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The Whitworth rifle was an English-made percussion rifle used in the latter half of the 19th century. A single-shot muzzleloader with excellent long-range accuracy for its era, especially when used with a telescopic sight , the Whitworth rifle was widely regarded as the world's first sniper rifle .
The 12-pounder Whitworth rifle was a medium caliber field gun deployed during the mid-19th century. Designed by Joseph Whitworth , the gun was most notably used during the American Civil War . The gun was also used by the Imperial Brazilian Army in the War of the Triple Alliance .
In service, the rifle was sometimes referred to as a mountain gun, though this might stem from a confusion over caliber sizes. [3] From a design standpoint, the weapon was unique. Like all of Whitworth's designs, the weapon had a hexagon-ally rifled barrel. It was also a breechloader, an unusual feature for the time.
Whitworth rifle: Whitworth Rifle Company .451 caliber bullet United Kingdom: 1854 Werndl–Holub rifle: Steyr Mannlicher: 11×58mmR 11.15×42mmR Austrian Empire Kingdom of Hungary: 1867 Winchester Model 67: Winchester Repeating Arms Company.22 Short.22 Long.22 Long Rifle.22 Winchester Rimfire United States: 1934 Winchester Model 1886
The Union purchased 10,000 Sharps rifles and 80,000 carbines, with many more bought by state governments or soldiers themselves. [28] Spencer rifle: The most widely used breech loading weapon of the Civil War, the Spencer was a .52 caliber repeating rifle with a spring-fed tubular magazine for seven metallic cartridges in the stock.
The Whitworth, designed by Joseph Whitworth and manufactured in England, was a rare gun during the war but an interesting precursor to modern artillery in that it was loaded from the breech and had exceptional accuracy over great distance. An engineering magazine wrote in 1864 that, "At 1600 yards [1500 m] the Whitworth gun fired 10 shots with ...
The repeating rifle was never issued but was bought privately. Wesson M1859 rifle: The Wesson M1859 was a breech-loading, metallic rimfire cartridge rifle used during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Whitworth rifle: The world's first sniper rifle, it was used particularly by the Confederate Whitworth Sharpshooters.
The gun used polygonal rifling, a principle invented by Whitworth in 1853.The concept was to use the hexagon to impart a very rapid spin to the projectile. The method of manufacturing the rifling was thus described by the Report of the Armstrong & Whitworth Committee of the British War Office (1866):