powder (the barrels becoming unusable after less than 5,000 rounds). The designation was changed to Rifle, Magazine, Lee–Enfield Mark I or MLE (magazine Lee–Enfield). The sights also had to be changed to reflect the flatter trajectory and longer ranges of the improved cartridge. The SMLE. Before World War I, the Rifle, Short, Magazine Lee–Enfield, or SMLE, was developed to provide a single rifle to offer a compromise length between rifles and carbines, and to incorporate improvements deemed necessary from experience in the Boer War. With a length of 44.5 inches (1,130 mm), the new weapon was referred to as a "short rifle"; the word "short" refers to the length of the rifle, not the length of the magazine. From 1903 to 1909, many Metford and Enfield rifles were converted to the SMLE configuration with shorter barrels and modified furniture. Production of the improved SMLE Mk III began in 1907. The SMLE was the standard issue rifle of the UK during World War 1.
Beginning shortly after the First World War, the SMLE went through a series of experimental changes that resulted in the Rifle, No. 4 Mk I, which was adopted in 1939 just after the beginning of the Second World War. The changes included receiver-mounted aperture rear sights, similar to that of the Pattern 1914 rifle and changed screw threads, making nearly all threaded components incompatible with those of the SMLE (No. 1) rifle. The No. 4 rifle had a heavier barrel, stronger steel in the action body and bolt body and a short "grip-less" (or "spike") bayonet that mounted directly to the barrel, rather than to a separate nose cap. The latter was the most prominent visual change. Later several models of bladed bayonets were created. The workhorse of the British Empire during the Second world war.
The L1A1 SLR (Self Loading Rifle) is the British version of the FN FAL (Fusil Automatique Leger) – Light Automatic Rifle, one of the most famous and widespread military rifle designs of the late 20th century. Developed by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale Company (FN), it was used by some 70 or more countries, and was manufactured in at least 10 countries. The FAL type rifle is no longer in front line service in the developed world, but is still in use in poorer parts of the world. in 1953. Britain adopted the FAL in 1957 designating it the L1A1 SLR, and produced their own rifles at the RSAF Enfield and BSA factories.
For more about the L1A1, check out this post.
"Small Arms for the 1980s" or SA80, was program for a new assault rifle for the British military. Which ended up in the L85 family of weapons. The L85A1 is the rifle, L86a1 as the light support weapon,the L22A1 as the carbine and the L98A1 as the cadet rifle. The L85A1 was adopted in 1985. The rifle uses a bullpup configuration, meaning the magazine is the back behind the trigger, decreasing the overall length of the rifle. The L85A1 uses a short stroke gas piston and a multi-lug rotating bolt. The L85A1 had alot of issues. It was just not properly designed and used low quality made parts. The rifle was unbelievably unreliable, only useable for right handed shooters and the weight of the rifle is so incredibily unbalanced, giving it alot of muzzle climb. In 1997, the L85A1 was improved by Heckler & Koch. The improved rifle was designated the L85A2. Almost all parts were redesigned and improved. The L85A2 fixed most reliability issues and worked decently well. In 2009 the L85A2 was upgraded with new railed handguards, optics and other accesoires. In 2019, the L85A3 rolled out. having a free float handguard with first HK and now Mlok slots, a full length top rail and a new Flat Dark Earth color scheme to blend more in and blend in with night vision. The A3 is 100gr lighter than the A2. The L85A3 is currenttly still the service rifle of the L85A3. The L85 was meant to be used for 30 years and replaced by a new rifle, but after 2015, the L85 proved itself to be good enough to be still used for years to come.