Posted on 11/07/2019 5:54:26 AM PST by w1n1
The Whitworth Rifle was a single-shot muzzle-loaded rifle used in the latter half of the 19th century. Possessing excellent long range accuracy for its time, the Whitworth, when used with a scope, was the world's first sniper rifle, and saw use with Confederate sharpshooters in the American Civil War. This rifle was invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth, a famed British engineer and inventor.
Whitworth had experimented with cannons using polygonal rifling instead of traditional rifled barrels, which was patented in 1854. The hexagonal polygonal rifling meant that the projectile did not have to bite into grooves as was done with conventional rifling.
Whitworth believed that the same type of system could be used to create a more accurate rifle to replace the Pattern 1853 Enfield.
Trials were held in 1857 to compare Whitworth’s design against the Enfield. The Whitworth rifle outperformed the Enfield at a rate of about three to one in the trials, which tested the accuracy and range of both weapons. Notably, the Whitworth rifle was able to hit the target at a range of 2,000 yards, where the Enfield was only able to hit the same target at a range of 1,400 yards.
Design and Features While the barrel design of the Whitworth rifle was innovative, the rest of the rifle was similar to other rifles and rifle-muskets used at the time. The rifle was muzzle loaded, and used a percussion lock firing mechanism. The lock mechanism was very similar to that used on the Enfield rifle-musket. Whitworth chose to use a longer and more slender bullet than was common at the time, which resulted in a bore diameter of .451 caliber, significantly smaller than the Enfield’s .577 caliber bore. Whitworth’s bullets were more stable at longer ranges than the shorter and larger diameter bullets found in other rifles of the time. Whitworth also engineered the barrel with a 1-in-20" twist, quite a bit tighter than the 1-in-78" of the 1853 Enfield, or the later 1856/1858 variants with 5 groove barrels and a 1-in-48" twist. The extra spin the faster twist imparted to the projectile further stabilized the bullet in flight. The Whitworth rifle weighed 9 pounds. Other long range rifles of the period tended to have much larger and heavier barrels, which made them too heavy for standard infantry use.
Whitworth rifles, being used by sharpshooters, were usually rested against a tree or log while fired to increase their accuracy. Some sharpshooters carried their own forked rests for the rifle, so that a suitable rest was always available. Read the rest of Civil War Whitworth Sniper rifle.
Just proving there is nothing new. i.e. 6.5 mm creedmore vs 7.62x51 NATO
They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist.....
-General John Sedgewick
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dis....”
Last words of Union General before a Confederate sniper using a Whitworth rifle picked him off the back of his horse.
L
As good as that rifle is, I could still miss with it... ;-)
This is an innovation that has lived on because it works. I have a HK91 G3 variant in 7.62x51 that has flats instead of rifled grooves. With the right ammo, it will just about use the same hole at 50 yards. And, the velocity is just a bit better than other comparable rifles with that barrel length.
Before it fell in the ocean I had an HK-93. Its accuracy was better than my eyes.
What does hexagonal polygonal rifling look like?
From my limited knowledge, I thought hexagonal and polygonal were two incompatible/different shapes of rifling - kind of like saying “square circle.”
“Square Circle”
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That about
Sums it up!
FYI there was also a rifled breech-loading cannon made by Whitworth, according to the Internet both sides of the Civil War bought a few of them but I think the Confederates were the only ones that used them a couple of times. Since they also shoot their hexagonal projectiles further, I thank an article said they could be shoot 4 miles, but shooting something 4 miles on land was not practical if you couldn’t see your target or whether you hit your target or not because on land the ground is not always flat. More practical on sea though where you can see further.
Whitworth cannons are still on display at Gettysburg.
Polygon means many sided, no specific number. Triangles and squares are polygons. Pentagon (a polygon) is five-sided. Hexagon (a polygon) is six-sided.
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Hence my screen name: multiple thinkings.
“...The hexagonal polygonal rifling meant that the projectile did not have to bite into grooves as was done with conventional rifling...” [from text of original article]
The writer needs to go back to school on the basics. Rifling engraves its form onto the bullet, the bullet does not make marks on the rifling.
Whitworth rifles are still being made, or were until very recently.
The Whitworth rifle had other drawbacks besides initial cost.
Modern-day enthusiasts performed experiments with Whitworth rifles and published their findings in one of the more technically oriented gun periodicals: Rifle, Handloader, or one of those.
It was found that while a Whitworth could be astonishingly accurate at long range, actually making one perform was another story. They could be extremely fussy about bullet material, fouling state, charge weight & compression, casting temperature, lubrication, and more. The user had to determine the proper mix of these parameters by experiment: time-consuming and costly.
In contrast, rifles like the 1853 Enfield and various US models (1855, 1861, 1863 etc) that had conventional cut rifling and fired hollow-base cylindrical bullets (”mini balls”) could not compete with the Whitworths at their best, but they did do well enough “as issued” and needed little special prep or fine tuning. And they demanded less care in cleaning and upkeep.
Whitworth’s hexagonal rifling wasn’t the only rifling pattern of the day that departed from conventional land-and-groove configuration. Oval bore rifling was tried, in which an oval shape was rotated in helical fashion as it moved down the barrel. The Greene rifle invented in the 1850s by US Army officer J Durrell Greene, had an oval bore. It was also the first bolt action rifle purchased by the military.
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