I suspect General Miles was of the 'camp' that the U.S. should have adopted a U.S. rifle.

Although the British Lee rifles and their ammunition had a lot of "Growing Pains", as did the U.S. Krag, the British Lee was a lot better rifle than the Remington-Lee.

Michigan authorities knew by 1900, that they had bought a "turkey" and refused to buy more (model 1899) Remington-Lee Small-Bore Magazine Rifles for the Michigan Naval Reserves.

The Remington-Lee had an extremely fragile stock in the wrist area. The bolt has four 'lugs' that required lots of hand fitting. Rifle bolts were not interchangeable. The small action parts were vulnerable.

The rifle was designed to be used as a 'single-shot', with four loaded (five-shot) magazines carried in pockets on the Mills Belt.

When the order was given "to load magazines", 20 shots could be rapidly delivered, but, then things slowed way down, to single loading.

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