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Winchester-Lee Model 1895 6mm Navy Rifle

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  USMM guy 
#1 ·
Here for your viewing pleasure is Winchester-Lee Model 1895 6mm Navy Rifle serial number 18003 with bayonet and scabbard. It was part of the second US Navy contract (serial numbers 15001-20000) inspected by Lt John N. Jordan (J.N.J as stamped on breech in photo 7) which were delivered from 1 August through 6 December 1898. Per the Winchester Repeating Fire Arms letter the serial number was applied to the on July 22, 1898; Caliber: N; received in warehouse on August 12, 1898 and shipped from warehouse on August 20, 1898; Order number 2689. It just missed the Spanish-American War but may have served during the Relief of the Foreign Legations in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 or during the Philippine Insurrection 1899-1902. I'll have to see if I can track down the USN or USMC ship/unit which eventually received this rifle.










http://s725.photobucket.com/user/va...ded from AOL/SavedFromMail/leenavy_5.jpg.html
 
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#3 ·
That is very cool.

I do not think that I have ever seen one of those before. It looks like it is in fireable condition. Do you know anything about the round that it fired? How did you end up with it? That is amazing that the bayonet stayed with it for all these years.
 
#5 ·
These were fine weapons ahead of their time.

"However, the 6mm U.S.N. cartridge may have been too advanced a concept for the technology of the day. The Navy experienced continued problems with the Rifleite smokeless powder used in the cartridge, which appears to have varied in consistency from lot to lot, while becoming unstable over time. These problems were exacerbated by the custom of keeping ammunition aboard ship for long periods under conditions of high heat and humidity. After some use, many Lee rifles developed bore and throat erosion, and metal fouling due to unburned powder compounds, a problem intensified by substandard internal barrel finishing at the factory. The M1895 Lee was also the only military rifle to use Metford rifling, which British authorities had discarded because of its tendency to wear too easily when used with the smokeless powders of the day."

"The first major combat use of the M1895 occurred during the land campaign to capture Guantánamo Bay, Cuba from June 9–14, 1898 with the First Marine Battalion, in particular at the battles of Camp McCalla and Cuzco Wells. During the battle of Cuzco Wells, Marines using the M1895 Lee effectively engaged concentrations of Spanish troops at ranges up to 1,200 yards, using volley fire against groups of enemy soldiers while their officers called out the range settings. Though some problems were noted with the new rifle, the flat ballistics, accuracy and rate of fire of the M1895 and the light weight of its 6 mm ammunition proved to be of considerable benefit during offensive infantry operations over mountainous and jungled terrain against both Spanish regulars and loyalist guerrilla forces. The extra cartridges proved useful when early ammunition resupply from Navy ships was disrupted at the outset of the Guantanamo operation, allowing Marines to continue their assault even while individually resupplying Cuban rebels who had run short of ammunition. After the battle of Cuzco Wells, the surviving members of the retreating Spanish garrison informed the Spanish General Pareja at Ciudad Guantánamo that they had been attacked by 10,000 Americans."

"The M1895 would see considerable action in the Pacific during the Spanish-American War and the early stages of the later Philippine–American War with U.S. Navy and Marine personnel. During the Moro Rebellion of 1899–1913, it was reported that some Marines preferred the M1892/98 Springfield (Krag) rifle and its .30-caliber ammunition to the M1895 Lee Navy and its 6mm U.S.N. cartridge, believing the latter to have inadequate shocking or stopping power against frenzied bolo-wielding Moro juramentados, who attacked from jungle cover at extremely close distances. In this situation, the 6mm Lee bullet may have overpenetrated without causing sufficient shock and trauma to the enemy, a situation which the Chief of the Bureau of Naval Ordnance had foreseen as early as 1895, when he acknowledged the concern that "the wounds produced by small-caliber bullets will frequently not be sufficient to put the wounded out of action and their shock will not stop the onset of excited men at short range". On the other hand, the Marine Legation Guard, which used the 6mm U.S.N. cartridge in the defense of the foreign legations in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, apparently had no such criticisms. U.S. forces equipped with the Lee rifle in the first (Seymour) relief expedition advancing from Tientsin to relieve the Marines at Peking were able to transport some 10,000 rounds of 6mm ball for the riflemen as well as a Colt machine gun crew, and consequently never ran short of ammunition, unlike other Western forces, who were forced to capture the Imperial Chinese arsenal at Hsiku to find enough cartridges to continue fighting. During the same expedition, Marine sharpshooters using the Lee Navy rifle managed to eliminate the gun crews of two heavy artillery batteries using only rifle fire.

However, the service life of the M1895 as a first-line infantry weapon was soon to end. In December 1898, a board of officers from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps officers recommended that all services adopt the .30 Army cartridge and the small arms and machine guns chambered for it. The board did acknowledge that the rimmed .30 Army round was less than ideal when used in modern machine guns, and that the decision to adopt the .30 Army for the Navy and Marine Corps might be postponed until a rimless version of the .30 Army had been developed. The board's recommendations were later adopted by the War Department.

In the end, the Navy and Marine Corps decided not to wait. As early as November 1899, the Navy placed its first contract for 1,000 Model 1892/98 "U.S. Army magazine rifles" in .30 Army (.30-40 Krag) caliber,[31] with the first M1892/98 rifles issued to the newest pre-dreadnought battleships Kearsarge and Kentucky. New contracts for M1892/98 rifles were let as the U.S. Navy continued to expand, though the M1895 Lee and its 6mm cartridge would continue to see service aboard Navy vessels well into the turn of the century. The U.S. Marines continued to use the M1895 Lee rifle until January 1900, when they received Model 1892/98 rifles in exchange (Philippines and Far East Marine battalions were the first to receive the new rifle and ammunition). The Navy continued to use the M1895 Lee as its primary small arm through at least 1903. From 1910 to 1911, both the M1895 Lee and the M1892/98 "Krag" service rifles were supplanted in Navy and Marine Corps service by the new M1903 Springfield rifle in .30-06 caliber, though the M1895 Lee would remain in service aboard some ships of the fleet into the 1920s, albeit as a secondary (drill practice) arm."

The history of this rifle is amazing.
 
#6 ·
You do not know much about this stuff.

Do you CPTKILLER? :)
 
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