Snider Rifle - Did it see action?

[ED, in Los Angeles]

The bottom line is is that the Snider was heavily used by British and colonial troops from the early 1860's right into the 20th century. Yoemanry carbines were still being made into the 1880's.....In fact the last Snider cabine was provisionally sealed on September 4, 1885!!! So it had long legs. We all are so fixated on the Martini and the Lee Metford due to movies, and the fact that most of the most studied wars were armed with the afore montioned longarms.The Snider did its bit for the Empire.

"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 on his forehead
And the back blowen out of his head"

"The Grave Of A Hundred Heads"-Rudyard Kipling

And colsjt65...Don't be so upset about the New Zealand units equiped with MkIII's during WW2. The MKIII was produced even after the war. It was a great gun. The British forces used them and Lithgow in Austalia made a fantastic MKIII with exagerated finger swells on the lower hand guard. Your Island was not short changed at all. You guys just fought the war with a nose cap that went all the way to the muzzle. And you gotta remember that the MKIII's replacement was not introduced untill November 15, 1939. Production commenced AFTER that date.

And even though your cavalry had obsolete carbines, you more than made up for it by acquiring your own model. On May 30,1900, a carbine was produced called the "Carbine, Magazine, fitted to take 1888 sword bayonet". This was a Lee-Enfield action with a Martini-Enfield barrel. This was the carbine of choice of the New Zealand forces. An order was placed for these carbines by New Zealand and Enfield produced 1000 of these unique barreled rifles at a cost of 2/4/11d to the New Zealand government. they were marked "NZ" on the Butt socket and are dated 1901 and 1903. Enfield produced an additional 500 and that was it...1500. A very low number. Today, these rare carbines are called the New Zealand pattern.

See:
".577 Snider-Enfield Rifles & Carbines" by Ian Skennerton
"The Lee-Enfield Story" by Ian Skennerton

[Dixie]

Don't forget that back home a lot of volunteer regiments also used the snider well after the introduction of the martini henry rifle (one gun behind as well!)

[QSVC]

One rifle behind seems to have been universal......

From the Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton Queensland) 1st October 1881

RIFLE SHOOTING, &c.

Our local Volunteers will be interested in knowing that in meeting the Townsville Artillery team in the proposed shooting match, they are not going to encounter a lot of untried men, but men who appear to be pretty expert in the use of the Snider, The other day ten members of the Battery alluded to, shooting with Sniders, fired a match against ten men from H. M. S. Sandfly, at 200, 300. and 400 yards, the blue jackets using the Martini Henry rifle. The Artillerymen shot very well, and eventually won by 62 points. The winners go against the Police team next.

[GrantRCanada]

North West Rebellions in Canada 1885.

Interesting, I didn't even consider it was still in use in the mid-1880s!

Mark

Although the Canadian Militia were probably the first troops outside of the UK to get the Snider-Enfield rifle ..... having been fully re-armed with it well before the end of 1867 because of the Fenian threat .... they were also among the last in the Empire to carry it as their standard-issue longarm. Our Department of Militia & Defence never did adopt the Martini-Henry, and thus kept the Snider on issue until finally forced to adopt the Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle in 1897-98. Indeed, not all units of the Militia had their Sniders replaced until a few years into the 20th Century! (And you think the New Zealand government was niggardly! )

During the 1885 North West Rebellion, Canadian Troops were armed almost exclusively with Snider-Enfield rifles.

[jonc@adelaide.on.net]

Their operational use may extend beyond the period of this forum!

According to the recollections of a Highlander the mounted troops of the Kyber Rifles used sniders in the 1908 North West Frontier campaign - “a cavalcade of Khyber Rifles rode past on their hardy hill ponies. I should guess that not a man was under six feet, and what with their large bore Sniders and huge swords, I was glad they were on our side and not against us. Lt J Russell, The Mohmand Expedition, Queens Own Highlander 1985(?)

But in the official history the Khaibar Rifles is only listed as having expended 7,885 rounds Martini Henri, so the Snider recollection may be incorrect or the Khyber Rifles infantry had Martini Henris and their mounted section's return wasn't included..

Cheer

Jon

[Mark]

Thanks all for your responses to my question, greatly appreciated! This thread is a good example of how forums can be the best place to learn as half of the above I would probably never have known even after reading dozens of books!

Mark