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The Forgotten American Straight Pull --- M1895 Lee Navy,

Most people have been led to believe that the Krag-Jorgensen was the main battle rifle used by the US Military in the 1890’s. Hence, every Spanish American War buff knows about the Krag, but few know about the Lee Navy. At the time the branches of the military were not yet into the whole standardization thing, and each branch of the military used their own equipment and firearms. The Krag was used by the US Army, while the Lee Navy Model 1895 was used by the US Navy and Marine Corps.

A straighpull that used a 6mm rimless cartridge, the Lee rifle was manufactured by Winchester with over 15,000 produced. The Lee rifle saw action in Cuba and the Philippines with Marines and sailors during the Spanish American War and the proceeding Philippine Wars, as well as the Boxer Rebellion in China. Because of its high velocity and long range the Lee rifle was famous for being used by American sailors to pick off Spanish crew and officers from ship decks during the Battle of Manila Bay. It's straight pull action, requiring only a back and forth movement of the bolt, allowed for more firepower than most bolt action rifles of its time. The Lee Navy used a five round box magazine, which was loaded using a special en bloc clip. Unlike other bolt action rifles of the day, the Lee Navy did not have a magazine cutoff, a mechanism which limits the rifle to single shot use only. Rather, sailors and marines were encouraged to make use of the repeating bolt action mechanism of the rifle.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Lee Navy short of its straight pull action was its ammunition, a 6mm smokeless cartridge that was extremely odd for the day. The 6mm Lee Navy used only a 112 grain bullet, a small copper jacketed projectile which could achieve muzzle velocities in excess of 2,500 feet per second. The Navy at the time wanted a high velocity, long distance cartridge intending it for long distance shooting on the high seas. At the time, the 6mm Lee Navy was the first military caliber measured in metric units, and the smallest military caliber until the adoption of the the 5.56X45mm NATO cartridge adopted in 1964.

Despite its advantages the Lee Rifle had some serious drawbacks. Due to its high velocity long range cartridge the rifles had to be sighted in at 700 yards minimum, which mean’t that the rifle shot very high when used at close ranges. Some Marines complained that Lee was not a very good rifle in the field. The firing pin could be fragile leading to misfires and eventual breakdown. Often the springs in the magazine were weak which led to jamming and failures to feed. Finally, the Lee Navy utilized rifling similar to the British Lee Metford, which had a tendency to wear out the barrel quickly.

The model 1895 Lee would be replaced after the Spanish American War by the .30-40 Krag and later the 1903 Springfield would be adopted. Most were sold to the Bannerman Company, which in turn sold them to the civilian market as military surplus. From there many were converted into target and hunting rifles. Today not many survive, and they are high sought by collectors.