There are many like it — 18, in fact.
A new scrolling feature posted on the Marine Corps website walks through a vital string of identity to the Corps: a history of every rifle model that any Marine has ever carried.
The scrolling post rolls through all 18 of the standardized, issued long guns that Marines have fought with, from the flintlock muskets of the Continental Navy to the legendary M1 Garands used across the Pacific in World War II, and the full family tree of the M16 and its variants, like the post-9/11 M4 and the current M27.
The post is part of the Marine Corps’ celebration of its 250th birthday, and it’s a great visual review for both hardcore Marine infantry history buffs as well as those who can’t tell a bolt carrier group from a frizzen spring. The unique release was put together by Marine Sgt. James Stanfield, with two staffers at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia: Jonathan Bernstein, the museum’s Arms & Armor Curator, and Bruce Allen, the Museum Specialist (Ordnance).
In an interview Monday, Bernstein told Task & Purpose he oversees the museum’s collection of over 3,500 firearms and 2,500 edged weapons.
The rifles and muskets on the list, Bernstein said, may not cover every one-off long gun issued as a personal weapon to Marines, but those on the list were selected because of “the number in service and their technological significance.”
“With each you can see the evolution of ammunition, the ignition system, and rate of fire,” he said.
The post begins with the “Brown Bess,” a British-made musket used by Marines in the pre-revolutionary Continental Navy.
“The Brown Bess was pretty much idiot-proof,” said Bernstein, and nearly every able-bodied man in the pre-Revolutionary colonies would be familiar with it as part of a militia. “With that, you go from 2, maybe 3 rounds per minute with a .75 caliber ball.”
As the American Revolution split U.S. forces from English supplies, early Marines upgraded to the French-made Charleville and its .60 caliber ball, which allowed troops to carry slightly more rounds. The first U.S.-produced musket was the Springfield model 1795, named for the year the Marines took it up. With a self-contained ignition system, Bernstein said, Marines “could fire a little bit faster. Not a lot, but it does take out some steps.”
Muskets remained the frontline personal weapon for Marines through the Civil War, until the arrival of the Winchester-Lee lever-action rifle.
“That is really the first revolutionary weapon the Marine Corps uses,” said Bernstein. The gun featured a rifled barrel, an internal magazine and shot a 6mm round. “This really revolutionized Marine Corps capability as far as precision marksmanship, because you could now fire a small bullet at extremely high speed to a much longer range and accurately,” he said.
The list also includes the bolt-action Springfield rifle commonly used in World War I and for decades after, the M1 Garand — the Corps’ first self-reciprocating rifle — from World War II, and the Vietnam-era M16. The Corps’ latest M16-variant, the M27, was fielded to infantry units beginning in 2010 as a replacement for the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and was adopted as an M4 replacement in 2018. Non-infantry Marines still carry the M4 or M16A4.
The message being sent by the Marine Corps is hard to miss: If every Marine is a rifleman, then there’s a rifle for every Marine.
UPDATE, 7/7/2025: This article was updated with comments from Jonathan Bernstein, the Arms & Armor Curator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
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