M1895 Lee Navy
The M1895 Lee Navy was a straight-pull magazine rifle adopted in limited numbers by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in 1895 as a first-line infantry rifle. The Navy's official designation for the Lee Straight-Pull rifle was the "Lee Rifle, Model of 1895, caliber 6-mm" but the weapon is also largely known by other names, such as the "Winchester-Lee rifle", "Lee Model 1895", "6mm Lee Navy", and "Lee Rifle, Model of 1895".
It fired a 6mm cartridge, which used an early smokeless powder, was semi-rimless, and fired a 135-grain jacketed bullet. The 6mm U.S.N. or Lee Navy Cartridge was also used in the navy version of the Colt–Browning Model 1895 machinegun.
Production history and development
By 1894, the U.S. Navy desired to adopt a modern small-bore, smokeless powder rifle in keeping with other first-line naval powers. Originally, a rimmed 6mm round was envisioned, but after problems encountered with cartridge feeding, naval authorities decided that the new cartridge should be semi-rimless or rimless to facilitate optimum functioning in both clip-fed rifles and machine guns. As the military forces began adopting smaller and smaller caliber rifles with higher velocity cartridges, U.S. naval authorities decided to leapfrog developments by adopting a semi-rimless cartridge in 6-mm caliber, with a case capable of holding a heavy charge of smokeless powder.On August 1, 1894, a naval test board was convened at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island, to test submitted magazine rifles in the new 6mm Navy government chambering. Per the terms of the Notice to Inventors, the new government-designed 6mm U.S.N a.k.a. Ball Cartridge, 6mm was the only cartridge permitted for rifles tested before the Naval Small Arms Board. Both the ammunition and rifle barrels were supplied by the government; the barrels, made of 4.5 per cent nickel steel, used Lee-Metford-pattern rifling with a rifling twist of one turn in 6.5 inches, and were supplied unchambered with the receiver thread uncut. The rifle action was required to withstand the firing of five overpressure cartridges with a chamber pressure of.
Service trials
In the first set of service trials, the naval small arms board tested several submissions, including the Van Patten, Daudeteau, Briggs-Kneeland, Miles, the Russell-Livermore Magazine Rifle, five Remington turnbolt designs, and the Lee straight-pull. In a second set of trials the Model 1893/94 Luger 6-mm Rifle and the Durst rifle were also considered, along with a Lee turning-bolt design.The Durst prototype fractured the receiver in firing and was withdrawn from the test, while the Luger Rifle performed excellently. Luger's submission had only one major disadvantage: it failed to meet government specifications, having been chambered in a non-standard rimless 6mm cartridge. The Lee turning bolt design was considered to be a good one, but marred by its magazine system, which the Small Arms Board found to be problematic. The Board thought so highly of the Luger Rifle that it recommended purchase of either a prototype or an option to purchase the rights to manufacture. Apparently this never came to pass, as Luger not only declined to submit its design in the Navy's government 6mm chambering, but withdrew from the third round of the service trials.
Adoption
With the absence of the Luger rifle, the Board found Lee's straight-pull design superior to the Miles and Russell-Livermore entries, and particularly noted the superiority of the Lee clip-feed mechanism. In their Report, the Board stated that the Lee rifle "is strong, simple, composed of few parts, and is susceptible of very rapid manipulation without great experience or aptitude on the part of the operator." The Lee straight-pull rifle with its clip-loaded magazine was duly chosen as the winner after the completion of the small arms trials, and was selected for adoption by the U.S. Navy in 1895 as the Lee Rifle, Model of 1895, caliber 6-mm, a.k.a. the M1895 Lee Navy.First contract
The first naval contract for the M1895 was let to Winchester for 10,000 rifles in January 1896. However, deliveries of the initial shipment of 10,000 rifles were not completed until 1897, owing to delays caused by manufacturing issues, as well as contract changes imposed by the navy. The latter included a significant change in ammunition specification, which required extensive test firings followed by recalibration of the sights.Of the 10,000 rifles produced under the first contract, 1,800 were issued to the U.S. Marine Corps. Marine battalions scheduled to be equipped with the 6 mm Lee rifle did not begin to receive their new rifles and ammunition until 1897, two years after adoption of the cartridge and rifle.
Colonel-Commandant Charles Heywood of the Marine Corps reportedly refused small initial allotments of the 6 mm Lee rifle to the Corps until he was given assurances that the Corps would be immediately issued at least 3,000 Lee rifles, improved target ranges, and most importantly, enough ammunition for Marine units to continue their existing marksmanship program.
Despite this threat, the September 1897 report of the Marine Corps Quartermaster to the Secretary of the Navy urgently requested a minimum additional $10,000 in funding to purchase sufficient 6 mm ammunition to allow Marines to conduct live fire and target practice with the Lee rifle. The report warned that, except for drill practice, enlisted Marines were "entirely unfamiliar with the use of this arm", since all target practice still had to be conducted using the old single-shot Springfield and.45-70 black-powder ammunition.
Rifles with a serial number below 13390 were made prior to December 31, 1898. Additional smaller purchases were subsequently made to replace lost weapons, mostly in response to a fire at the New York Navy Yard which damaged or destroyed about 2,500 rifles; around 230 rifles were condemned as unrestorable.
The additional small quantity purchases by the Navy as well as all sporting models fall into the 10000–15000 serial range, purchased between the two major contracts. Some confusion arises as to production dates for the sporting rifles as many of the commercially manufactured and numbered receivers were not made into complete rifles until 1902, and sales continued until 1916.
Military rifles have 28-inch barrels and navy anchor stamp, while rifles made for civilian sale have 24-inch barrels and no anchor.
Second contract
While serial numbers 13391 through 15000 were made after December 1, 1898, and are not categorized as antiques by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a second contract was let on February 7, 1898, for an additional 5,000 rifles at $18.75 each. This second contract began delivery in August 1898 and was completed in December 1898.Reliability in the field
Overall, the Lee had a reputation for reliability in the field, though some issues were never overcome during the rifle's relatively short service life. Beginning in 1898, during the Marine expeditionary campaign in Cuba, reports emerged from the field criticizing the floating extractor design. The firing pin lock and bolt-lock actuator were relatively fragile, and would occasionally break or malfunction, while the tension in the en bloc cartridge clips proved difficult to regulate, occasionally causing failures to feed.Design and operation
Magazine system
The Lee's magazine system was improved over the prior Navy rifle, the M1885 Remington-Lee, by incorporating a clip-loaded magazine system and an action capable of handling high-velocity, small-caliber smokeless cartridges. Designed by inventor James Paris Lee, the rifle weighed and was about long.It was the first American military rifle to be loaded by charging an en bloc clip of five 6mm cartridges into the rifle magazine, similar to the Mannlicher clip system. Lee later claimed in an unsuccessful lawsuit that his single-row clip-loaded magazine patent was infringed by von Mannlicher, but most historians agree that Mannlicher and Lee independently developed their en bloc magazine systems along separate but parallel lines.
In the Secretary of the Navy's Annual Report, the Lee system was mentioned as follows:
The method of using the clip is to insert it with its five cartridges into the magazine of the gun...from which it drops as the bolt is pushed forward loading the first cartridge into the chamber. It thus combines the advantages of the two systems most widely used, not requiring to be stripped into the magazine like the Mauser clip, and not being an essential part of the magazine like the Mannlicher clip.
After inserting the clip, the bolt was then given a push to ready the first round for chambering. Closing the bolt stripped off each round in succession, feeding the next cartridge into the chamber. The clip itself dropped free from the magazine when the first cartridge had been loaded.
Unlike the M1892 Springfield and the later M1903 Springfield rifle, the Lee straight-pull did not have a magazine cut-off to enable the cartridges in the magazine to be held in reserve in keeping with the prevailing small arms military doctrine of the day.
The Chief of Ordnance considered the Lee clip to be superior to either the Mauser stripper clip or the Mannlicher en bloc clip, as cartridges were not required to be stripped from the clip into the magazine, yet the Lee clip was not an essential part of the magazine, since it dropped out after the first cartridge was loaded, and since single cartridges could be loaded into an empty or partially loaded magazine to replace cartridges fired. This conclusion was in conflict with the Naval Small Arms Board, which did consider the Lee clip to be an essential part of the magazine.
When specifying the requirements for its new service rifle, the Navy emphasized that it desired a repeating rifle loaded by means of chargers or clips, but "since the conditions of service may require the use of loose cartridges, or may result in the disabling of the magazine, it is desirable that the small arm be susceptible of use as a single loader, and that the magazine be capable of being replenished by single cartridges.
The new Lee rifle and its magazine met all of these requirements, enabling a rifleman in an emergency to use the loose cartridges taken from loaded belts supplied to machine gun crews for the 6 mm Colt–Browning machine gun.