SR-25 Sniper Rifle: British .303 cal. Martini-Enfield and Harper’s Ferry .69 Cal.
SR-25 Sniper Rifle carried by SCPO Britt Slabinski from the Navy Archives
Title: Rifle, Sniper, 7.62mm, SR-25, Stoner, US
Accession #: NHHC 2018.026.001
Circa: 2002
Size:
Medium: Metal, Plastic
Location: Headquarters Artifact Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command
A gas-operated, magazine fed, semi-automatic rifle with a collapsible synthetic buttstock. The receiver is two-piece, with an upper and a lower half, a right hand ejection port with hinged cover, a plastic pistol grip, a charging handle at top rear and a MIL-STD-1913 rail on the top. The barrel is a free-floating design with a perforated tubular handguard with a Rail Interface System and a short muzzle break at the end that allows the quick attachment of a sound suppressor. The receiver, pistol grip and buttstock have been spray-painted in a tan/brown camouflage pattern. The barrel assembly is a replacement installed by Naval Special Warfare personnel and is not camouflaged.
The SR-25 was designed by Eugene Stoner and manufactured by Knights Armament Company (KAC) in the early 1990’s. The rifle combines aspects of both the AR-10 and AR-15 designs with more modern technology. The weapon is a semi-automatic, gas operated, 7.62mm NATO caliber precision rifle with a free-floating 20” match grade barrel, MIL-STD-1913 rail mount equipped handguard and upper receiver, and a Naval Surface Weapons Center, Crane-designed adjustable buttstock. The rifle would have been equipped with a Leupold Mk 4 telescope, a Harris bipod, an AN/PEQ-2 infrared illuminator and a KAC quick-detach sound suppressor. The SR-25 was adopted as the Mk 11 Mod 0 by US Special Operations Command in May 2000.
This example was carried by then-Senior Chief Britt “Slab” Slabinski in Afghanistan during 2002. Master Chief Petty Officer Slabinski was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 24, 2018 for his actions while serving as Team Leader of MAKO 30 during the Battle of Takur Ghar in support of Operation Anaconda on 4-5 March 2002. Op Anaconda was the first major ground combat operation in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
British .303 caliber Martini-Enfield Rifle
Title: Rifle, .303 Cal, Martini-Enfield, British
Accession #: NHHC 1959-113-CY
Circa: 1895-1918
Size:
Medium: Metal, Wood
Location: Headquarters Artifact Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command
A breech-loading, single shot rifle firing a .303 caliber, rimmed metallic cartridge. The rifle has a falling-block breech operated by an under-lever extending from the bottom of the breech and ending in a loop against the wrist of the stock. Moving the lever down and forward drops the block, cocks the action and ejects a spent cartridge after firing allowing a fresh cartridge to be loaded through the top of the breech. The action uses an internal striker to fire the cartridge rather than an external hammer. A teardrop shaped indicator on the right side of the receiver points towards the butt when the action is cocked. The rifle is full-stocked with a three-piece walnut stock that includes a butt with steel butt plate and a two-piece handguard with two barrel bands and a nose cap. The nose cap has a mount for a sword bayonet. The loop trigger guard and both bands had sling swivels attached, but the front swivel is missing on this example. The rifle has an adjustable rear leaf sight mounted to the barrel and a fixed front sight near the muzzle.
The Martini-Enfield is a modification of the famous .577 caliber Martini-Henry rifle that armed British regulars at such battles as Rorke’s Drift and Isandlwana during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. Adopted in 1871, the Martini-Henry was the first purpose-designed breech-loading, metallic cartridge rifle in British service. The rifle combined the breech-loading action of Swiss designer Friedrich von Martini with the rifling designed by Alexander Henry, a Scotsman. Martini’s design relies heavily on an earlier design by an American, Henry O. Peabody. In 1889, the Martini-Henry rifles were converted to fire the then-new .303 caliber cartridge initially by being re-barreled with Metford rifled barrels. However, the Metford design was found to wear out too quickly when the .303 ammunition was converted to smokeless powder in 1895. The rifles were then converted using a new barrel designed by the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock, creating the Mk 1 Martini-Enfield. The rifles stayed in British service until 1918 and in reserve status in the Commonwealth through World War II.
The example shown is a commercially produced copy manufactured in Great Britain in the early 20th century for export or use by the Volunteer Training Corps. It comes from the collection of the US Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance, which acquired weapons such as this for study and experimentation.
Harper’s Ferry .69 Caliber Percussion Conversion Musket
Title: Musket, Percussion Conversion, .69 Cal, Model 1822/28, Harper’s Ferry, US
Accession #: NHHC 1961-224-C
Circa: 1820s
Size:
Medium: Wood, Metal
Location: Headquarters Artifact Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command
A smoothbore, .69 caliber musket converted from flintlock to percussion ignition. The musket has a 42-inch long barrel held to the full-length stock by two bands and a front band/nose cap, each held in place by a spring clip on the obverse side. The barrel is marked V/P over the national eagle and dated 1836 on the tang. A lug for a socket bayonet is brazed on near the muzzle. An iron rammer is stored in the stock beneath the barrel. The trigger guard bow and the middle band have lugs for sling swivels, but the band is missing the swivel. All of the iron fittings and the barrel are in National Armory bright, but they all appear to have been polished more recently as well.
The iron lock plate is held in place by two screws and an L-shaped left side plate. The tail of the lock is marked “HARPERS/FERRY/1837” and the national eagle above “US” forward of the hammer. The tang of the iron butt plate is also marked “US”. The lock plate has had the pan removed and the cutout for the touchhole filled with a brass plug, as well as the frizzen and spring, and the mounting holes filled. A cone shaped insert for the percussion nipple has been added to the right rear of the breech and the flint hammer replaced with a percussion hammer. The lock would have been case hardened during the conversion process, but it too appears to have been polished.
The Model 1822 Musket is an improvement of the Model 1816, itself an improvement on the Model 1812, which was based on the French “Charleville” Model 1777 Musket. Further improvements in parts standardization in 1828 led to the Model 1822/28. Manufactured at the two government arsenals at Springfield, MA and Harpers Ferry, VA (later WV), the flintlock muskets were converted to percussion between 1849 and 1854. The conversion was of the “Belgian” type, or cone-in-barrel, that involved inserting a cone into the breech end of the barrel for the percussion nipple, as well as replacing the hammer, and removing the pan and frizzen. These converted weapons stayed in service with both US and Confederate forces through at least the first half of the Civil War.
The musket is hand-lettered on the left side of the butt stock in white paint: “Picked up at the / Battle of Fair Oaks.” The Battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, took place 31 May to 1 June 1862 during Major General George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign, an attempt by the Army of the Potomac to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond, VA. The musket was likely picked up on the battlefield as a souvenir and later given to the Navy. A rectangular brass plate stamped “No. 311/CLASS.8.HARPERS FERRY/MUSKET” is also attached to the butt with two screws. The brass plaque was applied when the musket was part of the collection of the US Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance, before it came into the collection of NHHC.