M1895 Lee Navy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lee Model 1895 (also known as the M1895 Lee, "Navy Lee", "Winchester-Lee 1895", M1895 Winchester-Lee, etc.) was a straight-pull bolt-action rifle adopted by the U.S. Navy in 1895 as a service weapon. It fired a 6 mm cartridge, which used an early smokeless powder, was rimless, and was also used in the Navy version of the Colt-Browning Model 1895 machinegun. Production ended in 1902 after about 20,000 or so rifles had been made for the Navy; the initial 1895 order had been for 10,000. It weighed 8.3 pounds (3.7 kg) and was about 48 in (122 cm) long. It held 5 rounds in an internal magazine and was loaded via 5 round charger clips. Unlike the Krag-Jørgensen and M1903 Springfield rifle, it did not have a magazine cut-off to enable single cartridges to be loaded when the magazine was not empty. The rifle was designed by James Paris Lee, who had also worked on number other famous designs.
It saw use in the Spanish American War and some other conflicts in the late 1890s and 1900s, such as by U.S. Marines in the Boxer Rebellion. It replaced earlier weapons, such as the M1885 Lee (Remington-Lee). The Lee 1895 was replaced after the turn of the century by the M1903 rifle.
The 6mm cartridge was the first US military cartridge to use metric in its official designation.
