What was the most effective rifle used in world war two?
For accuracy, the Lee Enfield .303. In proper hands it had a very decent rate of fire. The British soldiers were good shooters mostly because they kept steady under fire and had the coolness of head to aim and shoot right. The M1 Rifle (The M1 carbine was not really all that accurate) was a good weapon in that it provided a very fast, for its time, rate of fire. It could be accurate but it needed expertise. The USMC was, at first, reluctant to leave their old Springfields for the new M1s because the Springfield provided more accuracy in the hands of a good shooter and the Marines were trained, as the British soldiers, to shoot properly. The US Army favoured a weapon that coud give a higher volume of fire based on studies that had shown that most of its soldiers fired without aim in the heat of combat. With a higher rate the lack of accuracy is offset by the volume of lead hurled at the enemy. The Russians thought likewise, specially since their troops could not receive proper training
