Enfield Rifled Musket

Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket
1853 Enfield rifle-musket
Type	Rifled musket
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1853–1889
Used by	United Kingdom & Colonies Costa Rica United States Confederate States of America Japan Empire of Brazil
Wars	Indian Mutiny Filibuster War Crimean War New Zealand Land Wars US Civil War Boshin War Paraguayan War Fenian raids Red River Rebellion Second Schleswig War
Production history
Designer	RSAF Enfield
Designed	1853
Produced	1853–1867
No. built	approx. 1,500,000
Variants	Carbine
Specifications
Weight	9.5 lb (4.3 kg) unloaded
Length	55 in (1,400 mm)
Cartridge	.577 ball
Calibre	.58 in (15 mm)
Action	Percussion lock
Rate of fire	User dependent, usually 3+ rounds a minute
Muzzle velocity	900 ft/s (270 m/s)
Maximum firing range	1,250 yd (1,140 m)
Feed system	Muzzle-loading
Sights	adjustable ramp rear sights, fixed-post front sights

The Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket (also known as the Pattern 1853 Enfield, P53 Enfield, and Enfield rifle-musket) was a .577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifled musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867, after which many Enfield 1853 rifle-muskets were converted to (and replaced in service by) the cartridge-loaded Snider–Enfield rifle.

The term “rifle-musket” originally referred to muskets with the smooth-bored barrels replaced with rifled barrels. The length of the barrels were unchanged, allowing the weapons to be fired by rank, since a long rifle was necessary to enable the muzzles of the second rank of soldiers to project beyond the faces of the men in front. The weapon would also be sufficiently long when fitted with a bayonet to be effective against cavalry. Such weapons manufactured with rifled barrels, muzzle loading, single shot, and utilizing the same firing mechanism, also came to be called rifle-muskets.

William Pritchett developed the Pattern 1853 Enfield in the 1850s. The 39 in (99 cm) barrel had three grooves, with a 1:78 rifling twist, and was fastened to the stock with three metal bands, so that the rifle was often called a "three band" model. The rifle's cartridges contained 70 grains (4.5 g) of black powder, and the ball was typically a 530-grain (34 g) Boxer modification of the Pritchett or a Burton-Minié, which would be driven out at about 850 to 900 feet (259 - 274m) per second.

The original Pritchett design was modified Col. Boxer, who reduced the diameter to 0.55 after troops found the original 0.568 too hard to load during the Indian Mutiny, changing the mixed beeswax-tallow lubrication to pure beeswax for the same reason, and added a clay plug to the base to facilitate expansion, as the original Pritchett design, which relied only on the explosion of the charge, was found to cause excessive fouling from too slow an expansion, allowing unburnt powder to escape around the bullet. The Enfield’s adjustable ladder rear sight had steps for 100 yards (91 m) – t.

With war breaking out between the Russians and the Turks, Britain realized that it was only a matter of time before they would be drawn into the conflict. The British Army was in the midst of a significant weapons transformation from smoothbore muskets to rifled muskets. While three of the four divisions of the field army in the Crimea had been supplied with the pattern 1851 Minie rifle-musket, the other regiments of the army around the Empire still carried the 1842 pattern smoothbore musket. By the end of 1853, the Enfield rifle-musket was approved by the War Department for the army and was put into production. The Enfield saw extensive action in the Crimean War, 1854–1856, with the first Enfield rifles being issued to troops from February 1855.