Busting The Mad Minute Myth With The Musketry Regulations 1909
Bloke on the Range
•
9m 25s
WARNING: boring, geeky video alert!
Thanks to various gunwriters over the past century, it is commonly believed that all British soldiers in the runup to World War 1 had to shoot at least 15 rounds of rapid fire with their SMLE or long Lee-Enfield .303" at 300 yards for their pay. In fact, this is very commonly believed, and a supposed record of 38 rounds in a minute is alledged to have been fired by a Sgt. Instructor Snoxall, for whom no records seem to exist... Jesse Wallingford, on the other hand, seems to have fired his 36 in a demonstration.
Wallingford was an interesting chap, you should read up on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Wallingford
Anyway, using the Musketry Regulations 1909, The Bloke shows the received wisdom to be a complete myth. So this is a real single-document mythbust right here. Boring, eh?
So yeah, the spoiler - the mad minute seems to have been an instructor demonstration. Nothing more.
Enjoy!
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