Top 10 Infantry Rifles
Chad Adams, Managing Editor
8. Brown Bess: Our voting criteria excluded smooth bore muskets and the like from contention; we decided rifling was a must for this list. But I don’t care, my number 8 goes to the Brown Bess—without it, there would be no Empire for the Lee-Enfield.
9. Dreyse Needle Gun: If there would be no British Empire without the Brown Bess, then, arguably, there would be no Nazi Germany without the Needle Gun. In terms of innovation, the Dreyse was way ahead of its time, providing a clear battlefield advantage at the time of its fielding.
10. Charleville: Like the Brown Bess, I guess I wasted another vote here. But this arm is forever linked to the American Revolution, as this gun armed many in Washington’s Army. As such, the Charleville formed the basic pattern for some of the first muskets turned out by Springfield and Harper’s Ferry Armories—the U.S. Model 1795.