Editing Joseph Whitworth (section)

=== Whitworth rifled musket ===
{{main|Whitworth rifle}}
Whitworth was commissioned by the [[War Department (UK)|War Department]] of the British government to design a replacement for the calibre .577-inch [[Pattern 1853 Enfield]], whose shortcomings had been revealed during the recent [[Crimean War]]. The [[Whitworth rifle]] had a smaller bore of {{convert|0.451|in|mm|3}} which was hexagonal, fired an elongated hexagonal bullet and had a faster rate of twist rifling [one turn in twenty inches] than the Enfield, and its performance during tests in 1859 was superior to the Enfield's in every way. The test was reported in ''[[The Times]]'' on 23 April as a great success. However, the new bore design was found to be prone to fouling and it was four times more expensive to manufacture than the Enfield, so it was rejected by the British government, only to be adopted by the [[French Army]]. An unspecified number of Whitworth rifles found their way to the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] states in the [[American Civil War]], where they were called "[[Whitworth Sharpshooters]]".  The rifles were capable of sub-[[Minute and second of arc|MOA]] groups at 500 yards.<ref name="youtube" /> It was often called the "[[sharpshooter]]" because of its accuracy, which is considered one of the earliest examples of a [[sniper rifle]].{{sfn|Atkinson|1996|p=}}{{sfn|Bradshaw|1985|p=}}{{sfn|Kilburn|1987|p=}}{{sfn|Kilburn|1990|p=}}{{sfn|Lea|1948|p=}}

[[Queen Victoria]] opened the first meeting of the [[National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom|National Rifle Association]] at [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]], in 1860 by firing a Whitworth rifle from a fixed mechanical rest. The rifle scored a bull's eye at a range of {{convert|400|yd|m|sigfig=3}}.