Rifle
A man shooting a rifle.
The Rifle
The main weapon used by British soldiers in the trenches was the bolt-action rifle. 15 rounds could be fired in a minute and a person 1,400 metres away could be killed.
Given the relentlessly high demand for any and all forms of offensive weaponry during the war - particularly during its earliest days when artillery production was only beginning to accelerate - many different types of rifles were pressed into service, including a fair number of ancient models.
Design was clearly a factor in determining rifle performance, a greater impact was dependent upon the training and skill of the rifle operator himself. (Note that the automatic and semiautomatic weapons were not used until the last year of the war and some time after that.)