Good summary on Grenadiers by Sir Charles ... in 1885, this particular battalion of Canadian Militia would essentially have been regular infantry, distinguished only by name, insignia and similar small vanities ....
Reb: at the time your father served, any .303 rifle issued in the Canadian Army would unquestionably have been a Lee-Enfield Rifle No. 4 MkI* made at Long Branch in Ontario ... in WWII Canada was able to equip its own military entirely with made-in-Canada rifles, and also supply many to Britain and other Commonwealth countries - it helped not being regularly bombed, of course ....
Anyway, here is the rather nice example in my collection:
However, to bring this back to the
19th Century where we belong .... here is the type of rifle which Colour Sergeant Curzon would have been carrying in 1885 - a .577 Snider-Enfield 2-band "Short Rifle", the type issued to Sergeants in Infantry units, and to
all Other Ranks (enlisted men and non-coms) in 'Rifle' units ...
This version of the rifle was equipped with a rather formidable yataghan-bladed sword bayonet, to give it the same "reach" as the longer 3-band infantry rifle with its standard triangular-bladed socket bayonet ....
Here is a member of the 65th Battalion, Mount Royal Rifles (whcich also served in the West during the Rebellion) ... as a "Rifle" unit, they wore distinct rifle green uniforms with black leather accoutrements - you can see this Rifleman's 2-band rifle and yataghan bayonet ...
As already stated, most Canadian infantrymen were issued with the normal 3-band Snider-Enfield infantry rifle (the standard triangular-bladed socket bayonet is shown mounted on the rifles being volley-fired in the background image below ...)
The Snider-Enfield was obsolete, having been replaced long before this in the British Army by the Martini-Henry rifle (which in turn would be supplanted in 1888 by the bolt-action .303 Lee-Metford rifle) but Canada didn't start replacing the Sniders until we finally adopted .303 "Long Lee-Enfield" in 1898!To round out this discussion, here is a period illustration of an Officer, Sergeant and Private of infantry - note that the Sergeant has the Short Rifle and yataghan bayonet (as Sgt. Curzon would have had ... you will note this bayonet and its scabbard were quite lengthy - so it occurs to me that may be what is seen projecting downward just behind Curzon's left knee in the cover engraving in my first post. At any rate, his Sergeant's sash - as seen below - is quite clearly depicted in the engraving.... )