M1879 Remington–Lee
First successful detachable box magazine bolt-action rifle.
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The M1879 Remington–Lee is a bolt-action repeating rifle designed by James Paris Lee in the mid-1870s. It first appeared in 1879, manufactured by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company, and is notable for utilizing the first successful detachable box magazine.
Lore & Background
The M1879 Remington–Lee was designed by James Paris Lee in the mid-1870s and first appeared in 1879, produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company. It was a bolt-action rifle with a detachable box magazine, a feature that set it apart from contemporaries. Eventually, Remington took over production and produced copies in .45-70.
The design was later incorporated by the British into the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield rifles, becoming one of the most widely used rifle designs of the early to mid-20th century. The U.S. Navy purchased 1,000 M1879 rifles in .45-70 Government. The rifle was arguably the most modern in the world until the introduction of the 8mm Lebel M1886 rifle using smokeless powder, though the Lebel still used a fixed tubular magazine.
Reader's Guide
The M1879 Remington–Lee holds significance as the first successful rifle to use a detachable box magazine, a design innovation that influenced later military rifles. Its bolt-action mechanism and magazine system were adopted by the British for the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield rifles, which became standard-issue weapons for the British Empire.
The M1879 saw limited use by the U.S. Navy, but the design's legacy extended through subsequent models and international sales. The rifle's detachable magazine allowed for faster reloading than the fixed tubular magazine of the Lebel M1886, though the latter's smokeless powder ammunition eventually surpassed it. The M1879's basic architecture proved adaptable and long-lived, forming the basis for one of the most widely used rifle families of the 20th century.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: M1879 Remington–Lee (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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