I'm presenting 2 rifles I had in my head quite a while
SSLE (Short, Smit-Lee, Enfield Rifle) Type 1904 MkII the main service rifle of United Kingdom of Netherlands and Wallonia from 1904 to 1957/70
Short history: For context in this AU Dutch adopted Remington-Lee in 1881 but after French rolled in with Lebel it obviously became obsolete regardless that it got detachable magazine and strong action, they tried to convert it to smokeless but failed, in 1895 they adopted Lee-Navy rifle but it was chambered in 7x57 mm Mauser, after some time it became clear that short rifle was needed and it was understood that tilting bolt along with cut under the mag is just begging for problems, in 1903 trials had begun for new rifle and as a result SSLE was adopted
From 1904-1914 2.4 million rifles were produced (75% were made in UKNW, 20 in UK (Enfield specifically) and other 5% in other countries such as US
During the The Great War additional 2.7 million rifles were made
After the war rifles were rechambered into 6.5x60 Smit cartridge and had changed to aperture sight resulting Type 1924 pattern. From 1924-1952 9.7 million we're produced (along with remaining 3 million Type 1904's)
Rifle characteristics
-Length: 1124 mm
-Caliber: 7x57 mm or 6.5x60 mm
-Weight: 4.1 kg
-Thick barrel
-modified/mixed Mannlicher bolt with Arisaka clocking mechanism (half cock on open and half cock on close) Arisaka/Corcano safety mechanism.
-12 round Lee magazine all 7x57 mm Mauser (Type 1924 retains it 12 round mag) loaded by 6 round stripper clip
-open sights (aperture sights on later variants)
2nd Rifle - Smit-Lee Model/Type 1913 rifle, unadopted, experimental rife that strongly influenced Dutch army in adoption of 6.5x60 Smit cartridge
Short story: in 1895 Lucas Smit submits his rifle into rifle trials which resulted adoption of Lee-Navy (or just Lee rifle)
It featured straight pull design and was chambered into 6.5x55 Swedish, rifle was well revieved but was not adopted, afterwards Smit was fighting in Boxer rebellion and then was training and observing Japanese troops during Russo-Japanese war as foreign instructor and observer, those conflicts convinced him that small bore ammo such as 6.5 or even less was a way forward, in 1903 he tries to submit his rifle again in 6.5x60 but he was forced to move into 7x57 mm because army were oy interested in a rifle in this cartridge. Although in 1911 they started to change their mind and in 1912 Smit was working on brand new rifle, he was so impressed in Arisaka Type 38 action that decided to put virtually the same bolt into his rifle. Rifle was unofficially adopted and production has started resulting 340 000 rifles by August 1914 but war were declared, rifle proved to be quite good in muddy trench conditions of First World War and could replaced previous Smit's rifle - SSLE if it was not produced in massive numbers before and during that time and if United Kingdom of Netherlands and Wallonia wouldn't suffer lost war.
Characteristics:
-length - 1215 mm
-Caliber - 6.5x60 mm Smit
-Weight - 3.75 kg
-slightly modified Arisaka bolt
-10 round detachable Lee magazine, fed by 5 rohnd stripper clip
-Aperture sights
NOTE: Forgive my grammatical issues if I got any.
Huge thank you to friend of mine - Dubsy102 kitbasing the T1913 rifle because I couldn't do it on my own since my laptop had decided to do "guess I'll die" thing...
(Also I would cover much detailed story of both rifles when time will come)