and how they work

Ian V.Hogg

Everest House
Publishers New York
Published in the United States of America
by Everest House Publishers,
1133 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, New York 10036

ISBN 0-89696-023-4

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 78-53013

All rights reserved.

© Marshall Cavendish Limited 1979

This publication is not to be sold outside of the

United States of America and its territories.

Printed in Great Britain.

The Browning .30in Model

1919A4 air-cooled MG on
the standard M2 tripod.

Endpapers Smith and

Wesson .357 Magnum
revolver.
INTRODUCTION
This book is about how guns work. Leaving aside, how the various technical problems were overcome,
for the moment, the moral and psychological aspects, whilst not losing sight of the broad spectrum of
whatever else you may think of firearms you have to historical development. Inevitably, with a subject so
admit that they are remarkable mechanical achieve¬ vast, we have had to compress and omit, but without,
ments. Just consider, for example, what goes on inside we hope, losing any of the essentials.
a machine gun twenty times a second - the cycle of Highlighted in the book are twenty-four of those
firing, unlocking, extracting, ejecting, reloading, guns worthy of the title 'famous’ - because of their
relocking and firing again, for thousands of rounds performance, their historical significance, or sheer
on end. An automobile half as reliable as the Vickers charisma. For those unfamiliar with some of the
machine gun would be hailed as the ninth wonder of terms and verbal shorthand associated with firearms,
the world. we have appended a section at the end of the book
That being the case, we have, in this book, tried to which will explain the mysteries of calibre notation
bring out some of the mechanics of firearms and show and conversion.
CONTENTS
THE DEVIL’S INVENTION 6
Invention of gunpowder - Roger Bacon - Gunpowder formula - First
guns - Black Berthold - Millimete manuscript - Basic features and
gun terms.

MUZZLE LOADERS 12
First handguns - Loading and firing a muzzle loader - Matchlocks -
Wheel-locks - Fouling and rifling - Flintlocks - 'Exercise of the Fire¬
lock’ drill - Forsyth - Percussion locks and caps - Early cartridges.
Famous Guns: Brown Bess muskets. Ferguson rifle.

i i
BREECHLOADERS 26
Breech loading - Pauly - Dreyse 'Needle gun’ - Breech conversions - i*
Lefaucheaux shotgun - Rimfire and pinfire cartridges - Bolt- and lever-
action rifles - Centre-fire metallic cartridges - Model 1871 Mauser rifle.
Famous Guns: The Winchester.

REVOLVERS 40
!■■■■<
'Duck’s Foot’ and 'pepperbox’ - Samuel Colt - Early Colts - Robert
Adams - Beaumont-Adams - Smith and Wesson - Ejection systems -
Mauser 'Zig-Zag’ - Later Colts - Safety hammers - Mechanical repeating
pistols.
Famous Guns: S&W American and Russian. Colt Frontier.

MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS 58

Puckle Defence gun - Battery guns - Ager 'coffee mill’ - Machine guns
defined - Problems of cooling and deployment - Mitrailleuse - Gatling -
Gardner - Nordenfelt - Hotchkiss Revolver Cannon.
Famous Guns: The Gatling and the Gardner.

MAGAZINE RIFLES 68
Mauser magazine - Smokeless powder - Small-calibre bullets - Lebel -
Quick-loading clips - Lee magazine - Mannlicher magazine and bolt -
Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles -'Schmidt-Rubin - Krag-Jorgensen -
Revolver and 'short’ rifles.
Famous Guns: Lee-Enfield rifles.

AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS 78

Hiram Maxim - Recoil-operated toggle joint - Vickers - Skoda delayed
blowback - Hotchkiss gas operation - Madsen light machine gun -
Schwarzlose - Agnelli fluted chamber - Recoil blowback and gas
operations compared.
Famous Guns: The Maxim and its variants.
 AUTOMATIC PISTOLS 90
Paulson - Schonberger - Hugo Borchardt - Georg Luger - Parabellum
pistole - Mauser Military - Theodor Bergmann - Gabbet-Fairfax
'Mars’ - Roth-Steyr - John Browning and the Colt Automatic - Webley-
Fosbery automatic revolver.
Famous Guns: Luger P08. Mauser Military. Webley pistols.

TEST OF BATTLE GUNS OF WORLD WAR I 108

Demand for machine guns - Light Hotchkiss - Lewis Gun - Chauchat:
"the worst machine gun ever” - Browning machine gun - Long and
short recoil - Aircraft-mounted guns.
Famous Guns: Lewis Gun.

RAPID FIRE 116

First submachine guns - Bergmann MP18 - Vilar Perosa - The 'Tommy
gun’ - Suomi - Steyr-Solothurn - Automatic rifles - Browning - Mon¬
dragon - Federov - Farquar-Hill - Bang - Pedersen - Garand.
Famous Guns: Thompson. Springfield M1903 and Garand rifles.

ROAD TO WAR GUNS OF WORLD WAR II 132

Machine guns - Chatellerault - Bren - German MG30, MG34 and
MG42 - Automatic pistols - Browning GP35 - Polish M1935 - French
Mle 35 - Walther PP, PPK and P38 - Submachine guns - MP38 - PPSh -
Sten - Silencers.
Famous Guns: Browning GP35. Beretta M1934. Walther P38.

NEW DIRECTIONS 148

Short cartridge - Assault rifles - StuG44 - AK47 - EM2 - FN rifles -
Armalite - Submachine guns - Over-hung design - Uzi - Skorpion -
Machine pistols - Burst-fire facility - Pistols - Gyrojet - Dardick -
Magnums - Machine guns.
Famous Guns: Kalashnikov. Uzi. Walther PP. S&W Magnum.

SPORTING GUNS 168

Shotguns - Rifles - Airguns - Handloading - 'Wildcat’ cartridges -
Black powder shooting - Conclusion.

RY WAY OFACCOMPANIMENT 174

I*f.
\ J.
J
fp 4
j*
Ammunition - Bullet design - 'Knock-down’ power - Dum-Dum bullets -
Flight characteristics - High-velocity bullets - Flechette - Multiple-
bullet cartridges - Special military rounds - Sights and sighting -
Optical sights.

CONVERSION FIGURES page 182. INDEX page 183. PICTURE CREDITS page 185.
THE DEVIL'S INVENTION
J
THE DEVIL’S INVENTION/Gunpowder

ust who invented gunpowder and the gun is one

question which is likely never to be resolved
ment and ignited, it explodes with a blinding flash and
a stunning noise . . .’
satisfactorily. Images of hell conjured up by the Bacon makes no claim for having discovered ‘the
fearful flash and explosion of the crude first guns led powder’ in this, the first known reference in plain
churchmen to denounce them as the invention of the language to gunpowder. What is most significant, he
devil himself. The invention of gunpowder has been refers to it as being ‘known in divers places’ - in
credited to the Chinese, the Arabs, the Indians, even other words, a matter of common knowledge. So in
the lost people of Atlantis, but nothing in the way a matter of 24 years gunpowder had moved from
of solid proof has ever been forthcoming. In the being something of which learned men spoke in
latter part of the nineteenth century, the contem¬ riddles to something which was relatively common¬
porary improvements in guns led to a certain amount place. It seems reasonable to assume that, if gun¬
of interest in the history of firearms, particularly in powder had been discovered several hundred years
England. A Royal Artillery officer, Lieutenant- before, as some theories insist, it would have come
Colonel Henry W. L. Hime, spent many years out into the open much sooner, and would not have
researching in the museums and libraries of Europe been hidden until the middle of the thirteenth
in an attempt to solve the question of gunpowder’s century. Irrespective of the inventor, it would seem
origins once and for all. improbable that gunpowder was known much before
One of the sources he checked was a manuscript the year 1200.
by an English scholar, Roger Bacon (c.1214-94), This is not to deny that various pyrotechnic
entitled De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae (On the compositions were known and employed well before
Marvellous Power of Art and Nature) written in 1242. that date. For example, Greek Fire, an inflammable
Bacon’s name had often been put forward as the mixture first used by the Byzantine Greeks to set
possible inventor of gunpowder, or, if not the inven¬ fire to Saracen ships at the Siege of Constantinople
tor, at least someone who had a hand in its accept¬ in 673, and various firework compositions attribut¬
ance. Nothing in his writings, however, appeared to able to the Chinese undoubtedly existed; but there
support this claim. is a great deal of difference between these and the
Among the various philosophical observations in explosive effect of gunpowder.
Bacon’s manuscript, Hime was struck by a string of Gunpowder (or ‘black powder’ as it is also known)
apparently meaningless words which he came across has changed since Bacon’s day. His formula calls
just as Bacon appeared to be warming to the subject for 41.2% saltpetre (potassium nitrate), 29.4% sulphur
of explosives. After much study, Hime realized that and 29.4% charcoal, and these three constituents
the nonsensical phrase was actually an anagram were ground fine, independently of each other, and
which, when reassembled and punctuated properly, then mixed. The resulting fine powder was called
read: 'But of saltpetre take 7 parts, 5 of young hazel ‘Serpentine’ and suffered from various defects: when
twig and 5 of sulphur, and so thou wilt call up thunder transported in barrels, for example, the heavier
and destruction if thou know the art.’ saltpetre and sulphur tended to settle at the bottom
Bacon had concealed the formula for gunpowder of the barrel, leaving the lighter charcoal at the top,
in this manner because of the danger he would have a process which ruined the effectiveness of the pow¬
run in openly revealing such knowledge. He was a der. Moreover, when loaded into the barrel of a gun,
Franciscan friar, and in 1139 the church authorities the fine powder tended to pack tightly and resist
had expressly forbidden the discussion or manufac¬ ignition, while it was also susceptible to damp.
ture of ‘fiery compositions’ for military purposes. In efforts to improve the performance, the formula¬
Had Bacon published his formula in defiance of this tion gradually changed, increasing the saltpetre at
decree, his life would have been in danger. As it was, the expense of the other two ingredients. Although
his outspokenness on other subjects led to a suspi¬ not understood at the time, such a move was sound
cion that he was a practitioner of the Black Arts, sense, since saltpetre provides the oxygen necessary
and in 1257 he was ordered into cloisters in Paris for combustion while charcoal provides the fuel in
where he remained shut off from the world. the form of carbon. In Bacon’s formula there was an
In 1266, however, Pope Clement IV requested Bacon excess of charcoal, which was inefficient, but gradu¬
to write a series of treatises on the current state of ally reducing the charcoal and increasing the salt¬
scientific knowledge, and among these was a text petre brought the mixture to the point where there
entitled Opus Tertius. A portion of the manuscript was a balance, with just enough charcoal to be
was discovered in 1909 in the Bibliotheque National burned efficiently by the action of the available
in Paris by Professor Pierre Auhem of Bordeaux oxygen in the saltpetre. The sulphur reduces the
University. When translated, it read as follows: temperature of ignition (making the powder easier
‘From the flaming and flashing of certain igneous to light) and also increases the temperature of the
mixtures and the terror inspired by their noise, wonder¬ explosion, which, by generating more gas, enhances
ful consequences ensue which no one can guard against the effect of the powder.
or endure. As a simple example may be mentioned the Today the formula stands at 75% saltpetre, 15%
noise and flame generated by the powder, known in charcoal and 10% sulphur. Moreover, the powder is
divers places, composed of saltpetre, charcoal and no longer the fine dust of Bacon’s day but is made in
sulphur. When a quantity of this powder, no bigger ‘grains’ by mixing the ingredients in wet form,
than a man's finger, be wrapped up in a piece of parch¬ drying them into a solid cake, breaking up the cake
 Arquebusiers /THE DEVIL S INVENTION

Previous page The applying a metal rod Above Tall-hatted Janissaries were using
Millimete manuscript has holding a glowing match Janissaries, special the arquebus, making them
the earliest accepted to the vent of the vase¬ escort of the Turkish the first body of troops in
illustration of a gun. It shaped cannon firing a Sultan, Suleiman the the world to use firearms
shows the mailed gunner crossbow-type bolt. Magnificent. By 1500 the on a large scale. 9
 THE DEVIL S INVENTION/Early Guns

and screening it through a sieve to obtain grains of certain that by the first quarter of the fourteenth
the required size. This system, followed by coating century the cannon had appeared on the scene.
the grains with graphite and polishing them, renders The first guns were cannon, to be fired at arm’s
the powder less susceptible to damp, easier to ignite length by a bold gunner, in the hope of hitting
because of the interstices between the grains when something . . . anything. Shaped rather like a vase,
the powder is in the gun, and less likely to form with a rounded breech end and a flared muzzle like a
troublesome dust. bell-mouth, the projectiles launched were the
The invention of gunpowder lies shrouded in traditional arrow (bound round with leather to make
distant history. We are no wiser on the question of it a snug fit in the bore) or stone or iron balls. These
who first thought of using gunpowder to propel a cannons were not, at first, very large: a bore of
missile out of a closed tube - that is, who invented perhaps 7.5cm (3in) seems to have been the average.
the first gun. A longstanding legend attributed the The science of gun-making was in its infancy, and
discovery of gunpowder’s propulsive force to Berth- the makers were feeling their way.
old Schwartz, a German monk of Freiburg-in- Very early guns were cast using the techniques
Breisgau popularly known as Black Berthold. already known in bell-founding, but when (as was
According to the story, he pounded together a natural) bigger guns were wanted, the founding
mixture of saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur in a technique was not sufficiently advanced to allow
mortar one day, causing it to explode and blow the the casting of a sound piece of metal of the requisite
pestle out of the vessel. This, it is said, gave him the size. A new technique was then applied, the gun being
inspiration to invent the gun. Unfortunately for the constructed in accordance with the system used for
legend, the dates which writers of old ascribe to this making barrels. A number of wrought-iron staves
event are neither in agreement nor are they within were laid together and kept in place by hoops (also
several years of the first authentic records of fire¬ made of wrought iron). The whole barrel was then
arms. Moreover, modern research tends to show that bound with hides and ropes to form a resistant tube,
Black Berthold was as much a legend as his famous and a solid breech piece riveted into the end. By this
discovery. method it proved possible to build quite large guns.
A claim long considered to be authentic was an At the Siege of Odruik in 1377, a cannon firing stone
entry in the Memorialbuch der Stadt Ghent - a sort balls weighing 90kg (2001b) was used by the Duke of
of day-diary of events in the city of Ghent during the Burgundy, and later in that year he employed a
Middle Ages - which, in 1313, claimed that ‘in this cannon firing a 200kg (4501b) ball, which is roughly
year the use of “bussen” was discovered in Germany equivalent to a calibre of 560mm (22in).
by a monk’. The word ‘bussen’, which approximates While this sort of weapon was suited to battering
to the later ‘buchsen’, was taken to mean cannon. at the walls of a castle, it was a cumbersome device
A further entry in 1314 said ‘bussen and krayk to cart about the countryside and its applications
(powder) were despatched to England’. But later were limited. Something lighter and more handy,
research showed that these entries had been added capable of being used against armoured knights and
many years after the claimed dates, and they can men on foot was desirable, and in 1382 we have a
no longer be considered as valid. record of the men of Ghent setting forth to do battle
The first unquestioned reference to a gun comes with the citizens of Bruges, taking with them a
in 1325, when Walter de Millimete wrote a treatise number of ‘ribauldequins’, light carts mounting a
for the young Prince Edward, later King Edward III number of small-calibre gun barrels. These were
of England (1327-77), entitled De Officiis Regnum (On placed in the front rank of the army to protect the
the Duties of Kings). Millimete included in his men from sudden attack. Their field of fire was
manuscript a pictorial representation of an early circumscribed by their fixture to the cart, and
cannon. Unfortunately, he did not expound on this reloading them was a slow performance. It would
in the text, but the drawing is sufficiently clear to seem likely that at about this time someone had the
leave no doubt of what is being depicted. In the idea of taking these small cannon from the cart,
following year there is an entry in the records of fitting them with wooden stocks, and placing them
Florence which authorizes the manufacture of brass in the hands of individual soldiers so that they could
cannon and iron balls for the defence of the commune point them in whatever direction a threat appeared.
10 camps and territory of Florence, so we can be quite The handgun was born.
 Gun Terms/THE DEVIL’S INVENTION

Before proceeding further it might be well to 0.5 of an inch and having a barrel 10 inches long
pause here to consider the basic features of a gun could be said to be 20 calibres long, but this method of
and to define some of the terms used when speaking description is not commonly applied to smallarms.
of firearms. Like any other technical subject, the The performance of the gun relies on the efficiency
study of firearms is replete with technical terms. with which the propelling charge is converted to
Many of these are in everyday use; many of them are gas. The powders used in charges are technically
not. What is worse is that many of them are not used known as low explosives because they do not detonate
correctly and can thus give the wrong impression (undergo molecular disruption) but burn extremely
when they are placed in their proper context. rapidly and progressively so as to generate gas at
A gun consists basically of a tube closed at one high speed. This gas, expanding behind the bullet,
end, inside which an explosion takes place in order forces it out of the barrel, and the speed at which the
to eject a missile. The tube is called the barrel; the bullet leaves the barrel is called the muzzle velocity,
hole down the middle of the barrel is the bore, the usually quoted in metres (or feet) per second. The
closed end the breech end, and the open end the kinetic energy contained in the bullet is the muzzle
muzzle. The missile discharged by the gun is broadly energy, defined in kilogram-metres (or foot-pounds).
called a projectile, though in smallarms - which are Both velocity and energy are reduced as the bullet
weapons whose bore is less than 15mm (0.6in) in flies through the air.
diameter - the projectile is usually called the bullet. The efficiency of the charge would, of course, be
The bullet is ejected from the gun by the explosion reduced if any of the generated gas were to leak
of a propelling charge, which may be of gunpowder or away and not be used in propelling the bullet. This
smokeless powder, and the complete combination of could occur in a muzzle-loader because the bullet
all the requisites to fire one shot from the gun - obviously must be slightly less than the gun’s calibre
bullet, propelling charge and means of ignition - are in order to allow it to be forced down the bore. This
collectively referred to as a cartridge or round. If the difference in diameter between the bullet and the
cartridge is inserted into the gun from the muzzle bore is known as windage, through which some gas
end, then the gun is a muzzle-loader, while if it is can escape. In the case of a breech-loader, however,
possible to open the breech in some way and insert the bullet can be a tight fit, and the problem becomes
the cartridge from that end, then the gun is a one of efficiently sealing the breech against the
breech-loader. unwanted escape of gas, such sealing being called
The most essential and descriptive measurement obturation.
used in referring to a gun is its calibre, which is the Finally, it is not sufficient merely to have a metal
diameter of the internal surfaces of the barrel: that tube - it has to be mounted in some way so that it
is, the width of the bore. If the gun is a smooth-bore, can be handled and used. So the basic gun is mounted
the measurement is simple. If the gun has grooves into a stock, usually of wood, shaped so that the butt
cut on the internal surface, for the purpose of spin¬ can be placed against the shoulder to support the
ning the bullet, then it is said to be rifled, and in rear end, and the other end supported by holding
this case the calibre is measured from the bottom the fore-end. A trigger is provided with which to fire
of one groove to the surface of the opposite land (the the weapon and sights with which to aim it. Other
metal left between grooves). Somewhat confusingly, such refinements as traps to hold cleaning materials,
the calibre is sometimes used as a measure of the swivels to attach some sort of carrying strap or
length of a gun barrel. Thus, a gun with a calibre of sling, and so forth are referred to as furniture.

Top left Old Swedish

handgun with reinforced
barrel. The socket at the
rear is for the supporting
stave, and the firing vent
is visible.

Right A Victorian
impression of a two-man
team firing a handgun.
One man holds the tube
while the other applies a
red-hot ember to the vent.
English troops are first
recorded as using
handguns in 1369. By
c.1475 stocks were being
fitted to guns. Effective
range was only about
50 metres.
r ▼
MUZZLE LOADERS
 MUZZLE LOADERS/Hand Gun

Previous page A cased Below A German-made

pair of fine Bavarian-made matchlock of 1537, an
duelling pistols. These unusually early attempt
percussion muzzle- at breechloading. It bears
loaders' accessories the cypher and arms of
include a powder flask, King Henry VIII.
mallet, ramrods and bullet
mould. The owner would Bottom right A late 16th
make his own ammunition century Spanish
to meet the guns' exact arquebusier with match¬
requirements. lock and slow match.

T he first handguns were cumbersome and rather

ineffective. They were simply tubes about 30cm
load and then grasp the gun just behind the breech
with his left hand, tucking the stock under his left
to 90cm (l-3ft) in length, 2.5cm (lin) or so in elbow and clasping it to his side. Then with the
calibre, strapped to a wooden pole from lm to 1.5m right hand he applied the burning brand to the vent.
(3-5ft) long. They were loaded through the muzzle in As can be imagined, the firer would be concerned
exactly the same way as the contemporary full-sized more with watching where he put the brand, so as to
cannon. A charge of gunpowder was tipped into the avoid applying it to his left hand by accident, than
barrel and followed by a ‘wad’, a small ball of rags or he would be with pointing the gun, so the accuracy
straw. This was forced down to the breech end of the of these early weapons is open to some doubt.
barrel by a ramrod, the wad acting as a retainer to Gradually the stocks were shortened, and since
keep the gunpowder in place beneath the vent or these weapons were frequently designed for use in
touch-hole. The ramrod was withdrawn and a ball defending towns and castles, a hook was forged
dropped into the barrel and again rammed down. If underneath the muzzle so that the gun could be
the ball was a good fit, that was enough, but if it was hooked on to the wall and thus relieve the firer of
a poor fit - as was likely in those days - then another the recoil (the sudden rearward thrust caused by the
wad would be rammed on top to hold everything in reaction of the gun to the explosion and expulsion
place. of the ball). Such hooked guns became known in
The vent was a fine hole bored through from the Old German as ‘hackenbuchse’, from which, by
outside of the barrel to the end of the bore, the outer corruption, came the English name ‘arquebus’ or
end of the vent being widened into a saucer-like ‘hackbut’. For firing when no wall was available, a
depression. Into this went a sprinkling of gunpowder, forked stick was adopted, on to which the muzzle
some of which would find its way into the vent. could be laid to support the weapon. The stock was
Finally the handgun was touched off by applying a now shaped so that the firer could rest it against his
burning brand of hot iron to the exposed powder at shoulder or, in many cases, against his chest.
the end of the vent. The explosion of this powder Improvements in these early days followed in the
would flash down the vent, into the bore of the gun, wake of the cannon. The first development to appear
and ignite the powder which in its turn would ex¬ was when some unknown experimenter found that,
plode and discharge the ball. by soaking a piece of twine in a solution of saltpetre,
14 In order to accomplish all this the firer had to he could make a ‘slow match’ which, once ignited.
 Matchlock/MUZZLE LOADERS

would burn very slowly and thus provide the cannon

gunner with a ready source of ignition without
having to resort to plucking burning brands from a
fire or to heating up irons. The hand gunner also
adopted the slow match, commonly carrying it,
burning, in his hand so that it was always ready to
apply to the vent of his arquebus. This, though, was
inconvenient, and soon a mechanical contrivance -
the matchlock - was devised. An S-shaped metal arm,
known as the serpentine, was hinged to the stock of
the arquebus and the top end formed into a clamp
which would hold a piece of burning match. The vent
of the gun was enlarged to form a ‘pan’, into which
the burning end of the match would fall when the
lower end of the holder was pulled. Now the firer
could devote his attention to the direction in which
his gun was pointed, knowing that on pulling on the
lever, the match would light the powder in the vent
and fire the gun.
This simple mechanical arrangement was soon
improved by cutting off the lower half of the ‘S’ of
the serpentine, putting a spring behind it to force
the match-holder toward the vent, and then fitting
a stop, controlled by a trigger, to hold the match
away until ready to fire. This was the snapping
matchlock, the subsequent history of which is rather
peculiar. It did not last long in Europe, but specimens
were taken to the Far East by Portuguese merchant
venturers and introduced into Japan. Shortly after
MUZZLE LOADERS/Wheel-lock

this, Japan closed her borders to foreigners and the The wheel-lock was an elegant solution to the
subsequent developments in firearms bypassed that ignition problem. Compared with the matchlock, it
country. As a result, the snapping matchlock re¬ was safer against accidental discharge (provided the
mained in use there for another two centuries. cock was clear of the pan), surer in all weathers,
In Europe the gradual introduction of various and easier to handle. But it was expensive and proved
mechanical devices into everyday life was echoed in too delicate for the rough and tumble of ordinary
the development of firearms, and by about 1517, warfare and it was never adopted as standard issue
doubtless due to the influence of the skilled clock- to the foot soldier. The wheel-lock did see some use
makers of southern Germany, the wheel-lock was in cavalry pistols, as it was assumed that these
invented. In this lock a thin, serrated wheel was would be better cared for by their owners. But
connected, by a fine chain, to a spring. The axle of the many more were turned out by gunsmiths as private
wheel was finished in a square boss on to which a key orders for wealthy individuals, especially sports¬
could be fitted, and the wheel wound back so as to men, and as a general rule the wheel-lock was a
place the spring under tension. Once fully wound, the stylish and richly-decorated weapon.
wheel was then held against the pull of the spring During the period of the wheel-lock, with guns
by a trigger-operated catch and the key removed. being made to rather better standards of accuracy,
An angular arm, known as the ‘cock’ from its shape the problem of fouling (a deposit left on the inside
and from the appearance of the head, held a piece of the barrel by the burning of gunpowder) became
of iron pyrites and this was swung forwards to press acute. In early guns, where the fit between barrel
against the edge of the wheel. When the trigger was and ball was generous, fouling made little difference,
released, the spring spun the wheel and struck but when gunsmiths began to make weapons with
sparks from the pyrites; the sparks fell into the little clearance between the bore and the bullet,
powder-filled pan and thus fired the gun. The same then a layer of fouling could make reloading a
principle survives today in the cigarette lighter. difficult matter. An ingenious Swiss devised a system
of cutting longitudinal grooves into the inner sur¬
Below A wheel-lock gun, face of the barrel, so that the fouling went into the
probably late 16th century, grooves and the ball travelled on the ‘lands’ or the
showing the degree of raised portions between the grooves. This necessi¬
embellishment commonly tated making a patch of cloth to go beneath the
found on these hunting ball to seal the grooves against the escape of gas,
weapons. This one has and it meant that loading the gun was a little more
two triggers - one ‘sets' strenuous, but it appeared to improve the accuracy.
the mechanism and the
second fires it with
minimum risk of the gun
drifting off target.

Above right The wheel- pyrites head, is brought

lock mechanism. The into contact with the
wheel is wound, by a stationary wheel and then
spanner inserted from the the trigger is pulled. This
right-hand side of the withdraws the ‘dog’ from
wheel, to compress the the wheel, allowing it to
mainspring. To prepare spin and strike sparks
the gun, the cock, with its from the pyrites.
 Early Rifling/MUZZLE LOADERS

A more significant advance came when an un¬ At the beginning of the sixteenth century a new
known genius decided to give the grooves a slight system of ignition appeared in Spain - the Spanish
twist and invented the rifled barrel. The spiral ‘miquelet’ lock or ‘snaphance’. It combined the
grooving inside the barrel gave a spinning motion simplicity of the snapping matchlock with the
to the ball, endowing it with gyroscopic stability spark ignition of the wheel-lock. One drawback oi
during flight. This tends to equalize any abnormality the wheel-lock was that the iron pyrites material
of flight caused by irregularities of shape or density was soft, did not last long in use, and was difficult
and also gives the flying bullet a better ability to to come by. The Spanish lock used a cock with a
resist changes in direction due to wind or air density. double jaw into which a shaped piece of flint could
Knowledge of the advantages of rotational flight be clamped. A leaf spring, bearing against the heel
for projectiles was ancient - long before the first of the cock, provided the power to drive it forwards,
guns were made, archers and javelin-throwers used and a cross-bolt, coupled to the trigger, slid over
to cause their missiles to spin in flight - but an and held the cock against the spring when it was
accurate explanation of the phenomenon came later. pulled back by the flrer. The pan, at the right side
The spinning principle was to increase in import¬ of the breech, was closed by a cover which turned
ance when spherical balls were replaced by elongated up into a vertical face at the rear edge of the pan
bullets, since only gyroscopic stabilization keeps and was held tightly over the pan by another small
such bullets flying point-first. Today, in general leaf spring. The cover could be flipped open, against
usage, the word ‘rifle’ implies a weapon fired from the spring, and powder poured into the pan, after
the shoulder and using a relatively small-sized, which the cover snapped back. The spring had
high-velocity bullet. But in the days before the sufficient tension to hold the pan securely closed
invention of machine tools, cutting the rifling so that carrying or handling the weapon would not
grooves was a difficult business, one of the ‘mysteries’ shake the powder out of the pan. To fire, the trigger
of the gunsmith’s profession, and rifled guns were, was pulled, and this removed the cross-bolt from the
in the first instance, strictly for the wealthy few. path of the cock. The cock fell, and at the end of its 17
 MUZZLE LOADERS/Flintlock

barrel

travel brought the flint into grazing contact with last for about 50 or 60 ignitions, after which it was
the vertical face of the pan cover. This contact both generally discarded. Even removing it and resharp¬
struck sparks between the flint ancl the steel of the ening it gave little more life. As a result, ‘knapping'
cover, and also knocked the cover forwards so as to or the manufacture of flints became a major industry
allow the pan to be exposed and the sparks to fall in those parts of Europe where suitable flints were
into the powder and fire the gun. found, and a skilled knapper could produce two or
The Spanish lock was strong, simple and as reliable three thousand flints a day.
as could be hoped for at the time. It soon travelled Once the flintlock became popular, firearms began
throughout Europe, gathering improvements as it to become more common, since the cheaper and
went. The Netherlands were then under Spanish simpler flintlock lowered the price and reduced the
occupation and influence, and the next step came degree of skilled workmanship demanded. The
with the Dutch Snaphance lock. In this design the flintlock smooth-bore musket became the standard
pan cover was separated from the ‘frizzen’, that weapon of the armies of the day, the flintlock pistol
piece which struck the spark from the flint. The pan armed the cavalry, and also became a civilian arm.
cover was a sliding cover which had to be slid open Flintlock sporting guns appeared.
and closed when loading the pan but which was Loading weapons such as the British service
linked to the cock by a concealed rod. The main¬ ‘Brown Bess’ or the Charleville musket of the French
spring was now concealed inside the lock and bore Army was a complex performance, drilled into
on the ‘tumbler’, a shaped metal piece on the axle the soldiers of the day until they could do it in the
of the cock. The action was more or less the same: heat of battle without having to stop to think about
as the cock fell, released by a catch operated by the it. The following drill for recruits - taken from the
trigger, so the connecting rod pushed the pan cover official British Exercise of the Firelock of the late
open. The flint struck sparks from the frizzen, the eighteenth century - gives a fascinating glimpse of
sparks fell into the open pan, and the gun fired. what was involved in handling a flintlock musket:
The perfected design was known as the ‘French’ or ‘Upon the command “Prime and Load”; make a quarter
‘Flint Lock’, the earliest known examples dating turn to the right . . . at the same time bringing down the
from about 1610. This lock combined the internal firelock to the priming position, with the left hand at
spring and tumbler of the Dutch lock with the the swell, the side-brass touching the left hip, the
combined pan cover and frizzen of the Spanish thumb of the right hand placed in front of the hammer
design to produce the most reliable mechanism of with the fingers clenched, the firelock nearly horizontal.
its kind, one which was to remain the standard until Open the pan by closing the elbow to the side . . .
18 the end of the spark ignition era. The flint would Upon the command “Handle Cartridge”; 1st, draw the
 Flintlock Drill/MUZZLE LOADERS

Below The flintlock against the spring’s

mechanism. The pressure (cocking). With
frizzen mainspring bears against the priming powder in the
the flint-bearing cock pan, the frizzen is closed.
which is pulled back Pulling the trigger
releases the cock to strike
full-cock position the flint against the
-cock position frizzen’s curved face,
knocking it open and
exposing the priming to
spark ignition.

mainspring

vent in side of pan

Far left The Spanish

miquelet lock’s action.

Left Dutch Snaphance

lock in which frizzen and
pan cover are separate.

cartridge from the pouch; 2nd, bring it to the mouth . . .

and bite the top off the cartridge.’
The cartridge, by this time, was a self-contained
unit - a paper tube containing the ball and the
requisite powder charge. The end containing the
powder was closed by twisting the paper and dipping
it in wax or grease. It was possible to undo it by hand, as before. 3rd, push the cartridge well down to the
but biting it off was the accepted and fastest method. bottom of the barrel. 4th, strike it two very quick strokes
It was also the reason why the British Army insisted with the ramrod.’
on recruits having sound teeth. It will be appreciated that ramming could have
‘Upon the command “Prime”; 1st, shake out some been done more simply. Much of the detail insisted
powder into the pan and place the last three fingers on here was to produce a uniform technique and
on the hammer (frizzen). 2nd, shut the pan . . . drill movement which could be more readily checked
‘Upon the command “About”; turn the piece nimbly by the non-commissioned officers and also to drill
round to the loading position . . . into the recruit a system of loading which would
‘2nd, place the butt on the ground without noise, raise ensure that he would perform it automatically in
the elbow square with the shoulder, shake the powder response to orders during a battle.
into the barrel, putting in after it the paper and ball.’ ‘Upon the command “Return Ramrods”; 1st, draw the
The paper was inserted first as a tight bundle, to ramrod half out, catching it back-handed . . . 2nd, draw
act as a wad over the powder. Some of it would it entirely out . . . turning it to the front, put into the
wedge between the ball and the interior of the barrel loops and force it as quickly as possible to the bottom . . .
and thus act to retain the ball after loading. after a pause . . . bring the firelock in one motion to the
‘3rd, drop the right elbow close to the body and seize same position as the word “Prime and Load”.
the head of the ramrod . . . Upon the command “Draw ‘Upon the command “As Front Rank, Ready”; place
Ramrods”; 1st, force the ramrod half out and seize it the thumb of the right hand on the cock and finger
back-handed exactly in the middle . . . 2nd, draw it behind the guard, and cock the piece. Then take a grasp
entirely out . . . turning it at the same time to the front, of the butt, fixing the eye steadily upon some object in
put one inch into the barrel. front.
‘Upon the command “Ram Down Cartridge”; 1st, push ‘Upon the command “Present”; bring the firelock up to
the ramrod down until the second finger touches the the present slowly and independently until in line with
muzzle. 2nd, press the ramrod lightly towards you and the object the eye had fixed upon; then pull the trigger
slip the two fingers and thumb to the point, then grasp without a jerk, and when fired remain looking on the 19
 MUZZLE LOADERS/ Hang-Fire

aim until the word “Load" is given . . .

Too much pain cannot be taken to prevent the recruit
from raising his firelock with a jerk; it must be deliber¬
ately raised until aligned with the object that the eye
is fixed upon and so that he may lay his right cheek on
the butt without too much stooping of the head; particu¬
lar care must be taken that the recruit in this position
shuts the left eye in taking aim, looking along the barrel
with his right eye
It will be noticed that there is no question of
using any sight - the firer looks along the barrel.
One of the most important features of the flintlock
was the distinct sequence of events once the trigger
had been pulled. The first time a flintlock is seen in
action, the flash and smoke are so spectacular that
the individual events go unnoticed, but after becom¬
ing used to it, it is possible to distinguish three
separate actions. First comes the strike of sparks
from the flint; then the ignition of the powder in
the pan; and finally, after a distinct pause, the
ignition of the main charge, the actual firing of the
gun. The natural reaction for an unaccustomed firer
is to flinch when the powder fires in the pan, thus
disturbing his aim by the time the main charge
fires, and this was a matter which received particular
attention in the training of soldiers:
‘The recruit having acquired the habit of readily align¬
ing the firelock with any object selected by the eye, he
is next taught to burn priming without winking, or the
slightest degree altering the composure of his counten¬
ance . . . The instructor must watch the recruit minutely
in this practice, which must be continued until the eye
is perfectly indifferent to the flash caused by the ignition
of the powder.’
But even if the firer became ‘indifferent’ to the
flash of the priming powder, the same could not
always be said of the target. Game birds and beasts
were often alarmed by the initial fizzing and flash
and frequently managed to make their escape during
the short delay - known as ‘hang-fire’ - before the
cartridge fired and sent a charge of shot in their
direction, much to the chagrin of shooters ‘for the
pot’. One of these frustrated sportsmen was the
Reverend Alexander Forsyth of Belhelvie, near
Aberdeen in Scotland, who began, in about 1800, to
apply his scientific bent in a search for a more certain
and speedy method of ignition.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, prob¬
ably spurred on by the Napoleonic Wars, a number
of people had begun to investigate various chemical Forsyth’s lock consisted of a tubular ‘magazine’
substances which could be made to explode without containing detonating powder in one half and a
the use of flame or spark to initiate them. Among vertical pin in the other. It was mounted vertically
them was the English chemist Edward Howard who, just in front of the vent which ran from the breech
in 1799, discovered fulminate of mercury, a com¬ of the gun - in other words in the position occupied
pound so sensitive that it could be exploded by the by the pan and frizzen in a flintlock. The cock of the
impact of a light blow. Forsyth began experimenting flintlock was replaced by a similar device but one
with fulminate and eventually discovered that a which was tipped with a plain end, rather than with
mixture of fulminate and potassium chlorate re¬ the double jaw to hold the flint. With its new function
duced the sensitivity of fulminate alone and also came a new name: it ceased to be known as the cock
provided a stronger flash from the detonation. His and became the ‘hammer’. To operate the Forsyth
next problem was to design a lock which would take lock, the magazine was charged with a quantity of
advantage of the ‘detonating powder’ and in 1807 he detonating powder and the gun loaded in the usual
20 patented his first percussion lock. way. Then the lock was rotated on its vertical axis
 Forsyth s Locks/MUZZLE LOADERS
Far left From top to
bottom: a British light
cavalry pistol of 1800-
pattern with ‘stirrup'
ramrod attachment; an
all-metal Scottish pistol of
Jin calibre with ‘rams
horn’ butt; an 1804 French
.67in cavalry pistol; a
British 1797'India'
pattern Brown Bess
musket of J5in calibre,
weighing 3.8kg (8.5lb) and
measuring 137cm (54in)
without the 45cm (18in)
bayonet; a British 1800-
pattern Baker Rifle with
61cm (2ft) sword bayonet.
The Baker, of .615in
calibre, was the British
Army's first general
issue rifle.

Left The three stages of

flintlock ignition. (1) The
flint strikes the frizzen,
igniting the priming
powder (2), which, via the
vent, sets off the main
charge (3). 'Hang-fire' is
the delay from (1) to (3).

instantaneous. The birds of Belhelvie were extremely

surprised when the good Reverend appeared among
them with his new shotgun.
Forsyth's second design of lock has gone down in
history as the ‘scent bottle lock’ because of its

"T_ shape: the side view resembled a waisted bottle of

the sort used in the eighteenth century for perfume.
This lock was widely copied on the continent,
notably by the French gunsmith Prelat. Continental
designers then set about making the locks ‘auto¬
matic’ by linking the magazine with the hammer
so that as the hammer was drawn back to cock, so
the magazine was pulled to prime the vent with
powder. Then, as the hammer came forwards on the
firing stroke, it pushed the magazine out of the way
and directly struck the powder in the vent.
Loose powder, however, was an inconvenient
so as to bring the magazine section over the vent. method of working and several minds were now
This deposited a small amount of powder in the vent. applied to producing something easier and safer to
The lock was then revolved back, which brought handle. The first and most obvious solution was to
the vertical pin above the powder in the vent. When compress the powder into pills which could simply
the trigger was pressed, the hammer fell, struck be placed into a suitable vent, doing away with the
the vertical pin, and drove it down on to the powder expense of the magazine-type lock. This was not
in the vent. This detonated, and the flash passed entirely satisfactory, since the pills were prone to
down the vent to fire the charge in the gun’s chamber. crumble into powder when carried around for any
What this meant in practice was a far more efficient length of time. Moreover, they were easily dropped
system of priming and ignition than that allowed or could be shaken out of the vent after loading.
by the flintlock. The magazine could be loaded with Forsyth himself overcame this handicap by pasting
enough powder to fire 30 or 40 shots; the vent could the pills between two strips of paper to make a
be primed with a quick twist of the fingers; and string which could be carried rolled in some suitable
when the trigger was pulled, the reaction was almost receptacle on the lock and pulled out to present one 21
MUZZLE LOADERS/Percussion Cap

A double-barrelled Forsyth for 20-40 shots. Forsyth's

fowling piece of c.1816 system eliminated misfires,
with the ‘scent bottle' multiplied rate of fire and
percussion lock. The lower allowed all-weather use,
half, or magazine, took unlike the flintlock's open
enough priming powder ignition.

pill at a time to the vent. In fact the idea was the stood proud of the breech and in line with the ham¬
forerunner of the roll of paper caps or ‘amorces’ mer. The open end of the percussion cap was slipped
used by children in toy guns to this day. The idea over the open end of this tube - or ‘nipple’ - and
of tape priming failed to catch on at first, though it fitted sufficiently tightly for it not to be easily
was to reach a degree of success several years later dislodged. When the hammer fell it simply crushed
in the United States when Dr Edward Maynard, a the powder between itself and the edges of the
Washington dentist, used it in his carbines. nipple, and the subsequent flash went through the
A better solution came in 1818 from Joseph Manton, nipple and vent directly into the chamber to fire the
a noted English gunsmith, when he placed a measure charge. Since there was a danger of the detonating
of detonating powder in a thin copper tube. He then cap flying to pieces and showering the firer with
bored the vent into the side of the gun chamber and fragments of copper, the face of the hammer was
placed a protruding peg in the position of the pan. recessed so as to shroud the cap at the instant of
The copper tube was then pushed into the vent so detonating.
that a portion of it was exposed and supported by In all fairness it should be said that the idea of
the peg. On pulling the trigger the hammer fell, to the percussion cap appears to have struck several
crush the tube against the peg and fire the detonat¬ people at much the same time - a common enough
ing powder, flashing down the vent and firing the occurrence with good ideas. Captain Joshua Shaw
charge. of Philadelphia patented a similar idea in 1814 and
At much the same time, Manton, together with various European inventors have claimed priority.
Joseph Egg, another London gunmaker, produced But whoever started the idea, it spread very rapidly
another idea. Presumably he backed both horses in and the days of spark ignition were largely over.
the hope that one of them would win. This second In general, the weapons of the early percussion
idea was the percussion cap, which resembled a period were simply those of the flintlock era, but
small top-hat made of copper. Inside the crown was with a hammer and nipple replacing the cock and
a layer of detonating powder, retained there by a frizzen. Indeed, the similarity was so great that
thin tissue and a coat of varnish. The gun now had many hundreds of flintlock guns were simply con¬
the vent bored diagonally into the top centre of the verted to percussion by removing the pan and frizzen
breech, and into this was screwed a thin tube which and screwing in a nipple and holder, and replacing
 Delvigne and Minie Bullets/MUZZLE LOADERS

the cock with a hammer. In some cases the work Below A percussion lock, with the lock cover
was so well done that it is almost impossible to weapon's principle of open to expose the roll of
detect, but in many it was cheaply performed and operation. The hammer tape and showing how it
the conversion is obvious. Many of these conversions and nipple are shown, feeds up to the nipple. The
appear in sale-rooms and collections today, and, it is with the connection to priming pellets of
regretted, many have been re-converted by dealers the gun chamber. fulminate of mercury are
and owners to make them into ‘genuine flintlocks’ embedded in paper or
once more and thus command higher prices. Bottom The Maynard linen. The Model 1855 US
The perfection of the percussion lock was a con¬ type (invented 1845) of Pistol-Carbine had this
siderable step forwards, sufficient to allow inventors tape-primed percussion system.
to turn their attention to something else as an
outlet for their talents. One of the next things to
came to rest on this constriction, and a few hard
By the 1830s rifling had become universally accepted
barrel
and the smooth-bore gun, except for the shotgun,
was a thing of the past. Yet the problem still lay in
producing a bullet which would pass down the bore hammer
easily when rammed but which would expand - ‘set
up’ is the technical expression - into the rifling on
its way out again to emerge with spinning flight. touch-hole
An early solution was the Delvigne system, in which nipple
the chamber at the breech-end of the weapon was
of smaller internal diameter than the rest of the
barrel. When the round lead ball was dropped in, it
came to rest on this constriction, and a few hard
blows with the rammer caused the lead to deform
into a ‘skirt’ which bit into the rifling. The constric¬
tion prevented the ball from being driven down into
the powder and possibly firing it by friction. Unfor¬
tunately, while this worked, it also deformed the
ball. As a result, flight was even more inaccurate
than usual, so that the system tended to defeat
itself.
Gustave Delvigne appears to have appreciated the
point, and he went on to produce a conical bullet
with a cavity in the base. The exploding powder set
up pressure behind the bullet and some of the pres¬
sure caused the thinned-out sides of the base cavity
to expand into the rifling, without deforming the
bullet. Then came the Thouvenin system, in which
the gun chamber carried a steel pillar in its centre.
The conical bullet was dropped down and, again,
pounded with the rammer. Since the bullet came to
rest on the tip of the pillar, the blows of the rammer
forced the pillar onto the base and thus spread the
base outwards into the rifling. This pillar became
known as the ‘tige’ and the French Army adopted
the ‘carabine a tige’ which used it. The same system
was also used with British'Army percussion pistols.
Finally, in 1849, came the famous ‘Minie ball’
developed by Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of the
French Army. Minie fashioned a conical-cylindrical
bullet with an iron cup let into a cavity in the centre
of the grooved base. On firing, the iron cup was
driven into the base of the bullet by gas pressure,
and this forced the side of the base outwards to bite
into the rifling. Minie had great success with his
invention - he was paid the princely sum of £20,000
by the British Government for the use of his idea,
and similar sums came from many other European
governments. The Minie ball became the primary
rifle bullet of the American Civil War, being gener¬
ally used by both sides in that conflict. 23
FAMOUS GUNS Brown Bess
Nobody knows where workshop, so that barrel became the
the British Army's famous robustness and reliability regulation arm in 1797.
musket, the Brown Bess, were of paramount A ‘New Land Service
got her name; certainly importance. Musket' followed in 1802;
not from ‘Good Queen The effective range was it was almost a complete
Bess' (Elizabeth I), who considered to be about return to the ‘Short Land
had been dead for over a 180m (200yd), within Service' model. They
century when the musket which it was as accurate remained the standard
was first issued. 'Brown' as could be expected of a British long arms until the
certainly came from the smoothbore. The arrival of the percussion
colour of the barrel, markmanship test of the muskets in 1842. And
chemically treated to period called for a trained these, to the confusion of
resist corrosion and to soldier to hit a 203mm (8in) historians and students
prevent glare. ‘Bess' circle at 180m (200yd), ever since, were still called
probably came from simple firing from the standing *Brown Bess'.
alliteration. position, which is a fair
The origin of the gun performance. Left A War of 1812
itself is equally indistinct. In the mid-1760s the British redcoat with the
No definite date of Long Land Service Musket 1797 India pattern Brown
approval has ever been was supplemented, and Bess. He has his 18in
discovered. The earliest then gradually replaced, (45cm) bayonet fixed
date definitely ascribed by the ‘Short Land Service and would carry 60 rounds
to a specimen is 1720. It Musket', which had a in his cartridge box.
was formally known as the 106cm (42in) barrel. This
‘Long Land Service fired the same bullet but Below An India pattern
Musket' and was of used a 4.53g (70gr=~0.16oz) musket.
.753in calibre with a charge in order to reduce
116cm (46in) barrel. It recoil. It had a steel Bottom The 1802 New
fired a 31.75g (490grain = ramrod to replace the Long Land Service musket.
1.12oz) lead ball by means Land's wooden one. The
of an 8g (124gr=0.28oz) Short Land Service LONG LAND SERVICE
powder charge. At 5.32kg Musket was a better- MUSKET
(11.75lb) weight it was a balanced and more easily Calibre 753in
heavy weapon, a good handled weapon. Length 155.2cm
deal heavier than a 20th (61.125in)
The shortage of muskets Weight 5.32kg (11.751b)
century magazine rifle, at the outbreak of war Barrel 115.5cm (45.5in)
but it was primarily with France in 1793 led Rifling Smoothbore
Foresight Blade
designed to be utterly to the British Army buying Rear sight None
soldier-proof. The British them from the Honourable Action Muzzle-loader
Army of those days was East India Company. This Rate of fire 2-3rpm
Muzzle velocity
liable to find itself fighting slimmer, slightly shorter 182m/sec (600ft/sec)
in any corner of the globe, and lighter ‘India pattern' Bullet weight 31.75g
far from an armourer's (490gr)
musket with a 99cm (39in)
 Ferguson Rifle FAMOUS GUNS

The Ferguson was the loose powder was poured 11th September 1777. They
first breech-loading rifle in. A turn of the lever then acquitted themselves well
to be adopted officially by closed the breech once until Ferguson was shot in
the British Army, and, more, the flintlock was the arm. With the guiding
but for the death of its cocked and the pan hand removed from the
inventor, might have primed, and the rifle was field, the Light Company
replaced Brown Bess. It ready to fire. It was (having lost 40 killed and
was invented by Captain possible for the average wounded) was split up
Patrick Ferguson of the soldier to load and fire after the battle and the
70th Foot (later the East three rounds a minute, men dispersed to their
Surrey Regiment) who while a skilled man could former regiments. Their
adopted and improved an get off five or six shots in rifles were removed and
earlier French breech¬ that time. In addition to subsequently vanished;
loading idea. The breech the speed, the accuracy very few have ever been
of the rifle was closed by was far better than that of seen since. Although
a screwed plug which ran the contemporary muskets. Ferguson recovered from
vertically and was After demonstrations by his wound, he was killed
actuated by a lever which Ferguson, the rifle was at the Battle of Kings
formed the trigger guard. accepted by the Board of Mountain (7th October
The eight-grooved barrel Ordnance in 1776, and 100 1780) before he could begin
was 86.6cm (34.1in) long, were made in London to reconstitute his rifle
the whole rifle being under Ferguson's company.
125.4cm (49.3in) long personal supervision. A A Ferguson is shown
overall and weighing special Light Company of open for loading. The
3.1kg (6lb 14oz), almost 100 men was formed, trigger guard has swung
one-third less than Brown Ferguson was placed in the twist-threaded plug
Bess. command, training with down about 22mm (.875in).
The Ferguson operated the new rifles was
in very simple fashion. completed, and the unit FERGUSON RIFLE
The breech was opened by was then dispatched to Calibre .702in
swinging the lever in North America to fight in Length 125.4cm
three-quarters of a circle the War of Independence. (49.375in)
Weight 3.13kg (6.91b)
clockwise, which, due to There, unfortunately, the Barrel 86.6cm (34.125in)
the fast pitch of the screw first engagement of the Rifling 8 grooves, r/hand
on the breech plug, Ferguson Rifle turned out Foresight Blade
Rearsight V-notch
lowered the plug and to be its last, though not (some weapons had no
exposed the rear end of the from any defect in the rearsight)
chamber. The ball was weapon. Action Screw breech
Feed system None
then dropped in, being Ferguson and his green- Muzzle velocity (est.)
prevented from going too uniformed Light Company 228m/sec (750ft/sec)
Bullet weight 29.11g
far into the barrel by the led a diversionary attack (450gr)
rifling, and a charge of at Brandywine Creek on
•U:*
BREECHLOADERS
BREECH LOADERS/Breech Loading
Previous page Custer's carbine, an obsolete cocking piece bolt release firing pin
Last Stand, the Battle of weapon. Though few
the Little Big Horn Indians had firearms,
(25 June 1876) as most some had Winchester or
accurately illustrated by Henry repeating rifles.
E. S. Paxson. The US 7th Both sides used the Colt
Cavalry were armed with a .44 revolver. One trooper
single-shot .50in calibre, is trying to unjam his
cam-locked Springfield carbine.

sear

T he minie system, effective as it was, was the last

gasp of the muzzle-loader, for the demands of
founders, and the close and gas-tight fit necessary
between chamber and gun was simply unattainable.
warfare for rapid and accurate shooting were So the idea languished, turning up now and again
becoming too insistent to ignore. The slow loading as new inventors tried to make it work. It was not
and inherent inaccuracy of the muzzle-loader were until the nineteenth century, with its advances in
bad enough, but the full tally of disadvantages which mechanical engineering and consequent improve¬
went with it tend to be forgotten today. They were ment in fit and finish, that breech-loading became
lovingly tabulated by William Greener, writing in practical. Even then, it took much trial and error
the late nineteenth century of the advantages before inventors realized the magnitude of the
‘possessed by the breech-loader over the best of muzzle¬ forces of explosion and heat that they were playing
loading guns. There is no danger when loading; no with, and appreciated that what was an elegant
possibility of the ramrod being shot through the hand or solution on paper very often failed to work on the
of caps flying into the eye; no nipples to foul; no powder- firing range.
flask and shot-flask to carry, no caps to fumble with and The prime requirement was still a gas-tight seal,
no need to tear paper into wadding. There is stronger and simply making flush-fitting faces to the barrel
shooting because there is no escape of gas through the and breech-piece was not good enough. Moreover,
nipple-hole, and because the powder is unimpaired by so long as the cartridge was no more than a lead
the fouling which, with the muzzle-loader, used to be ball and a pinch of powder, loading was still almost
forced down upon the charge by the wad . . .’ Because as difficult by the breech as it was by the muzzle.
of these drawbacks, and because of the promise of The self-contained cartridge - a paper sleeve with
better things, the records of the second and third the ball and powder on a single unit - was a step in
quarters of the nineteenth century abound with the right direction, but the eventual answer was to
ideas for breech-loading arms. construct the cartridge so that it performed two
The whole idea of loading from the breech was not tasks. Not only was it to carry the propellant powder
new. Some of the earliest cannon had been made and the missile, but it was to be interposed between
with separate chambers which could be pre-loaded the chamber and the breech to act as a seal, one
with powder and ball and then placed behind the which was renewed every time the gun was reloaded
open breech of the cannon, locked in place with and thus was never likely to wear out.
wedges, and fired. The empty chamber could then be As early as 1812, a Swiss gunsmith named Samuel
quickly removed and replaced by a loaded one. The Johannes Pauly, working in Paris, had developed a
idea was sound, but the degree of technology de¬ single-shot pistol using a remarkable self-contained
manded was not within the reach of the early gun- cartridge which included its own means of ignition.
 Needle Gun/BREECH LOADERS

The mechanism of the the chamber. The bolt is

Dreyse Needle Gun. To closed and the handle
load, the bolt release is turned down, the cocking
needle
pressed and the cocking piece thrust into the bolt
piece pulled out. The bolt to compress the spring.
is then opened by lifting The trigger releases the
the handle and pulling it needle to penetrate the
back. The self-contained cartridge and strike the
cartridge is inserted into bullet base.

A cylindrical brass or iron base formed the support criterion of any system of firearms) was the bolt
for a tube of paper, into which the powder charge action ‘needle gun’ of Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse.
and the bullet were inserted. The brass base was Von Dreyse, a Prussian, had been apprenticed to
centrally bored and carried a pellet of detonating Pauly in Paris and he set up in business as a master
powder in a recess at the outer end of this boring, gunsmith in Sommerda, Prussia. In 1827 he developed
secured in place by a covering of varnished paper. his needle gun, but it took several years work to
Pauly’s pistol had a ‘break action’ (similar to that perfect and not until 1835 did he manage to produce
of the modern shotgun) which lifted the rear end of a reliable weapon. After thorough trials, it was
the barrel and allowed direct access to the breech. taken into service by the Prussian Army in Decem¬
The cartridge was inserted, and the barrel closed ber 1840, and this acceptance marked the arrival of
on it, cocking a firing pin within the breech as it what we might call ‘modern’ weapons into military
closed. On pulling the trigger the pin was released service.
to go forwards and strike the detonating powder. Von Dreyse’s breech mechanism was based on the
This flashed through the base of the cartridge to common door-bolt which, when turned sideways
fire the charge. The firer then opened the breech and against a lug, resists opening. Through von Dreyse’s
removed the brass base-piece - the paper, of course, bolt ran a long ‘needle’ or firing pin, propelled by a
had been largely consumed in the firing. He was now spring, and controlled, through the agency of a
ready to reload with another cartridge, and at the ‘sear’ or intermediate lever, by the trigger. The bolt
end of the day faced the prospect of sitting down lay in prolongation of the breech of the rifle, and its
and cutting up the necessary paper to make up a face carried a chamfered lip which made tight con¬
fresh lot of cartridges on the fired bases. tact with the correspondingly chamfered rear face
Pauly, however, was ahead of his time. His inven¬ of the breech to give a fairly efficient gas-tight
tion received little attention in France and after joint. Behind the barrel, and surrounding much of
the occupation of Paris in 1814 following the defeat the bolt, there was a metal framework - the ‘receiver’
of Napoleon Bonaparte, he went to London. He still or the body of the gun - and this was cut away to
failed to find acceptance of his ideas and he died in allow the bolt handle to be turned down through 90°
poverty in 1817. Although one or two gunsmiths when the bolt was slid forwards and closed, so that
toyed with his idea, it lapsed into obscurity, but the handle lay in front of a metal surface and thus
Pauly deserves remembering as the inventor of the locked the bolt in the closed position.
self-contained, centre-fire metallic cartridge. The heart of von Dreyse’s system lay in the ammu¬
The first practical system of breech-loading to be nition. A special cartridge was prepared, consisting
adopted for military use (which, after all, is the of a cylindrical bullet with a rounded nose and a 29
 BREECH LOADERS/Breech Conversions
pellet of detonating powder in its flat base. The ally called a musket, though it was, in fact, rifled
bullet was contained in a paper cartridge which and not a smooth-bore.)
extended well behind the bullet base to contain the While the military authorities were thus groping
propelling charge of gunpowder. The percussion slowly towards the breech-loading era, the civilian
pellet was thus in front of the charge. This self- shooters - less inhibited by convention and without
contained cartridge was loaded into the breech of vast stocks of arms to be converted or disposed of -
the rifle and the bolt closed behind it. Prior to clos¬ were moving rather more rapidly. In 1832 a Parisian,
ing the bolt, the needle was pulled back into the Casimir Lefaucheaux, designed a new shotgun for
bolt. After the bolt was closed and locked, the needle hunters. This had the barrel hinged to drop down,
was then placed under pressure by pushing in an lifting the rear end clear of the standing breech
inner sleeve of the bolt which cocked the firing which contained the firing lock. A special cartridge
spring. Pulling the trigger released the needle was developed by Lefaucheaux to suit the gun. It
which was driven forwards by the spring. It pene¬ consisted of a cardboard tube and base supported by
trated the base of the paper cartridge and continued a brass outer cap, the two being firmly held together
until it struck the percussion pellet, crushing this by a thick card wad pressed into the interior. The
against the base of the bullet and igniting the tube contained the charge of powder and the shot,
charge. After firing the soldier pulled out the inner while a percussion cap was fixed into a recess in the
bolt sleeve to withdraw the needle and remove brass base so that it could flash through a hole and
pressure from the spring. He then unlocked and ignite the charge. This cartridge laid the founda¬
opened the bolt, ready to reload. tions for all subsequent development of shotgun
The Prussian Army had taken a major technical ammunition, and the pattern has changed only in
step by adopting von Dreyse’s gun, but the rest of minor details up to the present day.
the world’s armies were in no hurry to follow suit. In 1846 another Frenchman, Bernard Houllier,
They were quite content to wait and see how the new patented a self-contained cartridge which was
system proved itself over the course of a few years essentially a percussion cap with a tiny bullet in the
of use before they committed themselves. Moreover,
they were now confronted with a problem which has
recurred whenever a new idea has appeared: how to
justify the scrapping of a vast and valuable stock of
weapons and the expense of re-equipping with new
ones? The armies of Europe were stocked with
hundreds of thousands of weapons, most of which
had just been converted from flint ignition to per¬
cussion at great expense, and the thought of throw¬
ing all this away in order to spend huge sums on a
new and untried system was repellent. Nevertheless,
it soon became obvious that breech-loading had
arrived and intended to stay, so the economy-
minded men who controlled the military purse¬
strings began looking for some way of converting
percussion muzzle-loaders into percussion breech¬
loaders as cheaply as possible.
The list of proposals for converting existing
weapons runs into several hundreds, some of which Above The Springfield Below Some early self-
were practical, but most of which bordered on the Trapdoor conversion. The contained cartridges.
lunatic. The general tendency was to cut off the breech-block is released From left to right: the
breech of the rifle and replace it with a solid block by a thumb-catch to allow Needle Gun; the Maynard,
which was hinged so that it could be swung out of loading. Locking brings ignited by an external cap,
the way to allow a paper cartridge to be loaded into the firing pin under the the spark passing through
the breech and then swung back again and locked. cocked hammer. the base hole; the early
The block was bored with a vent and provided with
a nipple for taking a percussion cap, and it was
generally arranged so that the nipple fell in the
same relative position that it had done on the
muzzle-loading original gun, so that the hammer
did not need to be altered. Probably the most fam¬
ous of these conversions were those of Erskine
Allins and Jacob Snider. Allins’ conversion hinged
forwards and was adopted in 1865 by the Americans
for the Springfield rifle, familiarly called the ‘Trap¬
door Springfield’. The Snider conversion of 1867,
although designed by an American, was applied to
30 the British Enfield musket. (The Enfield was offici¬
 Chassepot Rifle/BREECH LOADERS
front. Houllier had improved matters by making since there was always the danger of the rim blowing
the cap with a folded hollow rim, into which the out and injuring the firer if any great amount of
detonating powder was packed. The powder was pressure was developed inside the case. The pinfire
ignited by hammering the rim against the edge of was safer in this respect: even if internal pressure
the breech. The small cartridge - the bullet was tried to blow out the pin - which was unlikely - the
5mm calibre - has gone down in history as the pressure of the hammer resisted it.
Flobert cartridge, because Houllier appears to have In the United States an interesting but aberrant
been less interested in manufacture than he was in form of cartridge had been developed as the ‘Vol¬
invention, and the exploitation of the idea came canic’ cartridge. This was a conical bullet with a
from Louis Flobert who produced a range of ‘saloon’ recessed base containing a charge of powder and a
rifles and pistols for indoor target practice. The percussion cap, and it was allied with the Volcanic
design has, in fact, survived to the present day, being repeating pistol and rifle first made in 1854 by two
known today as the BB Cap (BB for ‘Bulleted Breech’). gentlemen named Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson.
Not content with this, Houllier came up with The Volcanic used a lever beneath the trigger to
another idea in the following year when he produced operate the breech-block; when the lever was pushed
a cartridge in which the percussion cap was ignited down the breech-block was pulled away from the
by a pin which passed through the side of the cart¬ barrel and, in moving back, it cocked the hammer.
ridge base. The breech of the gun was slotted to At the same time a ‘lifter’ lifted a cartridge from a
allow the pin to protrude when the breech was long tubular magazine fixed below the gun barrel
closed. The gun hammer fell on to the pin which, in (rather like a second barrel) and presented it to the
turn, crushed the cap and fired the cartridge. This, breech. Pulling the lever back thrust the breech¬
for obvious reasons, became known as the ‘pin-fire’, block forwards and pushed the cartridge into the
while his earlier idea became the ‘rim-fire’. breech, lowering the lifter to pick up a fresh cart¬
Both were widely adopted in Europe, but the rim- ridge. Ingenious as it was, the Volcanic failed be¬
fire tended to be confined to low-power weapons cause of two basic defects. Firstly, the cavity in the
base of the bullet did not have sufficient room to
carry a worthwhile amount of propellant, so the
velocity and accuracy were poor. And secondly, the
closure of the breech was not gas-tight, so that much
of the propulsive force leaked out, reducing the
velocity even further. Smith and Wesson were astute
enough to see these defects before most other people,
and they sold out in 1856 and went off to design a
better pistol.
It will be recalled that the armies of Europe were
sitting on their percussion muskets and waiting to
see what sort of results the Prussians got from their
von Dreyse-designed needle gun. Its efficiency was
to be well demonstrated in the Austro-Prussian War
of 1866. But before then a French mechanic, Antoine
Chassepot, foreman at a French arsenal, developed
his version of a bolt-action rifle which was adopted
by the French Army in 1866. Chassepot’s rifle showed
Flobert rimfire; a pinfire Above British Snider some improvements over the needle-gun design. In
shotgun; a Pottet shotgun conversion open for the first place, the firing pin was automatically
centre-fire; a Boxer, the loading. The breech-block cocked as the bolt was closed, doing away with the
anvil is part of the cap; is hinged to the right in separate cocking movement required of the firer by
and a Berdan, the anvil order to open. This is done the von Dreyse design. In the second place, the
is part of the cartridge case by pressing a thumb catch. obturation (sealing) of the breech was made more
which has two flash holes. An extractor was fitted. effective by using a washer-like plug of india-rubber
around the end of the bolt which fitted tightly into
the breech when the bolt was closed. And, thirdly,
Chassepot had developed a cartridge which carried
the percussion cap centrally in the base, so that the
firing pin no longer had to pass entirely through the
cartridge to strike the cap. This reduced damage to
the pin which, in the von Dreyse design, was sub¬
jected to strain by the heat of the explosion.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 allowed the
observers to see what results were achieved when
two first-class armies armed with bolt-action breech¬
loaders met each other. The results proved quite
conclusively that the breech-loading rifle was a 31
 BREECH LOADERS/Sharps Carbine

necessity in modern armies, and the rest of the

world busied itself with testing competing designs.
There were, of course, ways of closing the rear end
of the rifle other than using the bolt action. One of
the most successful early designs was that of Christ¬
ian Sharps, a Philadelphian gunmaker who, in 1848,
patented a rifle with a breech-block which dropped
in guides in the frame to expose the rear of the
chamber. The movement was controlled by a lever
beneath the trigger. The block carried a vent and
nipple, and an external hammer was fitted. With the
block lowered, a paper cartridge containing charge
and bullet could be inserted into the chamber. As
the block was raised, the front edge cut the end from
the paper cartridge and thus exposed the powder
inside to the flash from the cap, coming down the
vent. One advantage of the design was that when
the block became too difficult to operate due to
fouling, it was quite possible to treat the weapon as
a muzzle-loader and revert to the method of ramming
the charge and bullet down the barrel and placing a
cap on the nipple. After figuring prominently in the
American Civil War, the Sharps’ carbine (as it is
popularly called) became the buffalo hunters’ gun -
used by professional hunters in the large-scale Top The Model 1894 Above The Model 1895 Box
slaughter of the buffalo to obtain food for the rail¬ Winchester Rifle, the first Magazine Winchester's
road gangs. to use smokeless powder trigger lever guard fully
Another system of closing the breech was exempli¬ ammunition. Over three open. The hammer is
fied by the American Maynard rifle in which the million have been made thereby cocked and the
32 barrel dropped away from the breech in shotgun and production continues. breech-pin rod retracted.
 Winchester and Spencer /BREECH LOADERS

Upper The Remington Lower The 1860 Henry

Model 1863 Rifled Musket, Repeating Rifle, of which
one of the American Civil only 1J31 were bought by
War’s many percussion the US Government. It has
weapons. a 61cm (24in) barrel.

fashion and was loaded with a metallic cartridge A contemporary of the Winchester - and probably
which, however, did not contain its own ignition more renowned in its day - was the Spencer carbine.
system. It merely had a hole in the base, covered This too was a lever-action weapon - indeed, it was
with thin paper. A percussion cap and nipple on the patented a few months earlier than Henry’s design -
standing breech provided the flash, which passed but it was loaded by means of a magazine tube
down the vent, through the hole in the cartridge, inserted into the butt. A supply of 7-shot loaded
and fired the charge. The cartridge had a large rim tubes could be carried by the soldier and rapidly
which allowed the empty case to be extracted, after inserted so that he could keep up a high rate of fire.
which it could be reloaded when the firer had time. Christopher Spencer, who was only 20 years old,
One of the most important designs to appear managed to gain the attention of President Lincoln,
during this fertile period of American firearms and the Spencer carbine was adopted for use by the
manufacture was that of the Winchester lever- Union Army during the Civil War, over 60,000 being
action rifle - perhaps the most famous of all repeat¬ delivered in .52 calibre. The Henry design, on the
ing rifles. It will be remembered that the Volcanic other hand, never managed to attract official atten¬
rifle used a lever action to cock the arm, feed a tion, though it was widely purchased by State
cartridge and close the breech. The Company went authorities to arm their militia regiments. But
bankrupt in 1857 and was bought by Oliver Winches¬ when the Civil War ended, so did orders for the
ter, a major shareholder. Winchester was a haber¬ Spencer, and Winchester bought out Spencer.
dasher who knew little or nothing about firearms Another lever action of the time, though not a
design, but he had the sense to find a man who did repeating weapon, was the Peabody rifle, invented
know something and hired him to run the factory. by a Bostonian in 1862. Here the breech-block was
Benjamin Tyler Henry was the man, and he took hinged at its rear end and, when the lever beneath
the Volcanic rifle, gave it a thorough overhaul, and the stock was operated, moved so that the front end
produced the immortal Winchester. The basic sys¬ of the block fell clear of the chamber, leaving suffi¬
tem was the same: the under-lever opened the breech, cient room for a cartridge to be slid down over the
cocked the hammer, and brought up a fresh round block and into the breech. Peabody’s first model
from the tubular magazine below the barrel. But used an external hammer to strike a firing pin in the
Henry improved the mechanism to make it more breech-block, and was chambered for a .45 calibre
reliable and designed the gun to use the rimfire, and rimfire cartridge - remarkably big for a rimfire at
later the centre-fire, cartridges. that time. The design was a great success and Pea- 33
FAMOUS GUNS Winchester
breech-pin rod ejected case carrier block magazine barrel

hammer

The Winchester ’73 action.

new .44in round The finger lever is swung
forwards retracting the
breech-pin rod and
trigger guard lever ejecting the spent
cartridge case from the
chamber. Simultaneously
the hammer is forced back,
cocking the trigger and
forcing the carrier block
up. This raises a new
new round in chamber
round into position.
hammer

--
Pulling the lever back
carrier block flush with the stock
propels the breech-pin
rod back into the gun body.
This causes the new
round to be pushed into
the chamber. At the same
time the lever action
depresses the carrier block
to accept another round
firing pin
from the tubular magazine.

hammer

bullet being fired

The trigger is squeezed,
releasing the hammer
against the breech-pin
trigger pulled rod. The firing pin at the
end of the rod strikes the
the centre of the cartridge
base and the bullet is fired.
The whole process can
begin again.
 Winchester FAMOUS GUNS
Oliver F. Winchester the Henry Rifle, this met
(1810-80) began life on a with little success but sales
farm, was apprenticed to a of about 10,000 during the
carpenter and became a American Civil War were
master builder. He then sufficient to keep the
went into haberdashery Winchester Company
and patented a new going. An improved
method of making men's version, in which the
dress shirts which made magazine could be charged
him moderately rich. from the rear by a trap in
Casting around for the side of the gun body,
somewhere to invest his instead of from the front
money, he came across the by removing the end of the
moribund Volcanic Arms magazine tube, was
Company and bought introduced in 1866. In .44in
stock in it in 1855. rimfire the Winchester
Volcanic had gone into Model 1866 was widely
business to make and sell bought by the pioneers of
a lever-action rifle which the American West, and it
had a tubular magazine achieved considerable
beneath the barrel and military fame during the
which locked the breech Russo-Turkish War of
by a toggle joint. The 1877-78 when the Turks at
projectile was a combined Plevna inflicted over
bullet and cartridge, the 30,000 casualties on the
bullet having a hollow attacking Russians with
base and percussion cap. their Winchesters.
The weapon worked but In 1873 a centre-fire
was not very efficient, version appeared, the
having low velocity, short famous Winchester '73
range and poor accuracy. model. In subsequent years
Sales were few and the it was chambered for just
company went bankrupt about every sporting
in 1857. Winchester, centre-fire and rimfire
though, was convinced cartridge on the market.
that there was some good It enjoys wide popularity
in the weapon and bought to this day and is
out the remaining stock. essentially unchanged
Hehired Benjamin Tyler from Henry's original
Henry, a first-class design of1860.
gunsmith to make
something of the Volcanic Left ‘Deadwood Dick\
design. Negro cowboy Nat Love,
Henry made considerable poses with his Ml866
changes. He first Winchester in the 1870s.
discarded the Volcanic
bullet and developed a WINCHESTER ’73
.44in rimfire cartridge, in
memory of which every Calibre .44-40in
Length 106.7cm (42.0in)
Winchester cartridge to is pushed down and toggle is lifted up behind Weight 3.85kg (8.51b)
this day has the letter ‘H' forwards, the centre joint the bolt to form a shield Barrel length 609mm
of the toggle is pulled strut to resist the force of (24.0in)
impressed on its base. Rifling 6 grooves, r/hand
Henry then overhauled the down, breaking the lock recoil against the bolt. The Foresight Barleycorn
mechanism to make it behind the breech and cartridge lifter drops into Rearsight V-notch,
line with the tubular adjustable to 600yd
more reliable and robust, drawing the block back. (548m)
though he retained the As it comes back, so the magazine and a spring Action Lever, sliding
essential feature of the hammer is cocked and forces another round into bolt
Rate of fire 15rpm
toggle joint. This lies another attachment to the the lifter. Finally the Feed system 15-round
behind and beneath the lever raises a cartridge. trigger is pulled, releasing tubular magazine
As the lever is pulled back, the hammer to fall on the Muzzle velocity
the bolt and its centre 396m/sec (l,300ft/sec)
joint is linked to the the bolt is thrust forwards, firing pin and fire the Bullet weight 12.96g
operating lever beneath ramming the cartridge into cartridge. (200gr)
the rifle stock. As the lever the chamber and the Issued first in 1860 as 35
 BREECH LOADERS/Lever-Actions

PEABODY MARTINI-HENRY
firing pin
hammer

chambered round
breech-block
breech-block spring
lever
lever

SPENCER
chambered ,52in round breech-block

hammer (thumb cocked)

spent case
new round

barrel

spring feed

Top left Mechanism of the

Peabody Rifle. Pulling the
lever forces down the
breech-block, allowing
loading and cocking the
hammer. The falling-block
system permitted rapid
reloading; US tests of 1866 Above The Spencer .52in rimfire copper
achieved 17 aimed shots Carbine, a lever action cartridge was the first to
per minute. 7-shot repeater. Pulling be completely self-
down on the trigger guard contained. The 99cm
Top right The Martini lever pulled down
lever (left) drops the (39in) carbine weighed
mechanism improved on breech-block and extracts 3.74kg (8251b). By 1864
the Peabody by replacing the spent case. Pulling it had become the Union
the external hammer with back the lever loads a new Cavalry's standard
a firing pin and spring round and closes the weapon. But after the
36 inside the breech-block. breech. The Spencer Civil War, demand fell off.
 Metallic Cartridge/BREECH LOADERS
body rifles were sold in their thousands throughout the 1860s. During almost the same period, work on
the world. In Switzerland the Peabody design was military cartridges followed a similar design but
modified by Frederich von Martini, a skilled designer used a light metal section in place of the cardboard,
who did away with the external hammer and fitted so as to support the rifle bullet. Scores of variations
an internal firing pin and spring inside the breech¬ and modifications entertained the minds of gun¬
block. This made for a much neater weapon and one smiths until the final result was achieved, but by
which was remarkably fast in its action, for there about 1870 the drawn metallic cartridge, complete
was the very minimum of delay between pulling the with integral percussion cap in the centre of the
trigger and firing the cartridge. Since this feature base, had arrived. Subsequent design of firearms
is highly desirable in competitive shooting, the was based entirely on this form of ammunition.
Martini action can still be purchased today in small¬ The success of the von Dreyse and Chassepot
bore target rifles. rifles in the fighting between French and Prussian
The British Army adopted the Martini action in troops in 1870 led a number of inventors to look at
1871, and allied it to a barrel rifled according to the the bolt system to see whether it was capable of
design of Alexander Henry of Edinburgh. The .45 improvement, and the advent of the metallic cart¬
calibre Martini-Henry was a notable weapon which ridge removed most of the more serious problems.
served the Army well throughout the British Empire One of these inventors was Peter Paul Mauser of
for many years. However, although this rifle, the Oberndorf in Germany. He had served his apprentice¬
Peabody and the Winchester were widely adopted ship as a gunsmith and in 1859 was conscripted into
as military weapons, they all had one serious draw¬ the army, where he came into close contact with
back. When the firer was lying down, they were the needle gun. He began contemplating improve¬
well-nigh impossible to operate. At the time of their ments and, after finishing his military service and
adoption, no one gave this much thought, since returning home, continued his work until, in 1865,
warfare was still something of a gentleman’s pastime he had perfected a fresh design. The most important
in which it was the accepted practice to stand up to features of this design were that the firing pin was
shoot . . . and be shot at. But as warfare moved into withdrawn and cocked as soon as the bolt began to
a less formal pattern, the lever action soon fell out open, and the bolt was securely locked to the breech
of favour. Probably its ‘finest hour’ occurred during by two lugs on its front end which were engaged as
the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-78 when the Turks, the bolt was turned at the end of the closing stroke.
armed with Peabody and Winchester rifles, delivered Paul Mauser, and his brother Wilhelm, now set
a devastating fire against the Russians, notably at out to interest some European military power in
the Siege of Plevna, and cut them to ribbons. The their design. They did not succeed, since most of
fearful fire-power of the Peabodies and Winchesters the armies had but recently adopted new designs of
showed that a repeating rifle was a necessity, but one sort or another. However, through the agency
that lever-action was not the way to go. of the Austrian Minister of War, whom they had
Throughout the period of early development of approached, an American entrepreneur called
breech-loaders, the metallic cartridge was being Samuel Norris got in touch with them.
gradually refined and improved. The pinfire, good as Norris was the European representative of the
it was, suffered from the defect of the protruding Remington company and was pushing hard for sales
pin. This was dangerous since any impact could fire of their ‘Rolling Block’ single-shot rifle. The Rem¬
the cartridge, and this meant that the user could ington rolling block was a simple and robust weapon
not simply stuff a handful of pinfires into a pocket which had been adopted by the US Navy in 1866, and
or pouch - they had to be carried in specially fitted thereafter was sold widely and used in several
boxes which protected the pins. Moreover, the hole European armies. Nevertheless, Norris was astute
in the case through which the pin passed was a enough to see that a bolt action was fundamentally
potential source of failure. The gas could leak from stronger than the rolling block and would be a useful
it or the pin could be blown out, both reasons for acquisition for future use. He had the idea of convin¬
restricting the pinfire to low-powered rounds. cing the French Government to adopt Mauser’s
The rimfire was similarly restricted. The tight bolt action in place of the Chassepot rifle, which
folding of the case metal in order to produce the shows how little Norris knew of French military
hollow rim set up weak spots which frequently psychology. He therefore got in touch with the
blew out on firing. In addition, it took several years Mauser Brothers and entered into a contract with
of experimentation to perfect the accurate distribu¬ them in which they transferred to him their entire
tion of the priming compound around the rim, and rights in the design, plus their rights in any future
thus early rounds were prone to misfire. invention they might make, in exchange for a pay¬
The first centre-fire cartridges were developed for ment of 80,000 francs spread over a period of 14 years.
shotguns, since these weapons developed the lowest Rarely has a more onerous contract been committed
breech pressures and the size of the case was such to print. Norris, moreover, left himself a safety
that experimental designs could easily be made. clause in case things failed to turn out to his satis¬
This led to the familiar metal base, with percussion faction. Should he ever fail to pay the annual instal¬
cap in the centre, extended by a cardboard case to ments of the 80,000 francs, then the contract became
carry the powder and shot, a design which has only void except that Norris retained the French rights
changed in small details since its introduction in to the invention. 37
BREECH LOADERS/Mauser Bolt
Naturally the French, who like most conservative Mauser’s bolt action was so significant that it
armies would never willingly accept any foreign deserves some detailed study. When it is considered
invention, turned Norris down. He then tried to sell that for the next 100 years the Mauser bolt was the
the Mauser design to Remington but they were not standard to which all other bolt actions were refer¬
interested. Norris had signed the contract with the red, then the magnitude of the invention becomes
Mauser brothers in 1867. By 1870 it was obvious that more clear.
the French were not about to change their policy Von Dreyse had shown how the bolt could be made
and, exercising his escape route, he reneged on the to work. Chassepot had incorporated a self-cocking
payment due to the Mauser brothers for that year - motion which cocked the firing pin as the bolt was
a matter of $1,000 US - and thus terminated the closed. Mauser now improved on these in the follow¬
contract. It is ironic that the one nation in which ing respects. Firstly, leaving the cocking action
Norris retained his rights - France - was the one
country in which Mausers never sold a single weapon
to the government.
Although Norris’s contract tied the Mausers for
three years, it nevertheless rescued them from
poverty at a critical time. They now returned to
Oberndorf and submitted their rifle to the Prussian
Royal Testing Commission at Spandau. The War of
1870 revealed the defects in the ageing needle gun
and Mauser’s design appeared to fill the bill. In
December 1871 their design was officially accepted
as the future service rifle of Germany provided a
few modifications were made. These were done, and
in 1872 production began.
 Model 1871 Mauser Rifle/BREECH LOADERS
until the bolt closed was dangerous with a central- handle was lifted to open, there was a minute but
fire cartridge, since should the firing pin stick then powerful rearward movement, sufficient to lever
it would strike the cap as the bolt went forward and the tightest cartridge from the chamber. Fourthly,
probably fire the cartridge before the bolt closed. he fitted a positive ejector which actively threw the
Mauser got around this by withdrawing the firing empty case out of the way and did not simply rely
pin as soon as the bolt began to open. Secondly, the on the soldier picking it from the boltway. And
existing method of locking the bolt closed (by turn¬ fifthly, the bolt was fitted with a safety catch which
ing down the handle in front of a lug on the receiver) could be applied after the bolt had been closed and
was weak, and by forming two opposite lugs on the the rifle loaded, so that the soldier could carry it
bolt head which would lock into recesses in the safe, but ready for immediate action.
chamber itself, Mauser made the strongest bolt The German Army was so convinced of the super¬
possible. iority of this rifle that it arranged financial assis¬
Mauser’s third improvement was to incorporate tance for the Mauser brothers and gave them the
an elastic extractor made of spring steel which use of the rifle factory at Oberndorf to produce the
would automatically grip the rim of the cartridge Model 1871. Once the Army’s supplies were assured,
as the breech closed and infallibly extract it as the they were given more financial help so that they
breech opened. In order to aid this action, he arrang¬ could step up production for overseas sales. While
ed the working surfaces of the bolt so that, as the Paul Mauser superintended the factory, Wilhelm
became the salesman and negotiated sales as far
afield as China. The Mauser rifle had begun its rise
to prominence.

Model 1871 Mauser Rifle

with its turn bolt drawn
back. Calibre was 11.15mm.
Unlike later Mausers, the
1871 ’s bolt locking lug was
at the rear and locked
against the split receiver
bridge.

French Chassepot Rifle of

1866, an 11mm calibre
weapon that outranged
the Needle Gun in the
Franco-Prussian War
(1870-71) and thus
stimulated the Mauser's
introduction.
REVOLVERS
 REVOLVERS/‘Duck’s Foot’ Pistol
TT ▼ hile the nations of continental Europe were fashion over an arc of some 30° or so. One large
\/\/arming themselves with breech-loading, bolt- charge delivered pressure to all the barrels, so pull¬
YY action rifles to settle their disputes, Americans ing the trigger fired a spreading arc of bullets well
out in the Wild West were growing accustomed suited to dealing with a mob. It is said that these
to occasionally resolving their personal disputes in pistols were especially favoured by ships’ captains,
a blaze of fire from a very different weapon - the fearful of a rush of mutineers.
revolver. Commonly known there as an equalizer - The drawback to the Duck’s foot pistol was, of
it was said that ‘the Colt makes all men equal’ - the course, that once you had pulled the trigger, it was
revolver as introduced to America by Samuel Colt empty. If the mutineers kept coming, all you could
put a ‘shootin’ iron’ in the hands of the outlaw and do was throw the empty pistol at them and dive
law-abider alike. over the side.
Revolvers are popularly associated with the Wild A better idea was to devise a pistol from which a
West of the cowboy era, but they did not originate single shot could be fired several times in succession,
there. Inventors worldwide had been occupied for allowing the firer to space out his shots and aim
many years with the problem of obtaining more each one individually. Several attempts at this
than one shot from a weapon without having to go were made in very early days, but the first practical
through all the process of reloading. The simple and weapons were the ‘pepperbox’ revolvers which
quick answer, which had been employed for years, appeared in about 1780. These used a cluster of
was the double barrel (tried out on a variety of barrels, usually six because this gave a symmetrical
pistols, muskets and rifles) and this sufficed for a arrangement, which revolved ahead of the butt.
long time. But as gunsmiths became more skilled, Each barrel had its own pan and frizzen, while the
they also became more venturesome and a variety cock and trigger were carried on the butt. The
of multiple-shot weapons were put forward. Most of barrels were revolved by hand, aligning one barrel
them fell by the wayside, since devising a means of with the cock and firing it, before revolving the
providing multiple firing when the ignition system cluster to present the next barrel. Provided the pan
was the flintlock demanded a very high standard of covers fitted tightly the system worked, but if the
design and manufacture. springs lost their tension there was always the
One simple solution was the ‘Mob Gun’ or ‘Duck’s danger of the shock of discharge of the first barrel
Foot’ pistol of the late eighteenth century, a pistol jarring open all the pan covers and dumping their
in which the breech led into a metal block from priming on the ground.
which four or five barrels sprang, pointed in splayed With the introduction of percussion ignition, the

42
 Samuel Colt/REVOLVERS
pepperbox, although still bulky and muzzle-heavy,
became rather more practical and was widely manu¬
factured and used, especially between the 1830s and
1850s. Just at the dawn of the percussion period,
however, came an inventor whose name was destined
to become a household word - Samuel Colt.
There can be no doubt that the rapid spread of the
revolver as the common hand-weapon was due to
Samuel Colt’s inspired publicity and salesmanship,
but the image of Colt as the inventor of the revolver
is far from accurate. The legend is that Colt, as a
youth, worked as a cabin boy on the sailing ship
Corvo and was inspired by the spoked ship’s wheel
to invent a revolver mechanism. This he whittled
from wood; then he perfected it and kept it secret
until he was old enough to obtain a patent.
In fact this tale was purely a publicity stunt
invented by Colt in later years. He did serve a spell
as a cabin boy; he then went on the road in America
as ‘Doctor Coult’, selling patent medicines and
titillating the yokels with laughing gas. He probably
saw the need for a reliable pistol during his travels,
and from the profits of his medicine show he engaged
a gunsmith and in 1834 set him up in a small work¬
shop in Baltimore. This gunsmith, John Pearson,
developed the first pilot models of the Colt revolver,
though it appears that Colt had previously attempt¬
ed to have a gun made by Anson Chase, a gunsmith
of East Hartford, Connecticut. The Anson Chase
model came to grief when one day the cap cross-fired
all the other caps on the cylinder and blew up the

Previous page The

Beaumont-Adams Model
1855 Revolver that
introduced the ‘double¬
action’ lock to handguns.
Its calibre is .45in and
barrel length 146mm
(5.75in). The cylinder held
five rounds. Loading,
with a paper cartridge,
was from the front. The
nipples for the copper
percussion caps can be
seen on the cylinder.

Left An unusual and

fearsome ‘Duck's Foot’
pistol with eight barrels,
the centre pair being
parallel.

Above Samuel Colt

(1814-1862) cocks one of
his percussion revolvers.

Right A revolving
pepperbox pistol. The
hammer is concealed with¬
in the butt and percussion
nipples prolong the
chambers. 43
 REVOLVERS/Colt Paterson

Above The Colt Walker Production continued

Model 1847, calibre .44in. until 1862, by when 30,000
This model established the had been made.
characteristic shape for
Colt revolvers. It was also Right A gunfight drawn
the first to have the by the famous Western
loading ramrod fixed artist Frederic Remington.
underneath the barrel. No shooting from the hip.

entire pistol. Learning from this, Pearson designed the top of the cylinder was exposed. The butt, firing
his model with partitions between the nipples to mechanism and hammer were in one unit; the
prevent cross-firing. In 1835, Colt went to England cylinder revolved on a central ‘arbor’, pushed round
and took out his first patent, then returned to by a pawl attached to the hammer; and the octagonal
America and patented the design there in 1836. barrel unit was fitted to the front, aligned by contact
None of the individual features covered in Colt’s with the lower part of the frame and by slipping
patent were really original. His cylinder rotation over the front of the cylinder arbor where it was
system, for example, can be seen in a flintlock locked by a cross-bolt passing through the barrel
revolver made in London and dating from the time support and the arbor. The barrel and cylinder were
of Charles I (1625-49). Nevertheless, his patent was removed so that the cylinder could be loaded by
accepted and, since it was so worded as to cover any prepared paper cartridges containing powder and
method of mechanical rotation of a cylinder, Colt ball, inserted at the front of each chamber. The
had effective monopoly of revolver manufacture nipples were capped with small copper caps filled
until the expiry of his patents, which occurred in with fulminate and the cylinder slipped back on to
1849 in England and 1857 in the United States. the arbor and the barrel then locked in place. It was,
The English patent was allowed to lie on the files of course, possible to load the chambers with the
and was never worked, merely remaining as a block gun assembled, but a normal method of operation
to possible competitors. But in America Colt obtain¬ was to have a second cylinder (supplied with the
ed financial backing and in 1836 set up the Patent pistol) loaded and carried in the pocket.
Arms Manufacturing Company at Paterson, New To fire, the hammer was drawn back with the
Jersey, to make revolving pistols and rifles. The thumb, which rotated the cylinder and locked it in
first production pistol was the five-shot ‘Texas’ model alignment with the barrel. A light pressure on the
in .36 calibre, otherwise known as the Paterson. trigger then released the hammer to fall on the cap.
This model exhibited all the features of later Colt The trigger was of a folding pattern which lay close
revolvers, plus one or two unique points of its own. under the frame until the hammer was cocked, when
44 The basic form was an ‘open-frame ’ revolver, in which it dropped into the ready position.
 Colt Walker/REVOLVERS

SKINNER & DUNN

Colt also manufactured a number of rifles and had no manufacturing facilities and had to contract
carbines (short rifles for use by mounted men) which the manufacture out to Eli Whitney jr of Whitney-
were simply the pistol mechanism provided with a ville, a noted American gunmaker. Whitney was
long barrel and a wooden butt-stock. These were particularly famous as the originator of mass-
less successful, since the heavier loadings needed to production methods and interchangeability of parts
obtain reasonable performance from a rifle frequent¬ in the gun trade, and his manufacturing techniques
ly gave rise to excessive flash at the cylinder-barrel produced Colt’s design in good time and also opened
joint. This flash passed to the other chambers and Colt’s eyes to the virtues of modern production
was liable to ignite their charges if the bullet was methods. Until that time the production of firearms
a poor fit. was largely by ‘out-workers’. One man produced
Even the revolver - good as it was - failed to catch barrels, another frames, another cylinders and so
the public’s attention, and in 1843 Colt’s financial on, and the maker’s factory was simply a small
partner went bankrupt. This forced the Patent Arms workshop in which all these hand-made components
Company into liquidation and the plant, tools and were fitted together. Because they were hand-made,
stock were sold at auction for just over $6,000 - a fitting the parts together demanded considerable
price which one Paterson revolver would realize skill, since it was necessary to file or otherwise
quite easily at an auction today. modify the components to obtain satisfactory fit
In 1846, war broke out between Mexico and the and working. Whitney changed this by assembling
United States. This led to a demand for weapons all his workers under one roof, and by providing
and in 1847 Colt received an order for 1,000 revolvers them with machine tools which would produce the
for use by the U.S. Mounted Rifles. Colt, guided by specific items to a constant pattern. This meant
suggestions from Captain Sam Walker of the Texas less hand-fitting in the assembly and also gave the
Rangers, improved on his 1836 design to produce a factory the ability to provide spare parts.
robust and heavy .44 calibre pistol known variously The Walker Colt was a heavy weapon, weighing
as the Model 1847 or the Whitneyville Walker Model. 2kg (41b 9oz), and was 393mm (15.5in) long with a
The name arises from the fact that Colt, at this time, 230mm (9in) barrel. The cylinder had six chambers 45
 REVOLVERS/Colt Navy
and a lever rammer was incorporated beneath the patented a form of construction which was inher¬
barrel. This allowed the cylinder to be reloaded ently much stronger. His revolver used a ‘solid
(from the front) without having to be removed. A frame’, in which the whole of the pistol - barrel,
prepared paper cartridge was dropped into the frame and butt - were forged from a single piece of
chamber and was then forced down by the use of the metal. The barrel was then bored out and a rectang¬
rammer. The single-action lock, in which the ham¬ ular hole made in the frame to accept the cylinder.
mer had to be cocked by the thumb before the trigger In this way the barrel was secured to the rest of the
was released, was still used, with a conventional weapon at two points: at the lower front of the
trigger and guard. frame; and above the ‘standing breech’ behind the
The Walker Colt was so successful that a second cylinder (from which a ‘top strap’ passed across the
order for 1,000 was received, and the profit from these top of the cylinder to the top of the barrel breech).
orders allowed Colt to set up his own factory in his An arbor pin passed through the front of the frame
home town of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1848. From to support the cylinder and, by releasing a simple
then on his success was assured and production of spring catch, this pin could be withdrawn and the
revolvers in a variety of sizes - though all to the cylinder removed for cleaning or reloading. This
same general pattern - got under way. A considerable made for a much simpler and quicker system than
fillip to his business came in 1849 when gold was that of the Colt design. (Like the Colt, Adams’
discovered in California: most of the prospectors revolver was loaded at the front of its six chambers.)
who headed west provided themselves with a Colt A particular feature of the Adams revolver was the
pistol or two. lock, which was totally different to that of the Colt.

In 1851 Colt introduced one of the best-known of all In the Adams design the hammer (which had no spur)
Colt revolvers, favoured by ‘Wild Bill’ Hickock and could not be cocked. The firer simply pulled the trig¬
other heroes of the Wild West - the Navy pistol in ger, which first raised the hammer and rotated the
.36 calibre. This was a six-chambered pistol of open- cylinder, and then released the hammer to fire the
frame construction with a 190mm (7.5in) octagonal pistol. This became known as the ‘self-cocking lock’
barrel, which took its name not from any official and opinions about it were mixed. In formal military
Naval adoption but from the engraving, around the trials of comparison between a Colt and an Adams,
cylinder, of a naval battle scene representing the the Colt was marginally more accurate, as a result
action between the Texan and Mexican navies in of which the British Army and Navy ordered several
1845. thousand Colt revolvers. But this accuracy was
Also in 1851, Colt came to England to show his largely due to the single-action lock of the Colt
revolvers at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal which allowed the hammer to be cocked and then
Palace in London’s Hyde Park. With consummate the firer to take a deliberate aim. The Adams self-
showmanship, he displayed over 100 weapons and cocking lock, due to the long pull on the trigger,
gave away presentation guns to people of influence. tended to move the pistol off its aim during the
His larger aim, beside selling the Colt pistol com¬ operation of the lock.
mercially, was to interest the British Government Experience in actual warfare, however, showed that
both in his weapons and also in his system of pro¬ the Adams was more popular because it could be
ducing interchangeable parts, and he opened a fired much faster, and, moreover, the 38-bore (.497in
factory in London, beginning production in 1853. calibre) Adams bullet was considerably more effect¬
There was, however, a native producer of a revolver ive when it came to stopping an opponent than the
who was to become Colt’s principal rival. Robert 100-bore (.36-in calibre) Colt. One British officer in
Adams, a London gunsmith, also exhibited at the the Crimean War (1853-56) reported that with his
Crystal Palace in 1851. Adams’ design was, in fact, Adams revolver he was able to drop four Russians
46 a better weapon than the Colt, because Adams had intent upon bayoneting him, while another in the
 Beaumont- Adams/REV OLVERS
Indian Mutiny (1857-59), emptied a Colt into an further 2,000 revolvers for use in the Crimea. The
enraged Sepoy and was ‘cloven to the teeth’ by the Crimean War created a demand from the British
unstopped mutineer. Army for revolvers, and when the war ended in 1856,
Nevertheless, such few revolvers as were being demand naturally fell. In the following year, Colt
bought officially for issue to the Army were still closed his London factory.
those of Colt’s pattern, and the reason seems to be While the Colt and Adams revolvers served well,
that the single-action lock was felt to be more they were, of course, loaded with powder and ball
positive; at any rate, only a revolver with thumb- (albeit prepared in a paper cartridge). By this time
cocking appeared to be acceptable. In 1855 a Lieu¬ the metallic cartridge was beginning to make its
tenant Frederick Beaumont of the Royal Engineers appearance. Revolvers for the Lefaucheaux pinfire
patented a modification to the Adams self-cocking cartridge had been made in Belgium, France and
lock which gave the firer the option of either thumb¬ Germany in the early 1850s. Flobert of Paris had
ing back the hammer to cock it and then firing added a bullet to a percussion cap and had then
single-action or firing it self-cocking by applying extended the idea to take in Houllier’s patent for
greater pressure on the trigger. Logically, this came placing the percussion powder inside the hollow rim
to be known as the ‘double-action’ lock and it was of the cartridge, and had produced small rifles for
adopted by Adams in 1855, the resulting revolvers the rimfire round in 1845. Now it was the time for
being called the ‘Beaumont-Adams’. The Board of the metallic cartridge to be introduced to the
Ordnance immediately ordered 100 revolvers for revolver in America.
trial, and before the year was out had ordered a Smithand Wesson, who had abandoned the Volcanic

The classic lines of the

Colt Navy Model 1851
(calibre ,36in). It weighed
only 1.19kg (2lb lOoz).
Over 200,000 were made up
to 1865. It was a favourite
cavalry weapon during
the American Civil War,
especially of the
Confederate side which
copied the design for
almost all its own makes
of revolver. Rifling
consisted of seven grooves.
 REVOLVERS/Smith and Wesson
repeater in 1856 and turned to making revolvers, saw shotguns. Inevitably, several designers got to work
the possibilities of Houllier’s rimfire cartridge. They on its application to revolvers as soon as they could
first extended the case so that a charge of powder begin unfettered manufacture. In spite of the rise
could be added, so improving the power, and then of the centre-fire cartridge, the rimfire was to remain
they worked on producing a revolver to suit, against a popular revolver cartridge for many years, due
the rapidly approaching day (in 1857 in the US) when largely to the pitch of perfection to which it had been
Colt’s master patent would expire. They had seen brought, as well as its cheapness, and its general
the legal results of trying to produce pistols which satisfactory performance in low-powered revolvers.
cut across the Colt patent, and one of their first But where power was needed - as in the heavy-
tasks was to sit down and go through the patent calibre military revolvers - the centre-fire cartridge
files to see if there were any other patents in exis- made its mark.
ence which might cause trouble for them in the When the Rollin White patent expired, Smith and
future. In this way they discovered the existence of Wesson were still in a commanding positon: their
US Patent 12608 of 1855, taken out by a man named pistols were now well-known, they had a large plant
Rollin White, an ex-employee of Colt. and an experienced work-force. Yet by a strange
White was an indefatigable patentee who always twist of fate they lost their lead in America to Colt
included every conceivable claim in his patents. within a few years. In 1869, a purchasing agent from
In this one, which primarily covered an impractical the Russian Government visited America with the
magazine pistol, he had claimed, and had received commission of buying weapons for the Tsar’s Army.
patent protection for, any cylinder having chambers According to legend, he was taken on a hunting trip
completely bored through so that the cartridge by ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and was so impressed by the
could be inserted from the rear. This is so fun¬ Smith and Wesson revolver which Cody carried that
damental that it is amazing that he ever obtained he went to the factory and placed an order for
protection for it. He certainly never managed to 215,000 revolvers. Such an order was a manufacturer’s
patent the idea in England where, it could have dream. For the next five years Smith and Wesson
been pointed out, several bored-through chambers had little time left to do anything but grind out
existed long before 1856. Nevertheless, he did obtain revolvers for Russia without a care in the world.
protection in the United States, and Smith and No struggling for markets, no worries about cash
Wesson realized that without control of this patent flow, just turn them out and get paid. But in those
they were finished before they began. But White five years the American West was opened up, and the
was amenable to bargaining, and they eventually natural demand for revolvers could not be filled
bought the patent from him on extremely advan¬ by Smith and Wesson. So, by default, it went to the
tageous terms. Colt concern (Colt himself died in 1862, aged 48).
With the Rollin White patent secured, Smith and The revolver which Smith and Wesson were pro¬
Wesson gained a monopoly in the United States of ducing was known as the .44 Russian, and it followed
breech-loading revolvers until 1869 when their patent the .44 Model No. 3 or .44 American, the pistol which
expired. Production of their revolver began in 1857, Cody is said to have demonstrated to the Russian.
as soon as the Colt patent expired, and the design This model inaugurated a new type of frame to
introduced a new method of construction - the ‘tip- America - the hinged frame. Unlike the ‘tip-up’
up’ frame. In general appearance the revolver was frame (which was hinged at the top of the cylinder),
like a solid-frame design with a top strap across the barrel and top strap were hinged to the frame at
the top of the cylinder. But at the front of this strap, the lower front of the cylinder, being locked in place
over the front edge of the cylinder, was a hinge. The at the top of the standing breech by a spring catch.
lower portion of the frame received the lower edge When the catch was opened, the barrel could be
of the barrel unit, which was locked there by a simple swung down to expose the rear face of the cylinder,
spring catch. The seven-shot .22 calibre cylinder and a cam enclosed in the hinge operated an auto¬
could be removed by pressing in the spring catch matic extractor. This was a plate in the centre of the
and hinging the barrel upwards, after which the cylinder which formed the inner halves of the cham¬
cylinder slipped off its arbor. A fixed pin beneath ber mouths and on which the rims of the cartridges
the barrel was then used to punch out the empty rested. When the barrel hinged down, the cam thrust
cases and the cylinder was reloaded before being on a central pin and caused this central ‘star plate’
slid back and the frame closed down. The lock was to lift away from the cylinder face, pushing the
single-action, and the trigger was concealed by a empty cases outwards so that they could fall free
spur on the lower part of the frame until the hammer from the chambers. At the end of the barrel’s move¬
was cocked. Cocking the hammer brought the trigger ment the cam was released and the star plate snapped
out of the spur into position for pressing. This design back, flush with the chamber face, ready for reloading.
is generally called the ‘sheath’ or ‘stud’ trigger and The question of the authorship of this design is a
became extremely popular in cheap revolvers in the very vexed one. Several people had produced ‘auto¬
United States. matic extracting revolvers’ which used star plates,
While Smith and Wesson concentrated on rimfire but there seems little doubt that the perfection, as
revolvers during the period of the Rollin White shown by the Smith and Wesson design, was based on
patent, the centre-fire cartridge had been slowly the work of an American named W. C. Dodge. He took
48 making its way into the world, notably in rifles and out patents in the United States and Britain in 1865
 Mauser ‘Zig-Zag’/REVOLVERS
covering his system of ‘simultaneous ejection’ and
the American patent was assigned by Dodge to Smith
and Wesson. The British patent was not assigned,
but Dodge was late in posting his payment for ex¬
tending the patent after the first three year period,
and his cheque arrived too late. On August 8, 1868
his patent fell void due to failure to pay the renewal
fee. (In the US, no further fees were required after
the patent had been issued.) It has rankled with
American gun historians ever since, who tend to see
a touch of ‘Perfidious Albion’ in the affair.
A wide variety of patent ejection systems appeared
in Europe. Paul Mauser ventured into the revolver
field, in the hope of a military contract, and in 1878
he introduced an unusual weapon known as the
‘Zig Zag’ model.
For reasons best known to himself, Mauser decided
to eschew the more usual method of revolving the
cylinder by using a pawl and ratchet on the rear face.
Instead, he adopted a method which relied on a zig¬
zag groove cut into the outer surface of the cylinder.
In the frame, under the cylinder, lay a rod with an
upstanding pin which engaged in the zig-zag groove.
As the hammer was cocked, either by the thumb or
by pulling the trigger, the rod was thrust forwards,
and the forward movement of the pin in the groove
caused the cylinder to revolve one-sixth of a turn
and align the next chamber. As the hammer fell, so
the rod was withdrawn and the pin passed down one
of the straight sections of groove, ready to act on
the next shot.
The other unusual feature was the method of
extraction. The barrel unit and cylinder were hinged
to the standing breech. A large spring catch held them

star plate
Top The Model 1857 Smith
and Wesson .22in calibre,
central pin
rimfire, 7-shot, ‘tip-up’,
revolver.
spring
Above The Mauser Model
1878 'Zig Zag’ Revolver.

Right The star plate

ejection system on a
revolver with a plan view
of the cylinder.

49
FAMOUS GUNS S&W American
In 1870 the Smith and ‘automatic’ extractor were stipulated before an weighed 15.9g (246grain
Wesson company, aiming based on the patents of order was placed in 1873. = 0.56oz) and had a muzzle
to keep ahead of their W.C. Dodge and C.A. King. The American .44in velocity of228m/sec
rivals, produced the .44 Shortly after the cartridge, a 14.12gramme (750ft/sec), a 30m/sec
'American’ revolver, their introduction of the (218grain = 0.49oz) bullet (100ft/sec) improvement on
first venture into really ‘American’, the Russian of slightly less diameter the American version.
heavy calibres. The novel Army decided to equip its than the cartridge case, Accuracy improved
feature of this weapon was cavalry and artillery with was not a good fit in the spectacularly. /Is one
that it used a hinged a modern revolver, and a bore, which caused commentator later said,
frame, with the barrel and purchasing commission accuracy to fall off after the new cartridge was a
cylinder dropping to was sent to the US in 1869. some 45m (50yd). The revelation to an industry
expose the rear of the Though the visitors were Russians enlarged the in which most ballisticians
cylinder for re-loading, impressed with the ,44in cartridge to make it operated by guesswork and
and it incorporated an ‘American’, modifications a tight fit. The new bullet past experience.

■ . .. c -• '

—-
 S&W Russian FAMOUS GUNS

With the improved Smith and Wesson for a Schofield of the US Below The Smith and
ammunition, some minor staggering 215,704 pistols. Artillery who made some Wesson Model No.3 .44in
changes were made in the Although this contract improvements to the calibre single action
pistol. The butt was given kept Smith and Wesson so original pattern by *American9 Revolver.
a ‘pawl9 or protuberance busy that Colt was able to strengthening the barrel About 30,000 were made,
at the top rear which capture much of the catch and simplifying the 1870-73.
prevented the weapon from Western market, they were ejector mechanism. About
sliding in the hand during able to produce useful 9,000 Schofields were Bottom Left The Smith
recoil; a finger-rest was variants of the Russian produced. One became the and Wesson ‘Russian'. It
added beneath the trigger- design. The most famous personal sidearm of Jesse weighed 1.1kg (2.5lb). %
guard; and the barrel was the .45 ‘Schofield* James and another was The pawl and finger-
length was set at 165mm Smith and Wesson, used by Wyatt Earp in the rest distinguish
(6.5in). Now satisfied, the named after Lieutenant famous 1 Gunfight at the it from its ‘American 9
Russians contracted with Colonel George W. OKCorraV. precursor.

S&W RUSSIAN
Calibre .44in Russian
Length 305mm (12.0in)
Weight 1.13kg (2.51b)
Barrel 165mm (6.5in)
Rifling 5 grooves, r/hand
twist
Foresight Blade
Rearsight Fixed
V-notch
Action Revolver
Rate of fire 12rpm
Feed system 6-shot
cylinder
Muzzle velocity
228m/sec (750ft/sec)
Bullet weight 15.95g
(246gr)

S&W AMERICAN
-as above except for:
Calibre ,44in American
Length 340mm (13.38in)
Weight 1.16kg (2.551b)
Barrel 203mm (8in)
Muzzle velocity
198m/sec (650ft/sec)
Bullet weight 14.12g
(218gr)
 REVOLVERS/Colt Frontier

firing pin .45in cartridge

hammer

pawl and ratchet for cylinder rotation

mainspring cylinder locking catch

tightly against the lower part of the frame. To empty

the gun, this catch was pulled free and the barrel and
cylinder hinged upwards. The barrel was halted by
striking a stop in the standing breech, whereupon
further pressure on the spring catch caused a star
plate to move outwards and eject the empty cases.
Although it was a well-made and elegant design, it
failed to attract the military, who preferred a staid
solid-frame revolver in which the cylinder had to be
removed and the cases punched out one by one.
For all the patent ejection systems on offer, Colt
Above The simple but in alignment. Pulling the strangely enough closed their eyes to all of them
effective mechanism of the trigger releases the hammer when they finally decided to produce a breech¬
Colt Frontier (M1873 A5in to fire the cartridge. The loading, cartridge revolver, and yet they came up
Single Action) revolver. original ammunition was a with an immortal design which has survived ever
Drawing back the hammer A5in blunt-nosed bullet since and has been copied all over the world at one
causes the pawl to rise and with black-powder time or another. Known properly as the Model of
push the cylinder round, cartridge introduced in 1873, it also goes under the names of ‘Peacemaker’,
bringing the next chamber 1871. At 45m (50yd) the ‘Army’ or ‘Frontier’ model, and is among the more
into line with the barrel. projectile still had an instantly recognizable pistols of the world.
The cylinder locking-catch energy of528 joules (390ft- The Frontier was a solid-frame revolver (itself a
then rises to engage in a Ib-force), eight times that departure for Colt, who took some persuading to
52 slot and holds the cylinder needed to down a man. drop their open-frame design) with a single-action
 Side-swinging Cylinders/REVOLVERS

barrel

cylinder axis pin ejector rod

Left The Colt Frontier’s

spent case is ejected by
pushing it through the
hinged loading-gate with
the ejector rod positioned
below the barrel. The
chamber can be reloaded.
The hammer has to be at
half-cock to allow the
cylinder to revolve.

lock and an ejection system which consisted of a companies turning out cheap hinged-frame and
spring-loaded rod carried in a shroud beneath the solid-frame revolvers in this field, but Smith and
lower right side of the barrel. This rod was aligned Wesson soon made their presence felt by their con¬
with the upper right-hand chamber of the six-shot siderably better quality. A notable design was
cylinder, and behind this chamber the standing their 1888 New Departure or ‘Safety Hammerless’
breech was cut away and fitted with a hinged ‘loading model, a small hinged-frame revolver in which the
gate’. To load, the revolver hammer was pulled back hammer was completely concealed inside the frame
to a ‘half-cock’ position which allowed the cylinder which was built up behind the standing breech. The
to be freely revolved. The gate was then opened and ‘Safety’ part of the designation came from the
the chambers loaded one by one, turning the cylinder incorporation into the butt of a grip safety device, a
by hand to load each chamber. After firing the gate moveable backstrap which, when pressed in the
was opened and the hammer half-cocked. The firer’s hand gripping the butt, removed a blocking
spring-loaded ejector rod could then be forced back lever from the rearward path of the hammer. Thus,
to eject the empty case through the gate; a fresh unless the butt was properly gripped it was im¬
round was loaded and the cylinder moved round one; possible to fire the pistol.
the next case ejected and the chamber loaded; and By the late 1880s the Colt solid-frame design with
so on. rod ejection was looking distinctly old-fashioned,
On coming to the end of their Russian contract, but the company was loath to give up the undoubted
Smith and Wesson found that the market for large- advantage of the solid frame. After much experi¬
bore revolvers had been fairly effectively tied up by mentation it produced something quite new in the
Colt, so they astutely aimed for the pocket revolver New Navy revolver of 1889 - a side-swinging cylinder.
market, in which Colt had not, at that time, made The arbor of the cylinder was held at its front end
much progress. There were innumerable small by a ‘crane’, a vertical arm lying in the forward part 53
FAMOUS GUNS Colt Frontier
 Colt Frontier FAMOUS GUNS

The Colt 'Frontier' is This was one reason why hammer with a rock to
one of the immortals and the Colt proved so popular make it fire. And, allied to
must be one of the most despite its cumbersome all this, it had that
easily-recognized guns in action and the tendency indefinable quality of
the world.lt was of its rod ejector to bend, 'portability': it seemed to
originally developed for its lock to break and point instinctively at the
military use as the 'Single cylinder pin to loosen. target, just like fine
Action Army', adopted by No matter what went duelling pistols used to do.
the US Army in July 1873. wrong you could still fire The US Army bought
Two months later it was it. If the trigger spring 36,000 Model 1873s and
placed on the civilian snapped, you merely this remained the standard
market and rapidly thumbed back the hammer military sidearm until
acquired the nickname of and let it slip. The replaced by a double-action
'Peacemaker'. These first hammer, not the trigger, Colt in 1892. A total of
models were in A5in controlled cylinder 357,859 'Frontiers' were
calibre. During 1878, rotation, which is why sold between 1873
models in .44in, .38in and the spectacular and and 1941.
.32in calibres were added, inaccurate pastime of After World War lithe
chambered for the same 'fanning' the hammer demand for the Colt
cartridges that were being (slapping it back with the Frontier grew, fostered by
currently used in open palm while keeping Western movies and by
Winchester carbines. This the trigger pressed) is only the rise of the 'quick-draw'
allowed a man to arm feasible on this pistol. If craze. Pre-war Colt
himself with a rifle and the ejector broke, you revolvers began to
pistol taking the same pulled out the cylinder pin command a high price and
ammunition and, because and used it to poke out the numerous companies took
of this, the Colt was now empty cases. And if the advantage by turning out
advertised as the mainspring broke, you copies of the 'Frontier'
'Frontier Six-Shooter1 could always pound the model. Eventually Colt
bowed to public demand
and put the Colt Frontier
back into production in
September 1955 at SI25 a
copy (compared with the
1873 price of S17). The
only sure way to identify
a post-war Colt is by the
serial number, which has
the suffix 'SA'.

Far left A superb nickel-

plated and engraved Colt
made in 1886. The ivory
butt has a steer's head in
high relief. The barrel
length is 139.7mm (5.5in).

Left Cowboys of the 1880s

proudly display their Colts.

FRONTIER 7.5in Barrel

Calibre .45in
Length 317mm (12.5in)
Weight 1.04kg (2.301b)
Barrel 190.5mm (7.5in)
Rifling 6 grooves, 1/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight Fixed
V-notch
Action Revolver
Rate of fire 12rpm
Feed system 6-shot
cylinder
Muzzle velocity
265m/sec (870ft/sec)
Bullet weight 16.2g
(250gr)
REVOLVERS/Safety Devices
of the frame and connected to a rod which entered of the hammer face did not make contact with the
the frame under the cylinder. The rear end of the firing pin. Thus, when the hammer was at rest, no
arbor slid into a slot in the standing breech and was power on earth could force it forwards to touch the
retained there by a sliding catch on the left side of firing pin and thus inadvertently fire the pistol.
the gun. When this catch was pulled back, the cy¬ But when the pistol was properly cocked and the
linder could be swung out of the frame, the crane trigger pulled back deliberately, a solid strut was
turning about the rod inside the frame as on a hinge, thrust upwards by the lock mechanism, into place
so that the cylinder came to rest alongside the lower behind the firing pin, and held there so long as the
section of the frame. Once in this position, pressure trigger was pressed. Thus when the hammer fell in
on an ejector rod which extended from the front of deliberate fire it struck this strut which then trans¬
the cylinder would push out the usual star plate mitted the blow to the firing pin and fired the car¬
and simultaneously eject all the empty cases. tridge. A similar device was later adopted by Colt as
This design obviously gave the great mechanical their ‘Positive Safety Lock’ and most other manu¬
strength of the solid frame and yet the simplicity facturers incorporated similar safety devices into
of loading and unloading formerly associated with their pistols. They are, in fact, now required by law
the hinged frame, and as a result it became almost in all revolvers sold in the United States.
the standard pattern for American revolvers. The By about 1880, the manufacture of revolvers had
Colt pattern locked into the standing breech, leaving become concentrated in the hands of a relatively
the ejector rod unsupported beneath the barrel. small number of companies who had the financial
Smith and Wesson adopted the side-swinging cy¬ strength and mechanffcal ability to mass-produce at
linder in 1896 but, in order to avoid patent problems, a rate which put,the hand-worker out of business.
latched their cylinder in place by having the hollow At the same time most of the mechanical features
tip of the ejector rod anchored into a lug forged of the revolver were either well-established or so
beneath the barrel as well as locking into the protected by patents as to be unusable by the small
standing breech, and it was released by sliding a manufacturer. (Indeed, except for improvements
catch forwards. in manufacturing techniques, there has been little
Before leaving the revolver, one last important new in the revolver world since the turn of the
feature deserves to be mentioned. Once the centre- century. Except for minor refinements, the revolvers
fire cartridge was adopted, it became necessary to sold today by various companies differ very little
withdraw the hammer and its firing pin before from the designs sold by those same companies in,
attempting to revolve the cylinder, otherwise there say, 1905.)
was a danger of breaking off the tip of the firing pin. As a result of the established nature of revolver
As a result, the ‘rebounding hammer’ became a manufacture, many inventors began to look in
standard fitting. In this, the hammer drops to the other directions to see if, perhaps, there was not
fullest extent when the trigger is pressed, so striking some other way to make a handgun. As we have seen,
the cartridge cap, but as soon as the trigger is the bolt-action rifle had become established, and it
released, preparatory to firing the next shot, the occurred to some designers that the bolt action
hammer ‘rebounds’ a short distance to pull the pin might possibly be a suitable method of operating a
clear of the chamber. It might be noted that the pistol. This led to the rise of the mechanical repeat¬
original Colt Frontier models did not have this ing pistol.
feature, and it was considered wise to leave the A peculiarity of this pistol is that by far the
topmost chamber empty and lower hammer on to it, majority of designs appeared from the Austro-
rather than have the firing pin sitting precariously Hungarian Empire, something which has yet to be
on the cap of the aligned chamber all the time the satisfactorily explained. As a representative speci¬
weapon was carried about. men of this class of weapon, we might consider the
While the rebounding hammer was a useful safety pistol of Erwin Reiger of Vienna, patented in 1889.
feature, it still meant that if, by chance, the revolver This used a reciprocating bolt driven by a finger-
was dropped so that the hammer struck the ground, operated lever which extended below the frame and,
it would be driven on to the cap with enough force being slotted at the rear edge, overlaid the firing
to fire the aligned cartridge with dangerous effect. trigger when in its rearward position. Ahead of the
In 1896 the Iver Johnson company, who made in¬ lock, in the position of the cylinder in a revolver,
expensive pocket revolvers for the American market, was a cylindrical casing which contained a rotary
introduced a safety feature which they popularized magazine, a collection of spring fingers revolving
under the slogan ‘Hammer the Hammer’, which on an arbor into which six cartridges could be clipped.
fairly described the action. The actual hammer did A sliding door on the right side of the pistol allowed
not have the usual firing pin let into its face. Instead, this magazine to be slipped out for emptying and
a separate firing pin was carried in the standing loading. When the magazine was in place, the top¬
breech, spring-loaded to be clear of the cartridge most cartridge was aligned with the breech end of
unless actually forced in by the flat face of the the barrel.
hammer. The face of the hammer was shaped, above To operate the weapon, the firer hooked his fore¬
the ‘active’ part which touched the firing pin, into finger into the ring at the end of the operating lever
a boss which struck against the solid part of the and thrust it forwards. This rotated and withdrew
standing breech, in such a manner that the remainder the bolt to the rear. He then inserted the magazine
 Mechanical Repeaters/REVOLVERS

barrel
hammer barrel hammer barrel hammer

trigger trigger trigger

7mm rimmed cartridge

reciprocating bolt

and closed the sliding cover, and pulled back on the

operating lever. This caused the bolt to go forwards
and load the top cartridge from the magazine into
the breech. As the cartridge was seated, so a shaped
cam on the bolt revolved and locked it. As the lever
came to the end of its stroke, so the firing trigger
slid through the slot and came under the firer’s
finger, and further pressure on this trigger now
released a cocked firing pin inside the bolt to fire the
cartridge. The firer now forced the lever forwards to
withdraw the bolt and eject the spent case, and then
back again to reload, and so on.
While this appears to be a sound enough mechan¬
ism, there are one or two drawbacks. The most
awkward feature is that the ejection of a fired case Top How The ‘Hammer Above The Passler and
could be difficult if the case elected to stick in the the Hammer* safety Seidl mechanical repeater,
chamber, and the human finger is not well adapted feature works. (1) When at patented in 1887. It uses
to delivering pressure in the forward direction. rest, the hammer is not in a reciprocating bolt to
Nevertheless, a number of similar designs were put contact with the firing close the breech, actuated
forward in the late 1880s, by such people as Karl pin. (2) When cocked, the by a finger lever. Pulling
Krnka, Franz Passler, Josef Schulhof and Paul hammer raises a separate the lever forces the bolt
Mauser. None of them appear to have prospered, and steel bar between it and home and then revolves it
they are extremely rare today. But one design, the firing pin. (3) When to lock. After firing, a
patented by Laumann, formed the basis of the first the hammer is pulled, it forward movement of the
successful automatic pistol. So, in spite of their strikes the bar which lever unlocks and
short existence and lack of commercial success, the imparts the blow to the withdraws the bolt,
mechanical repeater has a definite place in the firing pin thus firing the extracting the spent case
history of the firearm. cartridge. ready for reloading. 57
 MECHANICAL
MACHINE GUNS
 MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS/Puckle’s Gun
▼ ▼tar has always bred new weapons. But the earliest designers, and one of the least-known, was
\yV/crimean War of 1853-56 acted as a very peculiar Sir James Lillie who put forward his ‘Battery Gun’
VV sort of catalyst in the development of firearms. in 1857. This was a framework which carried 12 rifle
For the first time, the popular newspapers of the barrels, each with a revolver-type cylinder behind it,
world were able to report the progress of a foreign some containing 12 chambers and some 18. A hand
war - between Great Britain, France, Turkey and, crank tripped the hammers of each unit, either
later, Sardinia on one side, and Russia on the other - simultaneously so as to produce a 12-barrel barrage
in an ‘up-to-the-minute’ fashion, thanks to the of fire, or consecutively so as to produce a continuous
electric telegraph. And also for the first time, it was ripple of fire from each barrel in turn. Spare, loaded
brought home to many people just how dated were cylinders were provided so that fire could be kept
theiweapons on which the armies relied. The Indus¬ up for long periods. Lillie seems to have had little
trial Revolution was in full swing - mechanical success with his invention. It was never followed up
marvels were the order of the day, from steam by the military, and the only specimen ever made
locomotives to printing presses - and yet here were now resides in the Royal Artillery Museum at
the military forces of several of the most advanced Woolwich, London.
nations of the world still using weapons which in The American Civil War (1861-65) brought several
their essentials were little changed from the days of inventions to light. Among the first was the Billing-
the first Duke of Marlborough and his battles against hurst-Requa Battery Gun, which was very little
the French in the early years of the eighteenth more than the fourteenth-century ‘ribauldequin’
century. The nineteenth century - and the Crimean (small cannons mounted on a cart) brought up to
and American Civil Wars in particular - changed all date. A simple two-wheeled carriage carried 25 rifle
this. All over Europe and America, inventors began barrels of 15.2mm (0.6in) calibre mounted side by
to take a fresh look at weaponry, and we have side. They were loaded with a metallic cartridge
already seen some of the developments - in rifles, containing powder and ball and having a hole in the
revolvers and cartridges - which stemmed from this. base. The breech plate was then closed to secure all
One area which claimed the attention of a small these in their barrels and a single percussion cap was
number of thinkers was that of producing weapons fired into a channel in the breech plate. This flashed
which would fire rapidly and continuously and thus through all the holes in the cartridges to produce a
shower the battlefield with bullets - the idea being ragged volley, after which the battery had to be
that by putting up such a screen of flying metal it emptied and reloaded. Although primitive, a number
would prove impossible to wage war at all. The
idea was not particularly new. One famous pioneer
in this field was James Puckle of London, who in
1718 patented his ‘Defence’ gun, with the slogan:
‘Defending King George, your country and Lawes,
Is Defending yourselves and (the) Protestant Cause.9
Puckle’s gun was, in effect, a flintlock revolver
of large calibre, mounted on a three-legged stand.
By releasing a clamp behind the cylinder, a loaded
chamber could be lined up with the barrel and locked
in place, thrusting the chamber mouth into the rear
end of the barrel to seal the joint against gas leaks.
Then a lever was tripped to release the cock of a
flintlock mechanism which ignited the charge in
the chamber. After firing this shot, the cylinder was
unclamped, turned to the next chamber, reclamped,
and fired. Cumbersome as it sounds, it was a con¬
siderable advance for its time. The London Journal
of March 31, 1722 reported that the gun was fired in
the Artillery Fields 63 times in seven minutes in the
rain by one man. But in spite of demonstrating
it to the Board of Ordnance, Puckle never achieved
any success. The fact that he advertised the gun as
being able to fire round balls against Christians and
square ones against Turks - through the same
barrel - may have had something to do with this.
The principal drawback to rapid-fire guns in those
days was the ammunition: powder, ball and flint
did not lend themselves to rapid manipulation.
When the percussion cap appeared in the early
nineteenth century, interest revived, and this,
with the stimulus of the Crimean War, started the
60 ball (or, rather, the cylinder) rolling. One of the
 Mitrailleuse/MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS
were built and saw some use in the war. They were it much thought, but, strictly defined, a machine
frequently called ‘Bridge Guns’ since their sudden gun is a gun which once set firing will continue to
concentrated volley was found useful in defending fire so long as it is provided with ammunition and
narrow bridges against a sudden rush. the firer keeps the trigger pressed. This is an
Another Civil War weapon was the Ager ‘Coffee automatic machine gun, one in which the energy to
Mill’, so-called from the funnel-shaped hopper on load and fire is provided by the gun itself - or, more
top and the crank at the side of the breech. Invented strictly, by the ammunition. There are two other
by Wilson Ager, it was a single barrel weapon which types of multiple-firing guns. Guns such as the
had to be fed with a supply of pre-loaded steel tubes Billinghurst-Requa and the Mitrailleuse (discussed
which contained powder, bullet and a percussion cap below), which fire the amount of ammunition which
on a nipple at the rear. These were dropped into the has been loaded into their barrels and then have to
hopper and gravity-fed one at a time by rotating be reloaded, are battery guns; while the Ager and
the crank, which loaded the tube into the breech, others of the sort which have to be cranked by hand
locked the breech-block and then struck the percus¬ (or, for that matter, by outside machinery) are
sion cap. The empty tube fell out as the next was mechanical machine guns.
loaded, and the gunner’s mate had the task of picking The heating problem, offered as an objection to the
them up and reloading them. Ager, presented a very real problem - and still does.
The Ager gun worked quite well, but it was too It has been calculated that a modern machine gun
much of an innovation to be readily accepted. When firing at about 1,000 rounds a minute generates some
Ager announced that it would be possible to fire 100 150 kilowatts (200 horsepower) of work in that time.
rounds a minute through the gun, the experts de¬ The ejected bullets represent about 37.5 kw (50 hp)
rided him. Their view was that such a high rate of of work, and thus the remaining 112.5 kw (150 hp)
fire meant exploding about a pound (0.45kg) of -is largely dissipated as heat. This heat is absorbed
gunpowder a minute inside the barrel, and they by the mechanism and, in particular, by the barrel.
were sure that the heating effect would melt the And since the steel of which the barrel is made will
steel in time. They had, in fact, put their collective begin to melt at temperatures above 550 C, measures
finger on one of the greatest problems confronting the have to be taken to keep the temperatures below this
would-be designer of a machine gun. And because figure. Water-cooling, air-cooling, or even making
of this view Ager never sold more than about 50 guns. the gun so that alternate barrels are used, giving
Today we speak of a ‘machine gun’ without giving each barrel time to cool between bursts, are all
methods which have been tried.
The other great problem which confronted the
machine gun in its youth was the vexed question
of how it was to be used. Was it artillery, or was it
a small arm? Was it to be employed in batteries, or
was it to be used by individuals? Some of the answers
to this became apparent when the French Army
unveiled their machine gun in the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870. This was the Mitrailleuse which had
originally been invented by a Belgian, Captain
Fafchamps, in 1851. He passed his drawings and
ideas to a manufacturer called Montigny who made
minor improvements and made several guns for the
Belgian fortress defences. He later managed to in¬
terest Napoleon III in the gun, and it was purchased
for the French Army in 1869. In great secrecy 156
guns were built at the Meudon Arsenal and issued
to the Army. Only the officers who would control
them in battle were allowed to see them. But the
press got hold of the story and, thanks to their
boasting of what the secret weapon would do to the
Prussians, with whom war was imminent, when the
gun finally made its appearance on the battlefield
the Prussians were quite ready for it.
The Mitrailleuse consisted of 37 rifle barrels moun¬
Previous page An 1892 Left Puckle's Defence ted inside a cylindrical casing and carried on a two¬
depiction of a Gatling with Gun of 1718 with the wheeled carriage, so that externally it looked very
the 26th Middlesex chamber unit withdrawn much like a field gun. A separate breech-block car¬
Volunteer Cyclists. The from the barrel for ried 37 firing pins and could be slid backwards and
operating handle is rotation. forwards inside an extension behind the barrel. A
misplaced and the bottom steel plate pierced with 37 holes was loaded with
barrel, not the top, should Above A mitrailleuse cartridges - the same cartridges as used by the
be firing. machine gun with its crew. Chassepot rifle - and dropped in behind the barrels. 61
 MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS/Mitrailleuse in Action

Above The Gatling Gun's will be thrust into the

mechanism exposed. chamber, being fired at the
Turning the crank lowest barrel position. The
forwards rotates the entire empty cases can be seen
barrel and lock unit. The being extracted.
plungers within the lock
unit are moved back and Below right The actual
forth by a cam track in the gun fired by Dr Gatling in
gun casing so as to feed a demonstration at
and extract the cartridges. Woolwich (London) on
A fresh cartridge has just 11 August 1870. The drum
come from the drum and held 368 .42in rounds.

The sliding breech-block was then pushed forwards

and locked, forcing the cartridges into the chambers
of their respective barrels. Turning a crank at the
rear of the gun now caused the 37 firing pins to fall in
succession, the rate of fire depending upon how
quickly the crank was turned. After the last shot
had been fired, the block was pulled back and the
cartridge plate removed, a freshly-loaded plate
dropped in, the breech closed, and fire could be
resumed. A rate of 150 shots a minute could be kept
up. The gun’s maximum range was 1,800m (1,970yd).
The appearance of the Mitrailleuse in battle was,
however, a disaster. The French deployed it like
artillery, four or six guns in line to provide covering
fire to the infantry. The Prussians dealt with them
very easily by countering them with field guns.
Since their range was 2,400m (2,624yd) they could
stay well away from the French fire while pounding
the mitrailleurs into silence.
The first really successful mechanical machine
gun was the famous Gatling Gun, and yet even this
had a hard time gaining acceptance. Richard Jordan
Gatling was an American doctor of medicine (though
he never practised as such) whose real vocation was
mechanics. He began developing his gun in 1861 and
his first version used a hopper-shaped, steel contain¬
62 er similar to the Ager gun together with six barrels
 Gatling Mechanism/MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS

which revolved around a central axis. The charge gas-leak problems. The gun now fed centre-fire
containers were pressed forwards into contact with cartridges from a magazine mounted on top. The
the barrels by a cam action and fired at the lowest cartridges were gradually fed into the chamber by
position of the barrel, the remainder of the rotation cams as the barrels revolved, then fired at the
being employed to force the cylinders into contact bottom position, and extracted and ejected during
and then withdraw them. In 1862 he demonstrated the upward movement. As the barrel reached the
a gun successfully and made arrangements for six top it was empty and ready to take the next round.
guns to be made for an official test by the Union The great advantage of this system was that it
Army. Unfortunately the factory in which the guns divided up the mechanical work between the six
were being made was destroyed by fire, and the guns barrels so that the machinery was operating at a
and all his drawings were lost. Dr Gatling managed to reasonable speed, and it also allowed each barrel
raise sufficient money to have 12 more guns made, time to cool down between shots.
and this time he did away with cylinders, using rim- The new gun was demonstrated to the Union Army
fire cartridges in .58 calibre. But the Union Army in 1865 and finally met with their approval. In 1866
failed to adopt the gun. It seems that Gatling had it was officially adopted, 50 guns of one-inch (25.4mm)
been born in the Confederate state of North Carolina, calibre and 50 of half-inch (12.7mm) calibre being
and his politics were suspect. The Union Army felt ordered. With this testimonial to his gun, Gatling
that there was something odd about a Southerner was soon selling it abroad. One of the more remark¬
offering a gun to the Union, and turned it down. able overseas sales occurred when the Tsar sent
The only military acceptance during the Civil War General Gorloff to America to superintend the
came when General Ben Butler of Massachusetts manufacture of 400 Gatling Guns for the Russian
personally bought 12 guns for $1,000 each and later Army. Gorloff very astutely had Russian name¬
put them to good use against the Confederate troops plates, bearing his own name, fitted to the guns
besieged at Petersburg, Virginia. before they were shipped, and ever since then the
In 1864 Gatling completely redesigned the gun so Gatling has been known as the ‘Gorloff’ in Russia.
that each barrel was formed with its own chamber, Gatling’s success soon inspired others to try their
thus doing away with the separate cylinder and its hand, and one of the first to appear was William 63
FAMOUS GUNS Gatling and Gardner
The Gatling Gun was the William Gardner, who had consisted of two barrels revolved by a handle
first successful mechanical served in the Civil War mounted side by side and outside the gun. The crank
machine gun, and after a and who had seen a variety closed by two sliding throws were 180° apart, so
slow start during the of‘battery' guns and the breech-blocks. These were that when one breech was
American Civil War went Gatling. attached by connecting closed, the other was open,
on to gain acceptance The Gardner Gun rods to a crank which was and the two barrels fired
throughout the world.
Dr Richard J. Gatling
began work in 1861, but it
was not until 1864 that he
perfected a centre-fire
model which was adopted
by the US Army in 1866.
The British Army adopted
a ten-barrel version in
A5in calibre in 1874 and
the Royal Navy a .65in
version in 1875.
The Gatling's novel
feature was its division
offiring between a number
of barrels, thus allowing
each barrel time to cool
between shots. Behind the
cluster of rotating barrels,
and linked to it, was the
lock unit which contained
plungers driven back and
forth, as the unit revolved,
by a cam surface inside the
outer (stationary) casing.
Thus the plunger for a
particular barrel would
start at the fully-drawn
position. A cartridge was
dropped into the groove
ahead of the plunger and,
as the unit revolved, the
plunger moved forwards
and rammed the cartridge
into its barrel, fired it, and
then extracted the case and
ejected it through the
casing.
In spite of Sir Henry
Newbolt's famous line
about ‘The Gatling's
jammed and the Colonel's
dead', the Gatling jammed
relatively infrequently and
was considered quite a
reliable weapon. In the
1890s Dr Gatling went so
far as to mount an electric
motor on a Gatling, to
achieve the prodigious
rate of fire of3,000rpm.
The idea was revived in
the Vulcan aircraft Mini¬
gun of the 1940s.
The Gardner Machine
Gun was developed by
another American,
 Gatling and Gardner FAMOUS GUNS
alternately. The each breech in turn. A rate authorities; they had the versions which were
cartridges were fed down of fire of300rpm was well Gatling and were satisfied adopted in 1882.
a slotted feed strip to land within the mechanism's with it. He went to Europe Gardner was responsible
on a swinging tray between capability. and managed to interest for introducing the term
the breechs. The tray, Gardner was unable to the British Army and Navy 'Machine Gun' into official
linked to the crank, fed sell his gun to the US in two and five-barrel terminology; the Gatling
Gun had been introduced
simply as the'Gun,
Gatling, 0.45in' but the
Gardner became the 'Gun,
Machine, Gardner, 0.45inf.
These guns were provided
with tripods for infantry
use, and also with
'Gunwhale Mountings'
for firing from small boats
by naval landing parties.
In spite of being replaced
by the Maxim Gun in the
1890s, the Gardner
remained on the British
Army's inventory until
1926.

The colour picture is of

a .65in 10-barrel Gatling
on a naval cone mounting.

Two sailors from HMS

Ajax (a battleship of1880)
are shown operating the
twin-barrel M1879
Gardner MG.

GATLING 10-Barrel
Calibre .45in
Length 150.9cm (59.41in)
Weight 210kg (4441b)
Barrel 81.1cm (31.95in)
Rifling 7 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight V-notch,
adjustable to 2,000yd
(1,829m)
Action Mechanical
Rate of fire l,000rpm
Feed system 240-round
drum
Muzzle velocity
396m/sec (l,300ft/sec)
Bullet weight 31.lg
(480gr)

GARDNER 5-Barrel
Calibre .45in
Length 135.9cm (53.5in)
Weight 131.5kg (2901b)
Barrel 838mm (33.0in)
Rifling 7 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight V-notch,
adjustable to 1,500yd
(1,372m)
Action Mechanical
Rate of fire 650rpm
Feed Vertical 50-round
magazine
Muzzle velocity
412m/sec (l,350ft/sec)
Bullet weight 31.lg
(480gr)
65
MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS/Naval Gatling
 Gardner and VpJ Nordenfelt/MECHANICAL MACHINE GUNS

Left The Gatling gun in

naval use as depicted by
the Illustrated London
News in 1878. The weapon
is mounted in a ship’s
protected main top and
would have been a lethal
anti-boarding weapon.

Right A 5-barrel
Nordenfelt MG being test
fired. A 10-barrel
Nordenfelt fired 3,000
rounds in 3 minutes and
3 seconds without a stop
on trial in 1882. Like the
Gatling, the Nordenfelt
was bought by the Royal
Navy, and it was produced
in many calibres with one
to 12 barrels.

Gardner, another American, who sold his patents block’ operated by a hand lever. This hand lever
to a newly-formed engineering company based at was pushed forwards to take the carrier block
Hartford, Connecticut, called Pratt and Whitney - forwards until the cartridges were lined up with
later to become a leader in the field of aviation their chambers. A breech-block then moved for¬
engineering. Francis Pratt had worked for Colt and wards to force the cartridges home, and an ‘action
knew something about the requirements of fire¬ block’ containing the firing pins moved in behind
arms. Between them, he and Gardner produced one the breech-block and lined up with the caps of the
of the best of the mechanical guns. It consisted of cartridges. At the end of the forward stroke of the
two barrels mounted side by side on a common body; handle, the firing pins were tripped and fired the
inside the body each barrel had its own reciprocat¬ rounds. On the return stroke of the lever, the action
ing bolt which was driven by a side crank and fly¬ block moved away, the breech-block pulled clear
wheel arrangement so that as one bolt was closed and ejected the empty cases, and the carrier block
the other was opened. Ammunition feed was from a went back to pick up a fresh loading of cartridges.
vertical magazine which held the cartridges by their While most of these machine guns were developed
rims. As the crank was revolved, a feed arm took for use in land warfare, they found a considerable
one cartridge, positioned it in front of one of the market among the navies of the world, who saw in
breeches, and the bolt then closed and fired. As them an ideal fast-firing weapon for dealing with
rotation of the crank continued, the fired cartridge the new ‘torpedo-boats’ which were gaining favour.
was extracted and the feed arm fed the next cart¬ These light and fast vessels could dash into the
ridge to the other barrel in time for that bolt to middle of a fleet, either in harbour or at sea, and
close and fire. launch two or three torpedoes while the big guns of
The Gardner was an extremely safe and reliable the fleet were still trying to aim at them. The handy
weapon. On trial in 1879 it fired 10,000 rounds non¬ machine gun, firing heavy bullets at a great rate,
stop in 27 minutes 36 seconds - a quite remarkable was an ideal solution to this problem.
achievement for a hand-cranked gun. But there was One prominent weapon in this application was the
no interest in the United States, so Gardner took Hotchkiss Revolver Cannon, the invention of Benja¬
the gun to Britain where it was quickly adopted. min Berkely Hotchkiss, an American living in Paris.
Models with as many as five barrels were constructed Impressed by the Gatling, in 1874 he developed his
though the twin-barrel model was the most usual. own revolving gun which used five barrels. But,
At much the same time the Royal Navy had instead of the continuous operation of the Gatling,
adopted another mechanical gun, the Nordenfelt. he ‘stepped’ the barrels round and then stopped
This had been invented by a Swede called Palmkranz them for a fraction of a second while the lock mech¬
who, lacking money to finance his invention, went anism performed the various actions of feed, fire and
to Torsten Nordenfelt, a Swedish banker, and named extract on the different barrels. Firing a 37mm high-
the gun after him in gratitude for his support. This explosive shell weighing 0.45kg (lib), the Hotchkiss
was another multiple-barrelled gun, the number of Revolver Cannon was, in practice, light artillery
barrels ranging from two to twelve, arranged side rather than small arms. But with this gun as a basis,
by side in front of the gun body. An overhead hopper the company which Hotchkiss founded was to enter
magazine carried as many columns of cartridges as the machine-gun business and later become the
there were barrels and delivered them into a ‘carrier makers of one of the most widely-distributed designs.
MAGAZINE RIFLES
 T
MAGAZINE RIFLES/Smokeless Powder
he success of Dr Gatling and his contempor¬
aries in producing guns capable of firing several
hundred rounds in a few minutes led to a barrel 1886 Model M 8mm cartridge
reappraisal of the basic infantryman’s rifle. Infantry
units were now being provided with sophisticated
machine guns, yet the rifleman was left holding a
slow-firing, single-shot weapon.
The Turks with their Winchesters at the Siege of
Plevna had shown the value of repeating rifles, but
the lever-action, as we have seen, was frowned upon
for military work, and the Winchester’s tabular
magazine had its drawbacks. Still, the first major
advance in military rifles came when Paul Mauser
took his existing (1871) single-shot model and put a
tubular magazine underneath the barrel, linking
the bolt action to a cartridge lifter so that opening
the bolt ejected the spent case and lifted up a fresh
round ready to be rammed in by the return stroke
of the bolt. Mauser’s magazine rifle appeared in 1884 tubular magazine (8 rounds)
and was in 11mm calibre, with a magazine capacity
of eight rounds. It was enormously successful: in
addition to being adopted by the German Army, it
was sold abroad in vast quantities, over half a
million going to the Balkan state of Serbia alone.
Extensive testing by Mauser indicated that the Eventually Rubin and Bode developed the small-
11mm calibre was not the optimum for the black calibre jacketed bullet. The bullet had a leaden core,
powder then in use, and 9.5mm was chosen as giving to give the necessary weight, wrapped in a malleable
the best results. In 1886 the Turkish Army took over metal envelope which could deform to suit the
500,000 rifles and carbines in this calibre. At the rifling but would leave little or no trace of its pas¬
same time as Mauser was producing the acme of sage. The jacketed bullet could, of course, work
black powder rifles, however, other people were at equally well in any calibre, but Rubin and Bode
work, paving the way for the next great step forward pointed out the ballistic advantages of making the
in firearms technology. bullet thinner and longer: the cross-section was
Since the fourteenth century, gunpowder had less, so that there was less air resistance, but the
been the only explosive substance of any worth, mass was still there, giving the bullet a far better
used both for firearms and as a blasting explosive. trajectory, greater range, and better accuracy. The
In 1846 an Italian chemist, Sobrero, had discovered only trouble was that a small-calibre rifle loaded
nitro-glycerine, and 20 years later Alfred Nobel had with black powder fouled up all the quicker, so
produced dynamite followed, in 1875, by Nobel’s although the Swiss idea was respected, few military
Blasting Gelatin. As an explosive for use in construc¬ powers were interested in trying it out in practice.
tion work, gunpowder was finished. With these But when Vieille produced his smokeless powder -
technical advances to spur them on, chemists now called ‘Poudre B’ after General Boulanger, then
began seeking some substitute for gunpowder in French Minister of War - here was the opportunity
firearms. The defects of gunpowder were well-known to put Rubin’s theories to the test: moreover, the
- excessive fouling, sensitivity to damp, suscepti¬ political climate was ripe. France’s strained rela¬
bility to friction - and anything which promised a tions with Germany after her humiliating defeat by
relief from these ills would be welcome. In 1886 a Prussia in the war of 1870 had been further embitter¬
French chemist, Paul Vieille, made the break¬ ed by Germany’s annexation of the French provinces
through when he treated nitrocellulose with alcohol of Alsace and Lorraine. General Boulanger launched
and ether to produce a tough impervious material a slogan - ‘New smokeless powder and revenge for
which burned fiercely, but virtually without smoke. Alsace-Lorraine!’ - and demanded a new modern
Tried as a propellant it was immediately successful, rifle to take advantage of the one and effect the
and the smokeless powder era had begun. other. Within months the French Army was issued
At much the same time two Swiss Army officers, with the 8mm Lebel magazine rifle, the first military
Majors Rubin and Bode, had been investigating rifle to adopt smokeless powder and the small-
bullet design. Their prime object was to do away with calibre jacketed bullet. As in so many technical
the problem of lead fouling - the trace of lead left military matters, the French were ahead of the
in the grooves of the gun’s rifling after the bullet field. And, as with most of the other examples, they
had passed by and which could soon build up and sat back self-satisfied and let the opposition over¬
prevent the weapon being fired at all. Various haul them before they woke up.
expedients had been tried — paper patches around The Lebel takes its name from Colonel Nicolas
the bullet, grease pressed into grooves around the Lebel, a member of the Board which designed the
70 bullet, and so forth - but these were only palliatives. rifle and, it is generally believed, the designer of the
 Lee’s Magazine/MAGAZINE RIFLES
Previous page The Model
1893 Mauser bolt-action
rifle, the first Mauser to
have an ‘in-line’, charger-
loaded box magazine
instead of a ‘protruding’
one. It carried five 7mm
cartridges.

Left The French Lebel

Rifle of1886 allied a bolt
action to a tubular
magazine. As the bolt is
opened, the cartridge lifter
brings a fresh round up
and aligns it with the
chamber, to be rammed in
on the closing stroke of
the bolt. Smokeless powder
and the 8mm Lebel
cartridge sparked off a
revolution in military
arms design.

cartridge. At the time of its introduction it was far having got into position, do not wish to disturb
ahead of any other rifle in the world, with a bolt themselves by reaching for ammunition. In the
action, a tubular magazine holding eight cartridges 1870s and early 1880s a number of European armies
beneath the barrel, and the undoubted advantage of adopted them since they allowed a fair rate of fire
smokeless powder and a high velocity bullet. Im¬ to be attained from a single-shot rifle, and without
pressed and alarmed, other European armies looked spending too much money.
to their rifles and began to plan improvements. From the simple side-mounted clip, however,
By this time the drawbacks of the tubular maga¬ inventors began to get more and more involved,
zine had become fairly apparent. In the first place, developing boxes with springs inside which clamped
the balance of the rifle shifted considerably as the alongside the rifle and, by spring pressure, pushed a
bullets in the magazine were used up, which tended new cartridge into the top of the box ready to be
to upset the soldier’s aim. And when small-calibre withdrawn by the soldier. It was not long before it
bullets were issued a new hazard appeared. The tip was suggested that cutting a hole into the bottom
of each bullet was resting snugly on the percussion of the rifle and mounting the box there, so that the
cap of the cartridge in front, and the shock of firing spring pushed the cartridge up in front of the bolt,
the rifle often shifted the column of ammunition would save the soldier the trouble of pulling each
back with enough force to jam a point against a cap cartridge from the magazine and placing it in the
just a fraction too hard, firing the cartridge and boltway. The idea may sound simple, but some of
setting off a chain reaction inside the magazine. the attempts to make it work were masterpieces of
This further tended to put the soldier off his aim. It mechanical complication, none of which attracted
also put him off tubular magazines. military favour. It remained for James Paris Lee,
There is always a reluctance on the part of govern¬ a Scottish-born American, to do the job.
ments to give money to their armies to buy some new Lee’s design was quite simple. The boltway was
weapon when they have just recently disbursed a cut away underneath, and a detachable, sheet-metal
sizeable sum for the same purpose. Many European box was inserted through the bottom of the rifle.
armies had but recently invested large sums in Inside the box a zig-zag spring pushed up a platform,
single-shot rifles and now, in the hope of staving off on top of which the cartridges rested. The magazine
the day when they had to buy magazine rifles, many was loaded and thrust into the rifle, retained there
took to using various ‘quick-loader’ devices. These by a spring catch. When the bolt was opened the
began as a sort of clip mounted on the side of the spring forced the top cartridge up into the path of
rifle near the boltway; into this clip a number of the bolt, so that as the bolt was closed, this cartridge
cartridges could be placed with their bases upward. was swept forwards and placed in the rifle chamber.
The soldier, after opening the rifle bolt, could grasp When the magazine was empty it was removed, and
a fresh cartridge by its base, pull it from the clip and either reloaded or replaced by another full magazine
insert it into the breech, and then move his hand carried by the soldier.
back to the bolt quite quickly, much quicker than Lee took out a patent on this in 1879 and then made
if he had had to reach down to the usual type of some small improvements. The American Ordnance
pouch on his belt. Such quick-loader devices are Commission tested it and approved, and Lee licensed
still to be found today, used by target shooters who, the Remington Company to make use of the patent. 71
 MAGAZINE RIFLES/Mannlicher Clip and Bolt

charger guide firing pin

cocking piece bolt unit striker and spring

half-cock notch

sear

magazine spring

magazine

magazine release catch

They produced 25,000 Remington-Lee rifles and 15,000 Model 1885 magazine rifle. Mannlicher’s box maga¬
carbines for the Mexican Army in 1884. zine was fixed in place and a clip was dropped in
Once Lee had shown the way, dozens of other after the bolt had been opened. Once the last shot
inventors followed his example, though they had was fired, a lever at the side of the magazine ejected
to tread warily until his patent expired. One of the the empty clip. In the following year he did away
most significant developments, though it never was with the ejection lever and simply allowed the clip
adopted, was a little-known design by an American, to drop out of the magazine.
Lieutenant A. R. Russel, in 1882. Russel’s intention Mannlicher’s other notable innovation was the
was to produce a system which would allow the ‘straight-pull’ bolt. As the name implies, this bolt
weapon to be reloaded quickly once the magazine was operated by simply grasping the handle and
was empty, and he did this by carrying five or six pulling it straight back; there was no need to raise
cartridges in a thin, metal frame. To reload, this the handle in order to rotate and unlock the bolt.
pack of cartridges was placed against the top of the Such a mechanism has some advantages, notably
magazine, still in position below the rifle, and the that the firer does not have to wave his arm around,
cartridges then pushed down, from the pack into and it is theoretically faster than the turn-bolt.
the magazine, by thumb pressure. This was a most The principal drawbacks, however, are that in most
important step, but it went unrecognized at the designs of the straight-pull bolt there is no slow
time and Russel failed to interest anyone in it. It initial opening movement during the turn, which
was some years before the idea was revived and helps to unseat a sticky cartridge case, and in some
applied almost universally to magazine rifles. designs it is possible to assemble the bolt incorrectly
An alternative method of loading a magazine so that the first shot fired blows it out and into the
without having to remove it was to use a ‘clip’ firer’s face. The Mannlicher design, though, was
which held five or six cartridges and which was extremely reliable and helped to overcome much
simply dropped into the magazine. A ‘follower arm’ of the initial resistance to this system.
driven by a spring forced the cartridges up in the The Mannlicher bolt carried a hinged block below
clip and, when the clip was empty, it was removed, the rear end. The bolt handle actuated a sliding block
either by the firer or by having it drop through a in the bolt which carried ribs, and these, when the
hole in the bottom of the magazine. This system handle was pulled to the rear, forced the hinged
was adopted by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher, block to rise. At the end of the rising movement the
one of the most prolific arms designers of the nine¬ bolt handle drew the bolt back. On thrusting the
72 teenth century, when he introduced the Austrian handle forwards the bolt closed on the cartridge in
 Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield/MAGAZINE RIFLES

rearsight protectors rearsight

barrel

,303in cartridge in chamber

Above The mechanism of back by the sear. This is

the Lee-Enfield rifle released by the trigger to
is representative fire the cartridge. Pulling
of many contemporary the bolt fully back will
bolt-action magazine eject the spent case, raise
rifles. As the bolt goes a new round and re-cock
forwards to load the the weapon. Closing the
cartridge, the cocking bolt will chamber the new
piece and striker are held round for firing.

the breech and the final movement of the handle and the cartridges then swept from the charger and
forced the block forward, so that the ribs drove the into the magazine, the empty charger being flicked
locking block down to lock securely in front of a out of the way by the thumb as it was removed. The
solid portion of the rifle frame. bolt was then closed, loading the first round. At any
Motivated by France’s adoption of theLebelinl886, time, the bolt could be opened and loose rounds
the German Army had begun looking for a new mag¬ pressed down into the magazine to fill it.
azine rifle to replace the tubular-magazine Mauser, This system was introduced in 1889 in the 7,65mm
and this clip-loading system of Mannlicher’s appealed Belgian Army Mauser, which Mauser submitted for
to it. So in 1888 the ‘Commission’ rifle - so-called as competitive trial. He won, hands down, and obtained
it was designed by a weapons commission - was an order for several hundred thousand rifles. Since
introduced. This rifle allied Mauser’s bolt action he did not have the manufacturing capacity to make
with Mannlicher’s clip magazine. The only signifi¬ them, a factory was set up in Belgium which became
cant alteration was that the clip was so designed the renowned Fabrique National d’Armes de Guerre,
that it could be dropped into the magazine either invariably known as ‘F.N.’. His success here was
way up. In Mannlicher’s original design it could be followed by large orders from Turkey, Argentina,
loaded only one way - a nuisance in the heat of action. Spain, Brazil, Sweden and many other countries.
For all its convenience, the clip-loader has one Also in 1889 came the first of a series of rifles which
major drawback - it cannot be ‘topped up’. If the were to arm the British Army for the next 70 years
firer has fired two rounds from his five-round clip, and which, in slightly modified form, still continue
he cannot open the bolt and put in two loose rounds to do so in specialist tasks. This was the Lee-
to make it up to five again ready for the next burst Metford, an amalgam of the Lee bolt and magazine
of activity. He can only wait until the shooting with a barrel rifled according to the principles of
starts, fire off the three rounds remaining, and then William Metford, a foremost firearms theoretician
reload with a full clip. Mauser was among the first of the day. Although it was a small-calibre weapon -
to see that this was a significant disadvantage and ,303in - it still used black powder, since British
he set to work to develop a magazine which could be trials of Vieille’s smokeless powder showed that it
topped up. His idea was similar to Lee’s box, but was unstable when stored in tropical climates and
instead of being removeable it was securely fixed to at that time most of the British Army was dispersed
the base of the rifle action. The cartridges were abroad in hot countries. The propelling charge was
held in a thin ‘charger’ in groups of five. With the a compressed pellet of extremely fine-grain gun¬
bolt open, the charger was positioned in a guide-way powder, but, even so, fouling was still a problem and
 MAGAZINE RIFLES/Krag-Jorgensen
the Metford rifling was intended to combat this. the sleeve and thus unlock the bolt assembly.
The grooves were wide and shallow, flowing gently Further movement of the handle withdrew the
up to the lands instead of being sharply incised, so sleeve and bolt to open the action. As can be ima¬
that there were no angles in which fouling could gined, this meant an abnormally long stroke of the
accumulate. handle and the Schmidt-Rubin rifle is unique for
The magazine of the first Lee-Metford held eight the length of action behind the magazine. It was to
cartridges, which were loaded singly. In the Mark 2 remain in Swiss service for many years, but it is
model, the magazine held 10 cartridges in a double open to question whether it would have lasted so
column, a pattern which was retained after that, long had it ever been tried in earnest in a major war.
though the cartridges were still loaded singly. The Finally in 1889 came the Danish Krag-Jorgensen
original intention for the Lee magazine was that it rifle, a design which - for reasons best known to the
would be replaced by a full one rather than reloaded inventor, Ole Krag, a Norwegian - departed from the
through the action, but this idea does not seem to universal idea of placing the magazine vertically
have caught on with the British Army and spare below the bolt. In the Krag design the magazine was
magazines were never issued. Indeed, on many of laid horizontally under the boltway, being loaded
the early rifles, the magazines, although remove¬ by way of a ‘trapdoor’ on the right-hand side of the
able, were secured to the rifle by chains. action. This door hinged forwards and carried the
While rejecting the French smokeless powder, the magazine spring attached to it. The door was opened
British Army had not closed its eyes to the idea, and the rifle tilted to the left; five cartridges were
and experiments went ahead to develop one which dropped into the magazine and the door closed, the
would stand up to the rigours of tropical climates. spring then putting pressure on the cartridges. The
Eventually cordite was perfected, a combination of inner end of the magazine curved up and round to
nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine and mineral jelly deliver the cartridges to a slot in the left-hand side
which was extruded in the form of thin strands or of the bolt way, so that when the bolt (a straight¬
cords - hence the name. While cordite was exception¬ forward turn-bolt) was opened, the action of the
ally stable under all climatic conditions, the price spring thrust a cartridge through the slot, to be
which had to be paid for this virtue was a high one. collected and loaded on the return stroke of the bolt.
Due to the nitroglycerine content, the flame tem¬ Unusual as this layout was, it did have the advan¬
perature was high and it was very erosive, fast tage that the magazine could be loaded or topped-up
wearing away the rifling of the barrels. To counter at any time without having to open the bolt. It also
this the Metford rifling was changed to a form having had a cut-off device so that the magazine contents
deeper and sharper grooves, less easily eroded. This could be held in reserve and the rifle used as a single¬
rifling was developed at the Royal Small Arms loader. After being adopted by Denmark, the Krag-
Factory at Enfield and thus became known as the Jorgensen was taken into use by Norway and then
‘Enfield’ rifling. By extension, the rifles now became in 1892, by the United States Army, the only impor¬
the Lee-Enfield rifles. tant army at that time not to be equipped with
An interesting feature of both the Lee-Metford magazine rifles. The American and Norwegian
and Lee-Enfield rifles was the introduction of a designs differed slightly from the Danish in that the
‘magazine cut-off’ device. This was a thin, steel magazine door opened downwards.
plate, hinged at its forward end, which could be The only other magazine system to be successfully
swung into the action above the magazine and applied to rifles was the rotary magazine. We have
below the bolt to prevent the cartridges in the noted that Colt (among several others) had attempt¬
magazine from rising and thus be loaded by the ed to build rifles on the simple revolver principle.
action of the bolt. With the cut-off pushed in, the Theseweapons were, in essence, the same asarevolver
rifle became a single-shot weapon, and the rounds pistol but with longer barrels and suitable shoulder
in the magazine remained there untouched while stocks. Revolver rifles were never very successful,
the soldier loaded one round at a time from his since the powerful cartridges considered to be
pouches. This was his normal course of action, and essential to the rifle lost too much of their pro¬
the full magazine was thus held in reserve against pelling gas through the gap between cylinder and
the time when the enemy would make his assault. barrel. Moreover, the construction, for long rifle
When this came, the cut-off was opened and the cartridges, was cumbersome, and the support given
soldier was then able to deliver rapid fire, secure in to the barrel was not sufficient to ensure strength
knowing that he started with a full magazine. and rigidity.
Another 1889 introduction was the Swiss Army’s In 1879 Antonin Spitalsky, chief foreman of the
Schmidt-Rubin rifle, the only design other than Austrian arms factory at Steyr, developed a rotary
that of Mannlicher to make a success of a straight- magazine which fitted into the stock of a bolt-action
pull bolt. In this design the bolt handle was part of rifle. It resembled a revolver cylinder, held seven
an actuating rod which lay alongside the action and cartridges, and fed them to the bolt in succession.
terminated in a lug which engaged in a helical It was tested by various countries but not adopted,
groove cut in a ‘bolt sleeve’. The bolt sleeve sur¬ and in the following years a number of inventors
rounded the actual bolt body and also carried the tried to improve on Spitalsky’s idea. It was not
locking lugs. Pulling the handle to the rear caused until 1900 that Mannlicher achieved a practical
74 the lug, by its action in the helical groove, to rotate design, using a rotary magazine developed by Otto
 ‘Short’ Rifles/MAGAZINE RIFLES
Left The Krag-Jorgensen
magazine is loaded from
the side through a trap
door which carries the
magazine spring. The five
cartridges then pass
underneath the bolt up
the left side of the rifle to
the boltway. The magazine
can be filled at any time
without opening the bolt,
but there is a risk of the
contents falling out when
the trapdoor is opened.

Above The 6.5mm

Model 1894 Norwegian
Krag-Jorgensen Rifle, in
use until 1945.

Schoenauer and Josef Werndl. This magazine used infantry. But before they were ready for issue it was
a centrally-mounted, fluted spindle, driven by a decided to reduce the barrel length to 610mm (24in)
spring. The cartridges were loaded through the open to provide a short rifle - a weapon longer than the
action (that is, with the bolt withdrawn) by strip¬ traditional carbine, shorter than the ‘long’ rifle, but
ping them from a charger. As they passed into the with all the accuracy that any soldier needed. This
magazine so they each in turn engaged in a groove was designated the Model 1903 and was first issued for
on the spindle and forced it round, placing the driv¬ field tests in 1905. At the same time the British Army
ing spring under tension. When the bolt was operated had come to much the same conclusions and in 1904
the spring forced the spindle round and delivered a it issued the first of the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield
cartridge into the boltway ready for loading. This (S.M.L.E.) models. This had a barrel 640mm (25.19in)
design was adopted by the Greek Army in 1903 and long instead of the 766mm (30.19in) of the preceding
has been widely used in sporting rifles. It is currently Lee-Enfield rifles, which was still longer than the
in use by the Austrian Army in their sniping rifle. usual 527mm (20.75in) of the cavalry’s Lee-Enfield
One last major step in magazine rifle design before carbines. The Germans followed suit in the following
the advent of the ‘automatic’ rifle came at the turn year by adopting the Mauser Karabiner Model 1898
of the century. For hundreds of years it had been or ‘Kar 98’, which was the standard Mauser army
customary to produce two types of shoulder arm rifle with the barrel shortened from 740mm (29.13in)
for soldiers - a long rifle for infantry, and a shorter to 600mm (23.6in).
carbine for use by cavalry, the latter because it was By the turn of the century, then, regular infantry
more convenient to carry on a horse. The changing soldiers were universally equipped with magazine
tactics of war in the late nineteenth century had, repeating rifles firing small-calibre, jacketed bullets
in many instances, turned cavalry into ‘mounted by means of smokeless powder. In 1800, the universal
infantry’, soldiers who rode to battle on their horses weapon had been a muzzle-loading smooth-bore of
but then dismounted and fought as infantry. In such about 12.7mm (0.5in) calibre, firing a lead bullet. A
cases their short rifles were at a disadvantage since highly-trained man could load and fire some five
they had neither the range nor the accuracy of the shots a minute, and an enemy more than 180m (200yd)
long rifles of their opponents. away was relatively safe. In 1900, by contrast, the
The US Army appears to have been the first to see trained man could get off 20 shots a minute and
the answer to this problem. In the 1890s, dissatisfied could hit a man-sized target at ranges of over 900m
with the Krag-Jorgensen, it began studying the (1,000yd). An infantry platoon or squad could lay
Mauser system and eventually designed a new rifle, down a barrage of fire which could paralyze an
based on the Mauser bolt action. This was the attacking force. During World War I, the rate of
Springfield, named after the armoury in Mas¬ fire achieved by well-trained British troops with
sachusetts where it was developed, and the first their SMLE rifles was so high that the enemy thought
experimental models of 1901 had a 760mm (30in) they were facing the most effective of all infantry
barrel; they were the traditional long rifles of the weapons - the automatic machine gun. 75
FAMOUS GUNS Lee-Enfield Rifles
The Lee-Enfield rifle erosion better and so the standing volleys, was not
was introduced in 1895, rifle got a new barrel and a well-suited to modern
following from the new name. warfare and firing from
adoption of cordite as the The first Lee-Enfield was scanty cover. So in 1903
smokeless propellant for a long rifle for infantry the distinction was swept
the British Army. Its use, having a 76.6cm away by the adoption of
predecessor, the Lee- (30.2in) barrel; it was the ‘Rifle, Short,
Metford rifle, used the supplemented in 1896 by a Magazine, Lee-Enfield’ or
Lee bolt and box cavalry carbine with a ‘SMLE’, with a 63.97cm
magazine allied to a barrel 52.7cm (20.75in) barrel. (25.18in) barrel. This rifle
rifled according to a But during the Boer War would henceforth be
design by William Metford. of1899-1902 this traditional common to all troops, long
The Enfield rifling, deeper division was questioned. enough to give the
and angularly cut, resisted Two distinct weapons led accuracy the infantry
to production and supply demanded but short
problems, and the long enough to be conveniently
rifle, a hangover from the carried by mounted units.
days of muskets and The SMLE ran into a

Rifle, Magazine, Lee-Enfield Mark 1

(introduced 11 November 1895)

Carbine, Cavalry, Magazine Lee-Enfield Mark 1

(introduced 1 7 August 1 896)

Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield (SMLE)

Converted Mark 2 (introduced 6 November 1 903)

Rifle Number4 Mark 1 * (introduced 1 5 June 1941)

Rifle Number 5 Mark 1 (introduced 23 May 1 945)

 Lee-Enfield Rifles FAMOUS GUNS

storm of criticism from cumbersome handling. The

various self-styled experts, outbreak of war in 1914
whose principal objection killed the ‘Pattern 13’ rifle
was that it was not a (though it was revived in
long-range target weapon. .303in calibre as a wartime
Shaken by this, the War production measure) and
Office began a new rifle also proved that the
design, based on the SMLE was, if not the best
Mauser bolt action and competition rifle, was
firing a high-velocity certainly the finest combat
276in cartridge. This was long-arm ever seen.
issued in some numbers for After the war, the only
extended trials in 1913 but criticism was that the
proved to be a failure. It SMLE was slow and
gave excessive blast and difficult to produce in the
recoil, over-heated badly, vast quantities needed
and the troops disliked its during wartime, and so it
poor balance and was slowly redesigned for
easier manufacture. The
result was ‘Rifle No. 4’ (the
system of nomenclature

having changed in the

1920s), formally introduced
in 1941. The most obvious
change was that the
SMLE’s characteristic
blunt nosecap had been
replaced by a naked length
of barrel, and the sword
bayonet replaced by a tiny
spiky article which did not
look like a real bayonet
at all.
For jungle warfare the
'Rifle No. 5’ was produced,
a shortened and lightened
version with a sporting
style of stock and a bell-
mouthed flash-hider on the
muzzle. Though of dashing
appearance, it was an
unpopular weapon due to
its excessive blast and
recoil.

SMLE Mk III
Calibre .303in
Length 113cm (44.5in)
Weight 3.91kg (8.621b)
Barrel 63.9cm (25.19in)
Rifling 5 grooves, 1/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight U-notch,
to 2,000yd (1,829m)
Far left A British Boer Above A Royal Marine Action Bolt
War sergeant with the Commando of 1944 with Rate of fire 15rpm
Lee-Enfield Mark 1 (seen a Lee-Enfield No.4 Mark 1* Feed system 10-round
removeable box
top left; below it is the (seen with 9in (228.6mm) magazine
contemporary cavalry bayonet, left). It was Muzzle velocity
670m/sec (2,200ft/sec)
carbine). The NCO would heavier (4.1kg) than the Bullet weight 13.9g
have carried 120 rounds SMLE (3.91kg) and had (215gr)
in his ammo pouches. the rearsight moved back.
 AUTOMATIC
MACHINE GUNS
 AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS/Hiram Maxim

safety catch toggle lock rearsight firing pin feed belt

spade handle grip

lock unit ejected case

trigger crank lever trigger lock ejector tube spring!

Previous page The Above The Maxim Gun lock to continue to recoil the chamber, knocking
Vickers Mk 1 MG on a mechanism is recoil- while the barrel stopped. the spent case out of the
Mk 4B tripod. The operated. The barrel and The face of the lock is a way as it descends. The
condenser tube takes lock recoil, locked together T-slot, into which the toggle, propelled by a
steam from the water-filled for a short distance. The next cartridge is fed from springt then thrusts the
barrel jacket into the toggle lock is then broken the belt. It is then forced lock back to chamber the
one-gallon (4.51) can. allowing (bottom right) the down into alignment with

A
new cartridge.

lthough mechanical machine guns had been decided that the recoil force could be harnessed to
adopted in many countries and were in general operate a machine gun and in 1884 he produced his
use by about 1875, they were not entirely first model - the first automatic machine gun. It
satisfactory. The principal reasons were that they was chambered for the British service .45 Martini-
were complicated, cumbersome, and, because they Henry cartridge and was vastly different from any
were manually operated (by the gunner tugging on machine gun which had been seen before.
the handle or crank), they were inaccurate, spraying The barrel was carried in bearings which allowed
rounds in a wide swath. But since there appeared to it to slide back on recoil. When the gun was fired, the
be no other convenient source of power to drive breech-block and barrel were securely locked to¬
them, they remained in service until the first decade gether by a top-mounted hook. As the barrel and
of the twentieth century. They would have survived breech-block recoiled, the hook was lifted and the
much longer but for one or two enquiring minds. barrel brought to a stop, the block being allowed to
Foremost among these was that of Hiram Maxim. continue the rearward movement which had been
Born in 1840 in America of French extraction, Maxim imparted to it by the recoiling barrel. Attached to
had been apprenticed to a coach-builder and then the rear of the block was a connecting rod which led
worked in a machine shop and a shipyard. With a to a crank and flywheel at the rear of the gun body.
highly inventive talent, he interested himself in the At the moment of firing the crank stood at about 30"
new science of electricity, and in 1881 he attended an above the axis of the gun, so that the rearward
Electrical Exhibition in Paris. There, so the story movement of the breech was able to drive it back¬
goes, he was approached by a friend who told him, wards and begin a rotary movement of the flywheel.
‘Hang your electricity! If you want to make your During the rearward movement the firing pin was
fortune, invent something that will allow these fool cocked and the feed mechanism operated, the empty
Europeans to kill each other quicker!’ Acting on case ejected from the gun, and the feed belt pulled
this advice, Maxim went to London and set himself up to bring another cartridge into position. (By
up in a small workshop, and between 1882 and 1885 using a canvas belt of cartridges, fed in from right
he analyzed current firearms. to left, Maxim got around the limitations of the
Maxim quickly appreciated the fact that the hopper or box system which relied on gravity to
firing of a gun released a large quantity of energy, feed a weapon with cartridges.) As the crank passed
only a small proportion of which was devoted to the dead-centre position, so the movement of the
driving the bullet - the rest was dissipated as heat, connecting rod was reversed and it began to drive
80 gas or recoil force, and went to waste. He eventually the breech-block forwards again, chambering a
 Maxim Toggle/AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS

water jacket foresight

barrel barrel return spring

lock unit lock unit

fresh cartridge. The hook dropped over the breech¬ special training. A soldier in the field could then
block, locking it to the barrel, and the barrel and keep the gun firing in spite of minor mishaps.
block were pushed forwards once more into the In 1885 Maxim introduced his new design, a design
firing position. At this point the crank was now 30° which was so well thought-out that it never needed
below the axis of the gun and the firing pin was modification and which was to serve unchanged in
released to fire the chambered round. The action some armies until World War II. He kept the recoil-
was then repeated, with the difference that the operated system, but completely abandoned the
crank now rotated in the opposite direction, taking crank and connecting rod of the original model and
the connecting-rod from bottom to top, as it were. introduced the ‘toggle joint’ instead. The barrel
Maxim elected to choose this to-and-fro oscillation was extended into the body of the gun by a ‘barrel
of the crank rather than simply allow it to revolve extension’ - two sideplates inside which the breech¬
(which could have worked the gun just as well) block could slide. At the end of the barrel extension
since he was afraid that the repeated impulses on a was a cross-shaft attached to the toggle unit.
rotating unit would have built up speed until the The action of the toggle joint is best compared to
gun ‘ran away’. that of the human leg. Both leg and toggle unit
Maxim demonstrated the ‘Maxim Automatic Gun’ consist of two solid struts - the shin and the thigh -
to the press and military and stimulated a great connected by a one-way hinging joint - the knee.
deal of interest. Typical of the reaction is this Imagine the leg as the toggle in the Maxim gun; the
contemporary newspaper report: ‘No one can fail to hip is the connection to the cross-shaft at the rear
be struck by the wonderful ingenuity and great capa¬ of the barrel extension, while the sole of the foot
bilities of the weapon; it inaugurates a new departure is the breech-block. If the toggle - or leg - is extended
in machine guns and opens up a new field of automatic in a straight line, any pressure on the foot - such as
action for other guns, which is being energetically the firing of the cartridge - will pass straight up the
worked by the inventor ...’ leg and be resisted by the anchorage of the hip bone
In fact, Maxim, not entirely satisfied, was ‘ener¬ to the barrel extension. But if someone were to tap
getically working’ at a redesign. One of the senior the underside of the knee joint, the resistance would
military officers who had inspected his gun had be broken, the knee would fold up, and the foot - or
taken the trouble to point out to Maxim that it breech-block - would move away from the barrel.
would stand a far better chance of being accepted if In the Maxim gun the toggle joint broke down¬
it were made so that the essential parts could be wards. As the whole unit - barrel, barrel extension,
stripped and replaced without tools and without breech-block and toggle joint - recoiled to the rear, 81
 FAMOUS GUNS

‘Whatever happens, we have got remained in service with virtually indestructable.

The Maxim Gun, and they have not’ the Soviet Army until 1945 The Maxim generated
and with the Chinese two variant models, one of
saida jingoistic Victorian to become the standard Communist Army until which attained equal
poet, at a time when MG of almost every major 1952, and there are fame. This was the Vickers
‘Maxim1 meant machine army. Its first recorded doubtless several thousand Gun developed by Albert
gun and machine gun use in combat was in 1888; of them still in working Vickers in England after
meant Maxim. Maxim's one could not say that its order waiting to be called Maxim's original patents
recoil-operated gun swept last use has yet taken on. Short of a direct hit had expired. In this gun
the world as no other gun place. from a high explosive the Maxim toggle lock was
has done before or since, The Maxim certainly shell, Maxim guns are inverted so as to break

82
 Maxim FAMOUS GUNS
upwards, which simplified 1912 to 1967. Air cooling was feasible army guns provided short
the mechanism*s The other derivative was since the Parabellum was bursts were fired.
assembly. The whole gun the German Parabellum designed as an airborne Reversing this process, the
was redesigned to a MG also developed in gun; Zeppelins first, Vickers had its water
slightly less safe standard 1912. Its toggle was also aircraft later. It jacket emptied and
and made of different reversed, the feed system eventually became the perforated by ventilating
materials to reduce weight improved, and a standard fighter armament louvres for air force use.
from 27.2kg (60lb) to 18.1kg perforated jacket fitted in World War I. A number The standard German
(40lb). The Vickers was for air cooling instead of were adapted as ground Maxim was the Model ‘08'.
the British Army's the familiar water jacket MGs and showed that air and this was converted in
standard medium MG from of the Maxim and Vickers. cooling would work with 1915. Removed from its
tripod, a wooden butt and
pistol grip and a simple
bipod were fitted to create
a Tight' MG, the 08115.
This, too, opened military
eyes to the value of an MG
capable of being carried by
one man among the
advancing infantry,
leading eventually to the
whole light machine gun
concept. Maxim wrought
better than he knew.
Sir Hiram Maxim
(1840-1916) is shown
demonstrating his gun.

VICKERS-MAXIM
Calibre .303in
Length 107.9cm (42.5in)
Weight 27.2kg (601b)
Barrel 67.3cm (26.5in)

MG08
Calibre 7.92mm (.312in)
Length 117.5cm (46.25in)
Weight 18.37kg (40.51b)
Barrel 71.8cm (28.25in)
VICKERS Mk I
Calibre .303in
Length 109.2cm (43in)
Weight 14.97kg (331b)
Barrel 72.2cm (28.72in)
-common to all three:
Rifling 4 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight (Vickers-
Maxim) U-notchto
2,900yd (2,652m),
(MG08) to 3,000m
(3,280yd)
(Vickers Mk 1) to
3,800yd (3,475m)
Action Recoil
Rate of fire (Vickers-
Maxim) 550rpm
(MG08) 450rpm
(Vickers Mk 1) 500rpm
Feed system 250-round
fabric belt
Muzzle velocity
(Vickers-Maxim and
Vickers Mk 1) 744m/sec
(2,440ft/sec),
(MG08) 892m/sec
(2,925ft/sec)
Bullet weight (Vickers-
Maxim) 11.25g (174gr),
(MG08) 11.52g(178gr),
(Vickers Mkl)11.27g
(174gr)
 AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS/Maxim in Action

the breech and barrel were securely locked together. being used in actual combat is on November 21,1888
After about 13mm (0.5in) of movement a crank during a punitive expedition in The Gambia on the
handle on the end of the cross-shaft struck a fixed west coast of Africa, when a small British force
roller and this gave the toggle a downward impulse under General Sir Francis de Winton took a Maxim
which broke the joint and allowed the breech-block gun and used it against a native fort.
to move back while the barrel stopped. At the same Maxim, as good a salesman as he was an engineer,
time the rotation of the cross-shaft wound up a now toured Europe demonstrating his gun to every
spiral spring. When the toggle came to a halt, this military authority he could find. Reactions were
spring reversed the movement and drove the breech¬ mixed; some countries appreciated what was hap¬
block forwards again to chamber a fresh round and pening and signed orders, while others were incredu¬
lift the toggle until once more it became a solid lous. The Russian officers refused to believe that
strut. The whole assembly then ran forwards into anyone could manipulate the small crank on the
the firing position again. During all this, of course, side of the Maxim gun 600 times a minute and were
a bell-crank actuated by the movement of the astonished when Maxim demonstrated what an
barrel extension drove a set of pawls which lifted automatic machine gun could do. The King of Den¬
the ammunition belt and brought a fresh cartridge mark is reputed to have asked him how much each
into place. round of ammunition cost. On being told, he replied
The heat generated by firing the Maxim gun at its that a single Maxim gun would bankrupt his King¬
normal rate of 600 shots a minute was considerable. dom in six hours. But by the turn of the century the
Maxim placed the barrel inside a water jacket so Maxim was firmly established as the premier
that the barrel heat passed to the water; but even so, machine gun. Indeed, ‘Maxim Gun’ was synonymous
after one minute of steady firing the water would with ‘machine gun’ to most people.
begin to boil. However, since continuous firing was Nevertheless, there were still plenty of inventors
not a general pastime - the demands of ammunition willing to bet that they could produce something
replenishment saw to that - this was no drawback, either just as good or better, and a number of count¬
and the cooling effect of the water kept down the ries refused the Maxim gun, preferring to adopt a
rate of wear of the barrel. gun of their own design and manufacture. One of
Maxim entered into partnership with an English¬ the first local designs appreared in Austria. In spite
man, one Albert Vickers, who had a factory at of being impressed with the Maxim gun, the Austrians
Crayford, in Kent, and they formed the Maxim Gun bought only a few, and in 1888 the Archduke Karl
Company in 1884. Precisely which army was the Salvator and Lieutenant Ritter von Dormus patent¬
first to purchase Maxim guns for service is not ed a design which relied on a new principle, that of
clear. The British Army bought three in 1887 for ‘delayed blowback’.
extended trials, but the official date of introduction If the breech-block of a gun is not locked to the
84 is February 4,1889. However, the first record of them barrel in any way, then when the cartridge is fired,
 Delayed Blowback/AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS
Left A British .303in
Vickers-Maxim MG team
in a stone laager during
the Boer War (1899-1902).
The British Army adopted
the Maxim in 1889. The
introduction in 1891 of
smokeless cordite
cartridges improved the
Maxim's recoil power and
chances of concealment.
Nevertheless it performed
badly against elusive Boer
marksmen in South Africa.
Note the painted brass
water jacket and tall
sights.

Right A French Hotchkiss

MG mounted in the nose of
a Henri Farman biplane,
1914. This weapon is a
Model 1909 with belt
magazine for aerial use.
The Henri Farman was
also the first aircraft to
take the Lewis Gun aloft.

the explosion of the charge, as well as driving the Maxim but were in difficulties because Maxim had
bullet up the barrel, will also force the cartridge secured patents on every possible method of recoil
back out of the chamber and push the breech-block operation. In 1893 an Austrian, Captain Adolf von
to the rear. The rate at which the block moves is, Odkolek, offered a design of machine gun to Benet.
of course, in proportion to the relative masses of Benet saw that there were some good features in
the bullet and the block. The bullet moves up the the idea, and he could also see that it was going to
barrel very rapidly, since it is light in weight, while need some work in order to make it practical. So he
the block moves slowly since it is much heavier. As bought the patent and design from von Odkolek.
we shall see, this principle received wide application In von Odkolek’s design, below the barrel of the
in pistols and small weapons in later years, but in gun there was a cylinder in which ran a piston. A
1888 it was an entirely new idea. It was, however, a small port, or vent, connected the gun barrel with
little too simple for use in a machine gun firing a the end of the cylinder, so that when the bullet
sizeable rifle cartridge, and it was necessary to passed up the barrel, some of the expanding gas
‘delay’ the opening of the breech-block by placing a behind it was diverted through the port and into the
heavy pivoting block behind it to add to the mass. cylinder to drive the piston to the rear. An operating
This, due to its inertia, held the block closed just rod attached to the piston unlocked the bolt by
long enough for the bullet to leave the barrel and withdrawing a lug from the gun body and then thrust
the gas pressure inside the bore to drop to a safe the bolt to the rear, extracting the empty case and
level before the breech began to open and the cart¬ compressing a spring. At the end of the stroke the
ridge case was ejected. spring expanded and pushed the bolt back, picking
Being a simple design, the Salvator-Dormus gun up a fresh round and chambering it, and as the
was quite reliable, but the lack of a really positive piston went forwards so it forced the locking lug
breech lock meant that only relatively weak cart¬ back into engagement with the gun body to securely
ridges could be used. Nevertheless, the Austrians lock the breech.
adopted it as their Model 1893 for fortress defences Ammunition was fed from a light metal strip
and then a later model for use with field armies. It into which 20 cartridges were clipped. The clip was
was manufactured by the Skoda company of Pilsen fed into the gun from the left side and the rounds
(then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and was were stripped from it; at each stroke of the piston
always known as the Skoda machine gun. Salvator the strip was indexed across to present another
and von Dormus never received much credit for it. round, and after the last round had been loaded the
Another country waiting for the appearance of empty strip was ejected from the right side. By
local talent was France, where the Hotchkiss com¬ hooking a fresh strip into the end of one already
pany was now under the direction of another Ameri¬ feeding, it was possible to keep up a continuous fire.
can, Lawrence V. Benet. Hotchkiss were looking for The first prototypes of the Hotchkiss overheated
a machine gun with which to compete against badly, but Benet designed a barrel with heavy fins 85
AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS/Hotchkiss
which acted as a radiator to dissipate the heat. The had with the Hotchkiss, it was sold widely through¬
gun was adopted by the French Army in 1897 and out the world. One customer was the Japanese Army,
proved to be moderately reliable, though still as a result of which the Hotchkiss faced the Maxim
suffering from overheating. The French Army then in the first major machine-gun war. In the Russo-
decided to redesign the gun itself, without reference Japanese War of 1904-5, the Russians had Gorloff-
to the Hotchkiss company, and set out on a disas¬ Gatlings in their fixed defences and Maxim guns with
trous journey. The first attempt was the ‘Puteaux’ of their field armies, while the Japanese deployed
1905, which was little more than the Hotchkiss with their Hotchkiss guns. This, the first conflict between
a lot more fins on the barrel and a complicated two first-class armies equipped with machine-guns,
device to vary the rate of fire. Not a particularly was monitored with interest by every other army in
efficient machine gun, it was relegated to use in the world, all eager to find out just how effective the
fortresses. new weapons were.
The next attempt was the ‘St. Etienne’ of 1907, The Russians got in the first blow when eight of
which is best described as a Hotchkiss with every¬ their guns at the Battle of the Yalu River beat off
thing changed for the sake of changing it. It used several Japanese attacks, dealing out terrible
the same gas piston but blew it forwards instead of casualties among the attackers. The Japanese, in
backwards, so that a rack and pinion mechanism their turn, demonstrated great skill in using the
had to be interposed in order to convert the forward Hotchkiss guns, taking them well forward in the
movement of the piston into a rearward movement attack to give supporting fire to the assault and also
of the operating rod. The Hotchkiss bolt was dis¬ firing them over the heads of their own infantry
carded and an odd device resembling a Maxim toggle during an attack to keep the defenders’ heads down.
was put in. The return spring was removed from the The Russian cavalry were using another machine
gun body and placed under the barrel where it gun, the Danish Madsen - the first gun which could
rapidly heated up and lost its resilience. And the gas be called, by modern standards, a light machine gun.
cylinder was fitted with an adjustable valve so that The definition of a light machine gun does not
the amount of gas could be regulated to alter the depend solely on weight; it revolves round the
rate of fire. All in all, it was a mechanical disaster. tactical use of the weapon as well. The early machine
Its worst features were emphasized in the early guns, such as the Vickers and Maxim, were intended
weeks of World War I. The French Army eventually for use either on tripods or on wheeled carriages,
off-loaded them on to the Foreign Legion and went and were brought into position before the battle
back to the Hotchkiss which, for all its little opened so that they could give covering fire to the
pecadilloes, was a far better weapon than the infantry. Once the battle became fluid, the machine
St. Etienne. guns frequently fell silent since the movements of
In spite of the troubles the French Army may have their own forces impeded their fire, and it took time

Above This 1936- (indirect fire) rearsight.

manufactured Vickers The ammunition belt can
Mk 1 has a camouflage be seen just emerging from
barrel cover and a dial from the feed mechanism.
 Madsen/AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS
to select new positions and move the guns. The light recoil spring compressed. When the recoil movement
machine gun, on the other hand, was readily portable stopped, the spring forced block and barrel for¬
by one or, at most, two men. It accompanied the wards and the stud in the switch plate rapidly
infantry whenever they moved and provided fire dropped the face of the breech-block below the
support for the infantry squad or platoon at the chamber. A separate rammer then moved forwards
most basic tactical level. It was this sort of handling and rammed a cartridge from the overhead magazine
which the Japanese pioneered with their Hotchkiss into the chamber. The rammer retracted and finally
guns and the Russians with their Madsens. the pin in the switch plate moved the breech-block
The Madsen gun was designed by a Dane named up to take up its position behind the base of the
Schouboe and adopted by the Danish cavalry in cartridge, ready to fire. The hammer descended,
about 1902. It took its name from the Danish Minister struck the firing pin in the breech-block, and the
of War who was responsible for introducing what cycle began once more.
has proved to be one of the most remarkable machine Theorists never tire of pointing out that the
guns ever made. The Madsen was in production, Madsen gun should not work, just as it was once
practically unchanged, for over 50 years; though said that the bumble-bee should not fly. For one
rarely adopted by any major power, it was used by thing, the path of the cartridge as it enters the
34 countries at one time or another; and yet it was chamber is curved while the cartridge itself is, of
one of the most complicated mechanisms ever to course, straight. In spite of this, though, the Madsen
achieve success. works well, gives little trouble, and, as already
The mechanism was recoil-operated and is best mentioned, was to stay in production for over 50
thought of as a Martini or Peabody rising breech¬ years without modification. It also deserves credit
block adapted to automatic action. The barrel and for being the first machine gun to incorporate a
breech-block recoiled together on firing, and the wooden butt-stock and bipod so that it could be
action of the breech block was controlled by a fired from the prone position by one man; the first
‘switch plate’ let into the side of the gun body. This to use a perforated jacket to allow heat to escape;
plate was cut in a complex pattern of grooves, with and the first to use a top-mounted removable box
a pin, attached to the front of the breech-block, magazine, all features which were to be widely
riding in the grooves. On recoil, the pin, riding in copied in later years.
the switch plate grooves, was moved so as to lift the One last turn-of-the-century machine gun design
face of the breech-block and expose the base of the which deserves mention was the Schwarzlose. The
spent cartridge in the chamber. A separate extractor, Austrian Army were not very happy with their
driven by a cam on the barrel, then extracted and delayed blowback Skoda, but the simplicity of the
ejected the case. As the barrel and block completed design had its advantages. So when another blow-
their recoil stroke, a hammer was cocked and a back design appeared, they took it more seriously

Above A 7.92mm M1949 magazine takes 30 rounds

Madsen LMG with the and the gun weighs 10kg
anchor cypher of the (22lb). Its rate offire is
Siamese (Thai) Navy. The 400 rounds per minute. 87
AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS/Schwarzlose
than might another country and eventually adopted the chamber. The grip of the case in the chamber is
it as their standard gun. The Schwarzlose was a greatest at the front end, since here the case metal is
heavy weapon which relied simply on a massive thinner and the chamber, due to the constant firing,
breech-block, a strong spring behind it, and a toggle is usually roughened. As a result, the front end of
joint to slow down the speed at which the breech¬ the case resists the extracting movement; the rear
block opened. This toggle was unlike the Maxim end, being less tightly pressed outwards, tries to go
version. When the breech was closed the toggle was back under the combined action of the internal gas
not straight, but broken and almost folded back on pressure and the grip of the extractor on the breech¬
itself. As the block moved back so it straightened block. The net result is frequently that the brass
out the toggle, but due to the interplay of leverage gives up the struggle and splits, half the case being
this ‘straightening out’ action slightly delayed the extracted and the neck end being left inside the
opening of the block. The Schwarzlose toggle never chamber. The gun then jams when the mechanism
reached the fully opened and locked position, since tries to feed in the next round. Schwarzlose’s solu¬
the recoil stroke stopped before it got that far, tion was to fit a small oil reservoir inside the gun
allowing the toggle to be re-folded on the closing body which fed a pump operated by the gun mechan¬
stroke. ism. As each round was presented to the breech, the
Schwarzlose was a brilliant weapons designer, and pump sprayed a small quantity of oil on to the case,
his machine gun was a sound and simple weapon. lubricating it so that it would not stick to the cham¬
But he discovered, as have many inventors since, ber and extraction would be clean.
that the apparent simplicity of the blowback systerri The same problem confronted an Italian inventor,
carries an inherent disadvantage. When the cart¬ Giovanni Agnelli, who developed a simple blowback
ridge is fired, the rise of pressure inside the cartridge gun in about 1912. But instead of adding the com¬
case acts equally in all directions - forwards to push plication of an oil pump, Angelli cut very fine flutes
the bullet out, backwards to push the breech-block in the length of the chamber. When the cartridge
back, and also sideways to stick the case firmly into was fired, a proportion of gas leaked past the cart-

RECOIL bolt lock unlocking device bolt spring RETARDED

BLOWBACK
barrel spring
toggle

barrel

bolt

bolt spring compressed

toggle bent breechlock

spent case being extracted bolt latched

fresh cartridge

spent cartridge
latch lugs engaged bolt unlatched
 Recoil, Gas or Blowback?/AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUNS
ridge case neck via these tiny grooves and, in effect, guns. It was reported that ‘/our 2-gallon (9-litre) tins
‘floated’ the case on a layer of high-pressure gas, so of water, the company's water-bottles and all the urine
preventing the case from sticking and allowing easy tubs from the neighbourhood were emptied into the
extraction to take place without the need to lub¬ guns for cooling purposes', and about 100 barrels were
ricate. His machine gun was never very successful, used up. At the end of the action, the guns were firing
but the fluted chamber was a brilliant solution which as well as they had been at the start.
has been widely used in recent years. Gas operation is satisfactory for short bursts of
It will have been seen that there are, for all practi¬ fire, which is why gas-operated weapons usually
cal purposes, only three ways of making an auto¬ appear as light machine guns. Their problem is the
matic machine gun work - recoil, gas pressure, or build-up of fouling from the powder which gradually
the blowback of the spent case. And before World chokes the gas port and slows down the action.
War I, all three systems had been tried, perfected Delayed blowback guns are not really satisfactory
and adopted. Each system had its advocates, and at all, though the people who use them usually
still has, and the reasons for adhering to any one manage to convince themselves that they have a
system are as much a matter of personal preference good weapon. The delayed blowback system’s chief
by the designer as anything else. problem lies in the vexed question of voilent ex¬
By and large, the recoil-operated system stands traction. To obtain satisfactory performance usually
up to sustained firing the best. Its resilience was means producing ammunition with cartridge cases
dramatically tested during the famous action of specially hardened to resist the still-high internal
the British 100th Machine Gun Company on the gas pressure as the extraction movement begins.
Somme in 1916. There, 10 Vickers guns were given For example, the current French machine gun, the
the task of denying a piece of ground to the Germans AAT-52, is perfectly satisfactory with French
for 12 hours, the range being about 1,800m (2,000yd). cartridges, but cartridges manufactured in other
In the course of the subsequent 12 hours, just 250 countries, to a slightly different specification, show
rounds less than one million were fired by the 10 evidences of bulging at the base after extraction.

cartridge firing pin bolt locking lugs

GAS
i

gas port

gas piston gas operating rod

breech-block mainspring

empty case bolt unlocked breech-block open

toggle

The three types of is allowed to return. (4) As moment of firing. (2) As locked to the breech by
automatic MG the barrel reaches the recoil begins the toggle is lugs engaging in recesses
mechanisms. forward position, it bent by the rearward in the gun body. (2) As
releases the block which moving breech-block. the piston is pushed back
Far left The recoil then runs forwards, (3) The spent cartridge is by gas from the barrel,
mechanism. (1) The instant chambering a fresh ejected before the toggle is a toggle pulls the block
of firing. (2) At full recoil, cartridge. fully straight. down to unlock it before
both barrel and breech withdrawing it from the
block remained locked Left The 1902 Schwarzlose Above A gas-operated breech so as to extract the
together. (3) The block is MG retarded blowback tilting block mechanism. empty case and begin the
held back while the barrel toggle action. (1) At the (1) The breech-block is feeding cycle once again. 89
AUTOMATIC PISTOLS
 M
AUTOMATIC PISTOLS/Paulson and Schonberger
axim’s successful application of automatic
principles to the machine gun aroused many
modified, which was the first automatic pistol to be
placed on sale.
inventors. Some of them concentrated on The Schonberger automatic pistol began life as
machine guns, but a few began to wonder whether the Laumann mechanical repeater, worked by the
or not similar self-actuating principles could be usual finger-ring lever driving a reciprocating bolt
applied to handguns. Several people had tried to do back and forth. Laumann had a few pistols made by
this in the past, but they usually foundered on the the Austrian Arms Factory at Steyr, and Anton
poor quality of available ammunition-paper cart¬ Schonberger, the factory superintendent, began to
ridges, black powder and soft lead bullets. modify the design, eventually producing an auto¬
Noteworthy among early attempts at an ‘auto¬ matic weapon. It was a remarkable design, since
matic’ pistol was that of Richard Paulson, an Eng¬ Schonberger used a principle which has been fre¬
lishman, who in 1886 took out a patent for a gas- quently suggested but rarely used. He relied on the
operated revolver of extreme simplicity. A gas gas pressure in the cartridge to push the precussion
cylinder below the barrel carried a simple piston primer out of the case by a very slight amount. This
which extended back to butt against the lower face rearward movement - called ‘primer set-back’ - was
of the hammer. The revolver was a solid-frame detected and amplified by an arrangement of levers
weapon with a single-action lock, and after firing and used to unlock the bolt, after which the blow-
the first shot by thumb-cocking the hammer and back action of the cartridge case performed the
pulling the trigger, subsequent shots were prepared opening movement and a return spring then closed
by the piston being pushed back by gas pressure the action. A clip-loaded magazine, similar to that
and thus cocking the hammer. Since the hammer on the Mannlicher rifle, was positioned in front of
carried the pawl, this also rotated the cylinder to the trigger and held five rounds of a special 8mm
the next chamber, so that all the firer had to do was cartridge. Unfortunately, no specimen of this car¬
pull the trigger again. tridge has been seen for some 70 years or more and
Unfortunately, no specimen of Paulson’s gas- no record exists of its dimensions or construction.
operated revolver exists, though he must have made It seems certain, however, that it incorporated an
at least one in order to prove that his idea worked. especially deep primer pocket and cap designed to
Again, the fouling generated by black powder would make the unusual action function.
probably have brought the pistol to a halt after very Cleverness, unfortunately, does not sell pistols.
few rounds had been fired, but it was a sound and The Schonberger did not do well commercially, and
simple idea. this may well have been due to ammunition pro¬
Paulson had appreciated one significant point - blems. The Schonberger was more dependent on
that the mechanism has to include an ‘interruptor’ ammunition than most designs, and in the early
which disconnects the trigger after each shot. 1890s the quality of small-calibre ammunition tended
Otherwise the hammer would fall immediately and to vary from batch to batch.
the gun would continue to fire until it was empty. The Schonberger appeared on the market in 1892.
The disconnector places the trigger out of action so In 1893 there came a weapon which was the fore¬
long as it is being held pressed. The firer must runner of a legend. This was the Borchardt, general¬
consciously release the trigger for the disconnector ly admitted to be the first automatic pistol to be a
to reconnect it with the firing mechanism before any success. Many stories are told of the Borchardt,
further shots can be fired. the commonest being that Hugo Borchardt was an
It is the disconnector which turns an automatic American who hawked his design around American
weapon into a ‘self-loading’ one. An automatic is manufacturers without success, finally coming to
defined strictly as a weapon which continues to fire Europe to sell it to the Berlin company of Ludwig
so long as it is fed with ammunition and the trigger Lowe. There is, though, no truth in this tale. Bor¬
is held down. Pistols built in this way have existed, chardt was a German who, like many of his con¬
but they are impractical weapons. So-called auto¬ temporaries, emigrated to America in the 1860s,
matic pistols have an interruptor which, technically, and he became a naturalized American citizen in
transforms them into semi-automatics or self¬ 1875. He worked for a short time for the Winchester
loaders. Nevertheless, definition or no, the word company, designing revolvers, an area in which
‘automatic’ has stuck to pistols which are self¬ Winchester took a brief interest. None of his designs
loaders, and we have continued to use it in this were accepted for production and, disillusioned,
sense in these pages simply because it is common Borchardt returned to Europe in about 1882 to take
usage. up employment in the Royal Hungarian Arms
The automatic pistol had to wait until smokeless Factory at Budapest. There he saw the Maxim mac¬
powder and the jacketed bullet appeared on the hine gun at a demonstration, and he began to con¬
scene, promising freedom from fouling and a car¬ sider the application of Maxim’s toggle lock to a
tridge robust enough to stand the shaking and pistol. Finding no enthusiasm in Austria he went
violent handling which occurs during automatic back to Germany and offered his design to Ludwig
feeding in a pistol. The period which saw the intro¬ Lowe. Lowe saw there was promise in the idea,
duction of the new ammunition was also the period employed him and gave him the facilities he needed
which saw the appearance of the mechanical repeat¬ to perfect his pistol.
92 ing pistols, and it was one of these designs, slightly Borchardt used the toggle to lock the breech in a
 Borchardt and Luger/AUTOMATIC PISTOLS

Previous page Webley

.455 Mk 1 Automatic
Pistol (1913) with stock
and holster.

Above The mechanism of

the Borchardt, having
fired.

Far right At an overall

length of356mm (Min)
the Borchardt is longer
than any modern pistol.

similar manner to Maxim, but had it break upwards patents for the new pistol in 1900. Putting it simply,
instead of down. He also pioneered the use of a Luger had retained the toggle lock of the original
detachable box magazine in the pistol butt, based on Borchardt, but had cleaned up the design by using
the Lee magazine and copied widely thereafter. an improved return spring and had reduced the
Probably the most important feature, however, dimensions of the pistol to produce a far more handy
was the ammunition, a rimless 7.65mm round which weapon. He developed a new cartridge in 7.65mm
Borchardt himself stated to be vital to the success calibre, shorter and rather less powerful than the
of the weapon, claiming that he could make no Borchardt, and also changed the angle of the grip
progress until he had perfected the cartridge. so that the pistol lay more comfortably in the hand
The Borchardt also introduced another feature and assumed a more natural and instinctive ‘point’
which was to become commonplace on automatic when it was held.
pistols for some years. He supplied the weapon The Luger pistol - known more properly as the
complete with a wooden butt-stock which could be Parabellum-Pistole - was adopted by the Swiss Army
clamped securely to the rear end of the pistol and in May 1900. Patents were taken out in other coun¬
thus converted it into a species of small carbine. tries. The application in the United States ran into
It is believed that about 3,000 Borchardt pistols opposition in the form of a lawsuit by John M.
were made between 1893 and 1896. Although the Browning and the Colt company on the grounds that
Borchardt worked, it was nevertheless a large and Luger was infringing a Colt patent of 1897 (for a
cumbersome weapon, and one critic called it ‘awk¬ locked-breech recoil-operated pistol). In strict fact,
ward, clumsy and with a frail and easily dislocated the objection seemed to be no more than an assertion
mechanism, well-made as far as the limitations of its that the manufacture of any automatic pistol by
design allow . .But Borchardt appeared to be anyone other than Colt and Browning was an affront,
satisfied with it, and, apart from patenting some and the claim was thrown out. Luger obtained his
very small improvements to the design (which were American patent in 1904.
never incorporated in the production models), he After acceptance by Switzerland Luger attempted
passed on to other things. to interest the German Army in the pistol. The
It was left to another employee of the Lowe Army, however, was not impressed with the 7.65mm
company - one Georg Luger - to design an improved bullet, since it did not have the ‘stopping’ or ‘knock¬
pistol, something rather less cumbersome and more down’ power of the Army’s contemporary 10.6mm
reliable. It seems likely that Borchardt co-operated revolver. Luger therefore took the 7.65mm cartridge,
to some extent, but the facts are far from clear. opened out the mouth to accept a 9mm bullet, and
Certainly, it was Luger who eventually took out rebarrelled the pistol in 9mm calibre. Strangely 93
FAMOUS GUNS Luger Parabellum P08

Shown here is the graduated to 800m

Artillery Model P'08, (885yd). This one has the
probably first issued in shoulder stock for carbine
1917 to German gunners. use under the holster and
It differed from the basic a 32-round snail
model only in its long magazine which the
190mm (7.5in) barrel and contemporary Bergmann
tangent leaf rearsight SMG also used.
 Luger Parabellum P08 FAMOUS GUNS

The Parabellum Pistole formed part of the backing In strict truth the
*08 was the service pistol of the leather holster. In Parabellum is not a good
of the German Army from fact few P*08s ever had the combat pistol. The toggle
1908 until its replacement stock provided. It was action is too dependent on
by the Pistole *38 during manufactured by various uniform ammunition
World War II. factories, the maker and quality and performance;
The Parabellum is date of manufacture will too weak or too powerful a
descended from the 1894 be found marked on top of cartridge will cause
Borchardt; this used the the toggle and over the malfunctions. Too much
unique toggle lock to hold chamber. of the gun is exposed to
the breech closed during As well as being used by grit and dust. The complex
firing, and this design was the German Army, many trigger mechanism leads
subsequently modified by other forces adopted the to *creepy * trigger pull.
Borchardt and Georg P*08 pattern, the last being And the 9mm Parabellum
Luger to become the the Portuguese Army in cartridge lacks knock¬
Parabellum pistol. 1943. Such was the demand down power. Nevertheless
Although this weapon is from collectors and the design remains
called the Luger, in strict shooters that Mauser immortal with an ‘eye
fact the name Luger is a resumed Parabellum appeal* and mystique few
specific trade name in the production in 1970, making guns can match.
US and refers only to replicas of the Swiss
Parabellums so marked Army*s 1929 model in LUGER P08
and sold by an astute 7.65mm calibre, and the Calibre 9mm
Length 222mm (8.75in)
dealer prior to 1939 and to 1908 German model. The Weight 0.875kg (1.931b)
a .22 pistol, made in the latter differs from the *08 Barrel 102mm (4.0in)
US, which resembles the Rifling 6 grooves, r/hand
model in having a safety Foresight Blade
Parabellum. grip let into the rear of the Rearsight Fixed
The P*08 was in 9mm butt and not having a V-notch
Action Recoil
calibre with a 102mm butt-stock attachment Rate of fire 30 rpm
(4in) barrel and an (since this is disliked by Feed system 8-round
eight-round magazine, the various licensing box magazine
Muzzle velocity
and had a lug at the rear authorities). Some 50,000 350m/sec (l,150ft/sec)
of the butt for attaching a of these Parabellums have Bullet weight 7.44g
wooden stock which been made so far. (115gr)
AUTOMATIC PISTOLS/Mauser
enough, he seems to have offered this first, in 1902,
to the British Army, who turned it down. The
German Army, though, was more impressed and
gave the pistol a comprehensive test. In fact, the
German Navy was the first to adopt the Luger pistol,
in 1905, followed by the Army in 1908, both models
being in 9mm calibre.
Luger and the Lowe company - which was now
known as the Deutsche Waffen and Munitionsfabrik -
had achieved the target of all pistol makers. They
had landed a fat military contract and, to make it
better, were also providing the ammunition. But,
before they reached that point, there were a number the market and spurred Luger to improve his design.
of other designers who had their eyes on the same The Mauser pistol was of original design. It used a
goal. reciprocating bolt of square section moving inside
Among them was Paul Mauser. Until now he had a hollow barrel extension. A plate beneath the bolt
not paid much attention to the pistol market, was cammed up and down to lock bolt and barrel
having enough to do to supply half the world with together for firing and to unlock it to allow recoil to
his splendid rifles. He had made a handful of repeat¬ actuate the bolt. The bolt carried a floating firing
ing pistols, and had produced his rather unusual pin, struck by an external hammer which was
revolver - the ‘Zig-Zag’ - in limited numbers, but automatically cocked as the bolt recoiled. The maga¬
in the early 1890s he saw the possibility of military zine was a fixed box ahead of the trigger into which
adoption of a sound automatic pistol and set out 10 rounds could be loaded through the top of the
to produce one. As it happened, two of his employees action from a charger.
had been working on a design in desultory fashion, Like the Borchardt, the Mauser was provided
and he now encouraged them to perfect it, for the with a wooden butt-stock, in the form of a hollow
company’s further glory. In 1895 the result was wooden holster which, after the gun had been with¬
introduced, and it won almost immediate success, drawn, could be clipped to the pistol butt. The
being reliable, accurate and beautifully made. It connection was less rigid than that of the Borchardt,
was the appearance of the Mauser Model 1896 which, but it was sound enough to allow long-range firing,

barrel

firing pin and spring

rW

toggle anchor pin

sear cover plate

magazine

coiled mainspring
 Luger Action/AUTOMATIC PISTOLS
centre toggle joint
9mm Parabellum extractor firing pin spring forward toggle joint rear toggle joint r— rearsight
cartridge-

Above The Luger ready in fact linked by a cranked

for firing, its firing pin arm out of the plane of
cocked. The extractor, this drawing.
forced up by the chambered
cartridge, also indicates Left The Luger"s toggle
that the gun is loaded. action from before firing
The bellcrank links the to full recoil. The spent
mainspring to the toggle case is then ejected and
which is halted in its the firing pin re-cocked.
recoil by the stop face.
Trigger and firing pin are Far left Dismantled P'08. 97
 FAMOUS GUNS Mauser Military

98
 Mauser Military FAMOUS GUNS

The Mauser Military extension is the square- ejecting the spent cartridge chambered for the 9mm
Pistol was developed from section bolt with return case. On the return stroke Parabellum cartridge.
a design by the Federle spring and firing pin, and of the bolt a cartridge is One variant model was
brothers, employees of the underneath the bolt is a collected from the the ‘712' or ‘Reihenfeuer
Mauser company in 1893. locking block with two 10-round magazine and pistole' developed in 1932.
The following year Mauser lugs which engage in loaded into the chamber, This had a selective
decided to enter the similar recesses in the whereupon barrel, mechanism which allowed
automatic pistol field and under-surface of the bolt. extension and bolt all automatic fire, so that
used the Federle as a Since the locking block is move forwards and the when fitted with the
starting-point, the first attached to the barrel block, riding back up the standard wooden holster-
prototype being completed extension, bolt and barrel cam, goes back into stock, it could function as
in March 1895. Several are secured together when engagement with the bolt a form of submachine gun
experimental models were the block is lifted and the and locks everything up or machine pistol. It was
made before the design was lugs engaged. As the barrel for the next round to be not very successful. A
completed, and full and extension recoil, the fired. more elegant and rarer
production began in 1897. locking block is allowed The basic design did not variation was the ‘Mauser
The Mauser C/96 (to to ride down a steel cam alter on the various Carbine', a permanently-
give its correct title) is a surface so that the lugs models; variations were in stocked, long-barreled
recoil-operated pistol with come away from the barrel length, safety- pistol intended for
its barrel fixed to a barrel recesses in the bolt. This catches, hammers and shooting small game. A
extension, the two forming then allows the bolt to sights. The calibre was limited number were made
a single unit free to slide part company with the 7.63mm, except for a 1916 before 1914. The final
on the top of the pistol barrel and move back on government order that version of the C/96 ceased
frame. Inside the barrel its own, extracting and required Mausers to be production in 1937.

rearsight bolt hammer

foresight 7.63mm cartridge extractor

bullet fired

barrel bolt

lock plate

support plate

MAUSER MILITARY
Calibre 7.63mm
Length 308mm (12.125in)
Weight 1.22kg* (2.691b)
Barrel 140mm (5.5in)
Rifling 6 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight Fixed
Left (Top to bottom) Above The Mauser's U-notch or adjustable Above The compact layout
Mauser M1915 marked recoil. (1) The breech is V-notch, to 700m of the Mauser's locking
(765.5yd)
with a red-stained ‘9’ locked. (2) Recoiling the Action Recoil mechanism and
shows it uses 9mm breech remains locked. Rate of fire 30 rpm mainspring unit. Except
Parabellum cartridges. (3) The lock plate, now Feed system 10-round in the wooden grips, no
integral magazine
Mauser C/96 basic model. over the support, frees the Muzzle velocity screws or pins were used.
The Mauser M1895 with bolt for full recoil. The bolt 435m/sec (l,425ft/sec) All parts were fitted by
6-round 7.65mm Borchardt is halted and thrust back Bullet weight 5.5g coupling, bayonet-joint
(85gr)
cartridge magazine. by the return spring. assembling or interlocking. 99
 AUTOMATIC PISTOLS/Bergmann
and it appears to have been developed in the hope of ejected case to land in the feedway and interfere
selling it as a cavalry carbine. In the event no army with the return of the bolt. Eventually Bergmann
ever took to it and most of the carbine applications saw that this irritating fault was probably costing
of the Mauser were by hunters who wanted a light¬ him sales and he redesigned the pistol to incorporate
weight, medium-range shoulder arm which was a proper extractor and had the ammunition made
conveniently portable. The Mauser was chambered with an extracting groove.
for a 7.63mm cartridge which was dimensionally the Nevertheless, when the Mauser pistol appeared,
same as the Borchardt but loaded to a greater also in 1895, Bergmann realized that there was a
velocity. Indeed, Borchardt is said to have been chance of a military contract, but only if he could
somewhat upset by the success of the Mauser which produce a locked-breech weapon. Locked-breech
he considered to have been built on his cartridge. pistols, such as the Mauser or Parabellum, are pis¬
The fourth German pioneer of the automatic tols in which, due to the power of the cartridge, it is
pistol was Theodor Bergmann, who was more of an necessary to have the barrel and breech securely
entrepreneur with the sense to employ a brilliant locked together at the time of discharge and for a
designer, Louis Schmeisser. After some brief at¬ short instant afterwards until the chamber pressure
tempts at locked-breech pistols, in 1895 Bergmann drops to a level at which it is safe to unlock and
marketed a simple blowback model, the first time begin extracting the cartridge. Bergmann even¬
the blowback principle had been applied to any tually produced a pistol of similar layout to the
firearm other than the Skoda machine gun. The Mauser but with a vertically-moving yoke which
layout was rather like that of the Mauser or Schon- locked the bolt before firing. It had a removable
berger, with a clip-loaded magazine in front of the magazine and was chambered for a powerful 9mm
trigger and a bolt moving back and forth in the cartridge, more powerful than that used with the
gun body. But there was no breech-lock, and the Parabellum pistol.
pistol fired only a low-powered 5mm cartridge. It With this design he achieved success - it was
was, therefore, of little interest to military buyers. adopted in 1905 by the Spanish Army as their service
One feature of interest is that there was no ex¬ pistol. But at Bergmann’s moment of triumph, the
tractor fitted to the bolt and the cartridge case had rug was pulled from under his feet. Having no pro¬
no rim nor any extraction groove. Ejection of the duction facilities to make the huge number demand¬
spent case from the chamber was done simply by the ed by Spain, he had contracted the job to another
gas pressure forcing it back. This, of course, was how firm. This was now taken over by a third party who
the blowback action of the bolt was achieved, but cancelled the contract, leaving Bergmann an order,
it is unusual to find a designer relying on the gas with penalties, but with no means of fulfilling it.
pressure to clear the chamber. In practice it worked In desperation, he licensed the manufacture to a
well enough, but, lacking a proper ejector to throw Belgian company, A. E. Pieper of Liege, who com¬
the case clear of the pistol, it was common for the pleted the Spanish order and then since they had the

The civil version of the The mounted knight

Bergmann-Bayard 9mm (Chevalier Bayard)
(with round) Automatic trademark of the Belgian
Pistol. It weighed 1.02kg makers is on the magazine
(2.25lb), measured 254mm holder. As well as the
(lOin) with 101mm (4in) Spanish Army, the Danes
barrel (6 grooves l/hand adopted it in 1911,
twist), and shot at Haerens Tojhus of
395mlsec (1,300ft/sec) with Copenhagen making the
a 6- or 10-round magazine. weapon from 1922.
100
 Mars/AUTOMATIC PISTOLS
license, went‘on to make the pistol for sale to other reporter as a ‘young cannon’. Gabbet-Fairfax made
countries for many years. This calamity killed the pistol in three calibres - 8.5mm, 9mm and .45in -
Bergmann’s own involvement in the pistol business. and all used extremely powerful cartridges of his
An interesting point is that every pistol which own design. His 9mm, for example, fired a 156 grain
Bergmann made was designed around a cartridge bullet at 500m per second (1,650 ft/sec). This gave a
which he also designed, so that once you bought a muzzle energy of 1,282 joules (943 ft-lb-force). By
Bergmann pistol you had to buy Bergmann car¬ comparison, the .45 Colt automatic of today fires a
tridges. In the case of the 9mm pistol, the cartridge 230 grain bullet at 286m/sec (940 ft/sec) to give a
became known as the Bergmann-Bayard (Bayard muzzle energy of 613 joules (451 ft-lb-force), so the
from the Belgian licensees). In Spain it has always Mars had a theoretical stopping-power over twice as
been known as the 9mm Largo and is still their great as the Colt. (One should also bear in mind that
service cartridge. This system of developing pistols 68 joules (50 ft-lb-force) is considered to be the
to fit special ammunition, and vice versa, was amount needed to knock down a standing man.)
common in the early years of the century, but once The mechanism was extremely complex, being of
public and military preference had been evinced the class known as ‘long recoil’ in which the barrel
for one or two particular calibres, the idea weakened. and breech, locked together, recoiled for a distance
Most designers became content to take an exist¬ greater than the length of a complete cartridge. At
ing and popular cartridge and design around it. the end of the recoil stroke, the breech (which was
In Britain the Army was quite happy with its a rotating bolt) was unlocked and held, while the
heavy .455in Webley revolver. This, in one model or barrel was allowed to run forwards almost to the
another, had been in service since 1887, and had a firing position. During this recoil movement a
firm reputation. ‘lifter’ had withdrawn a cartridge from the magazine
The Army had examined several automatic pistols and now lifted it up behind the breech. The bolt was
but found them all deficient in stopping-power. The then released to fly forwards and chamber the
effect of a bullet on its target is, broadly speaking, cartridge, and then rotate and lock into place.
the product of the bullet weight and its velocity. Pressure on the trigger then dropped an externally-
One can fire a heavy bullet slowly or a light bullet mounted hammer which struck a firing pin in the
at high velocity and obtain the same striking ener¬ bolt and thus fired the cartridge.
gy, although stopping-power is not dependent entire¬ All this mechanical activity, plus the power of the
ly on these factors. Nevertheless, the combination cartridge, added up to a most unpleasant weapon to
of small bullet and high velocity attracted one fire. It kicked like a mule and invariably finished
British inventor, Hugh Gabbet-Fairfax, who pro¬ pointing straight up. In the words of the Royal
duced an automatic pistol in 1900 which he submitted Navy’s official report on the trials of the Mars
for trial to the Royal Navy. The pistol was known as pistol, ‘Nobody who fired this pistol wanted to fire it
the Mars and was described by a contemporary again . . .’. It was turned down for military adoption,

The 1901 Mars Automatic his grip on the trigger, the

Pistol at full recoil, having bolt will run forwards,
been fired. Total recoil chamber the cartridge and
distance was about 50mm and lock into the breech
(2in). The cartridge lifter ready to fire. The 9mm
(just behind the barrel) Mars magazine held 10
has the next round ready rounds and the .45in
for chambering. As soon model eight. The gun
as the dazed firer releases weighed over 1.36kg (3lb). 101
 FAMOUS GUNS Web ley Pistols

102
Webley Pistols FAMOUS GUNS

The Birmingham firm of were prepared to pay for it).

Webley was founded in The Mk 5 of 1913 was a
1838 by Philip and Joseph very minor change of
Webley, one of the earliest design, the cylinder being
foundations of a modern of larger diameter and the
gun-making company. The barrel length standardized
Webley brothers' first at 102mm (4in). Finally
serious attempt at a heavy there came the Mk 6 of
military revolver was the 1915, which, due to the
‘RIC’ model of1867, so demands of World War /,
designated because it was was produced in vast
adopted as the standard numbers.
sidearm of the newly- The only drawback with
formed Royal Irish the .455 revolver was that
Constabulary in 1868. it demanded a high state
The (RIC’ appeared in of training in order to
several variants but was shoot well with it. The
always a solid-frame British Army decided to
revolver of some weight change to .38in as the
and durability. It was standard revolver calibre
widely sold among police and to produce its own
forces throughout the pistol at Enfield. Webley
British Empire and was produced a .38 revolver
also available that was virtually a
commercially. scaled-down .455 Mk 6,
In 1877 Webley began called it the .38 Mk 4y and
production of a hinged- sold it widely, particularly
frame revolver to police forces throughout
incorporating features the Empire.
patented by Charles Pryse. In 1940, when revolvers
These ‘ Webley-Pryse’ were in short supply, the
revolvers appeared in .38 Mk 4 was taken into
various calibres from .32 military use. The last of
to .577inf being the service Webleys, it
particularly popular remained until replaced
among Army officers. by the Browning
However, though Webley Automatic Pistol in 1957.
made and continued to Picture shows, from
to make a variety of bottom left to top right:
revolvers, it was the long .455 Automatic Pistol No.2
series developed and Mk 1 with special sights
adopted by the British for Royal Flying Corps
Army that brought the observers (1914-18).
name into prominence. Webley-Fosbery Automatic
These pistols began with of 1901 with Pryse barrel.
the Mk 1 in 1887, a .442in .442 Webley Mk 1 of1887.
six-shot hinged-frame Webley-Wilkinson .45
model with a 102mm (4in) Target Revolver of1880.
barrel. Marks 2 and 3, .455 Webley Mk 6 of 1915.
which made progressive
improvements in small WEBLEY Mk VI
details, followed in 1894 Calibre .455in
and 1897. In 1899 the Mk 4 Length 286mm (11.25in)
Weight 1.075kg (2.371b)
appeared, the first to be Barrel 152mm (6.0in)
made in the just- Rifling 7 grooves, r/hand
standardized Army .455in Foresight Blade
Rearsight Fixed V-notch
calibre. This was made in Action Revolver
several barrel lengths, Rate of fire 12 rpm
Feed system 6-shot
102mm (4in) being the cylinder
standard, 152mm (6in) Muzzle velocity
being available to officers 198m/sec (650ft/sec)
Bullet weight 17.14g
who wanted a pistol suited (265gr)
to target shooting (and
 AUTOMATIC PISTOLS/Roth-Steyr

backsight
foresight slide locking ribs chamber
hammer

sear

disconnector

barrel bush recoi

grip safety

sear spring

magazine release
Cutaway of a Colt Model
1911A1 Automatic Pistol. trigger bar
The gun has its full
7-round magazine loaded
but the slide must be drawn
back to load a cartridge magazine
into the firing chamber.
The hammer is already
cocked and a pull on the
trigger will release it to be
driven by the mainspring
against the firing pin.
Note the locking ribs. mainspring

and Gabbet-Fairfax went bankrupt after 80 pistols butt. The magazine had to be loaded by manually
bad been made. They are probably the most rare and pulling back the bolt and then dropping a metal
valuable of any automatic pistols in existence today. charger into two guides in the upper part of the
On the other side of Europe, the Austro-Hungarian sleeve. The cartridges in the charger were then
Army also began to examine automatic pistols. It pushed down into the magazine and the charger
had tested Luger’s Parabellum, but there was a vast removed, allowing the bolt to go forwards and cham¬
number of good firearms designers in the Austro- ber the first round. In order to unload, since it was
Hungarian Empire and the Army decided to wait not possible to remove the magazine from the butt,
and see what they could produce. Eventually it the bolt was pulled back and a catch at the side of
adopted the 8mm Roth-Steyr, which introduces us the butt pressed in. This retracted the feeding lip
to yet another method of breech-locking - the on one side of the magazine and permitted the maga¬
revolving barrel. zine spring to eject all the rounds through the top
In this pistol the barrel was free to revolve and of the gun.
was carried inside an all-enveloping sleeve. At the The Roth-Steyr was adopted in 1907 for the Austro-
rear of the barrel was the breech bolt, also carried Hungarian cavalry. In 1912 another Steyr design,
in the sleeve which actually formed the body of the probably attributable to George Roth but not
gun. At the front of the barrel were two helical lugs acknowledged, was introduced for the infantry.
engaged in grooves in the sleeve, and when the pistol This was the 9mm Steyr Model 1912, which looked
was fired the barrel recoiled, pulling the helical more conventional than the Roth-Steyr (because
lugs through the grooves and thus rotating the it was slab-sided) but used much the same sort of
barrel through 90°. This rotation unlocked the rotating barrel breech-lock and the same integral
breech, after which the barrel was halted and the magazine. It was chambered for yet another varia¬
bolt allowed to recoil and then run back to reload. tion of the 9mm calibre, longer than the 9mm Para¬
As the fresh round was chambered, so the bolt pushed bellum but shorter than the Bergmann-Bayard
the barrel back, ran the lugs through the grooves in round. It was, in fact, an extremely good design of
the reverse direction and rotated the barrel to lock pistol, reliable and accurate. Had it been chambered
the breech. for a more common cartridge it might well have had
Another peculiarity of this design was the intro¬ greater commercial success.
104 duction of an integral magazine contained in the In the United States the automatic pistol was
 Browning/AUTOMATIC PISTOLS

slide at recoil
ejected case
locking ribs disengaged firing pin spring

recoil spring compressed hammer being

cocked
link swung to lower barrel

sear holds
hammer

The Colt at full recoil after hammer has been forced

a round has left the barrel. back on to the top of the
Barrel and slide have been safety grip horn thus being
driven back by gas cocked to fire the next shot.
pressure. The link has The recoil spring is at full
pulled down the barrel, compression.
freeing the slide by
disengaging the locking Below Colt .45 M1911A1
ribs. The slide ejects the with round. The A1, the
spent cartridge and the M1911 with minor magazine spring
magazine spring has begun modifications made in pushes up new
to push the next round up 1921, is still being produced ,45in round
into the chamber. The for worldwide use. mainspring compressed

model, which was developed around a 7.65mm car¬

tridge also designed by John Browning. This was
succeeded by another of the same calibre but of
simplified construction, known as the Model 1903.
The pistol frame of the Model 1903 carried a maga¬
zine in the butt and a hammer and trigger. On top
of the frame rode a ‘slide’, an all-enveloping steel
block which formed the breech-block at its rear
end, carried a firing pin, concealed the hammer,
and was hollowed out at the front to allow the
barrel to be inserted. The barrel was a loose unit
which was held in place in the gun by lugs around
its breech end engaging in grooves in the gun body.
This prevented lengthwise movement, while the
close confines of the slide prevented it lifting away
slow to get under way, probably because of the from the body. On firing, the slide unit was blown
Immense popularity and massive production of to the rear by simple blowback action, the empty
revolvers there. But in 1898, John Moses Browning, case being extracted and thrown clear through a
one of the foremost American firearms designers slot cut in the upper side of the slide. As the slide
and one of the greatest and most successful inven¬ returned, driven by a return spring below the barrel,
tors of automatic arms, took out patents for a so the breech-block portion stripped a cartridge
blowback pistol. He was unable to interest an from the magazine and thrust it into the breech.
American manufacturer and took the design to During the recoil stroke, the interior shape of the
Europe, where he arranged with the Fabrique slide had forced the hammer back and cocked it,
National d’Armes de Guerre (F.N.) of Belgium to where it was held ready for the next pressure on the
manufacture to his designs. Using the name ‘Brown¬ trigger. A disconnector ensured that the trigger and
ing’ they subsequently produced millions of blow- hammer were not capable of functioning together
back pistols. until the slide had gone forwards and securely
The first Browning to be produced was the 1900 chambered the fresh cartridge.
AUTOMATIC PISTOLS/Colt Automatic
This was one of the most successful pistol designs
ever made, and it introduced the world to the poc-
ketable automatic pistol. But it was of little interest
to military authorities at that time, since they
were still adamant that locked-breech pistols in
heavy calibres were the only acceptable solution.
(They were to change their minds in later years, and
several armies adopted the 7.65mm Browning blow-
back as an official pistol.) John Browning con
sequently applied himself to the design of a locked-
breech weapon and - with the success of his blow-
back design for all to see - there was less resistance
in the United States to his ideas this time. This
model was taken up in 1900 by the Colt company with be of .45 calibre. In December 1906, the Chief of
the aim, once it was perfected, of interesting the Staff of the US Army ordered the assembly of a
US Army. Test Board to ascertain the design of an automatic
The Colt Automatic, as it came to be known, pistol or revolver best suited to the Army’s require¬
relied on the same sort of slide with integral breech¬ ments and in 1907 the tests took place. Among the
block that was used on the blowback design. But in contesting pistols were the Parabellum, various
this case the barrel was anchored to the pistol frame revolvers, various designs of automatic, and the
by two hinged links, one under the muzzle and one Colt model. Two pistols came out of the test with
under the breech, so that it could rise and fall rela¬ good marks - the Colt and an automatic using a
tive to the frame but always parallel to it. The revolving barrel designed by the Savage Arms
top of the barrel had two broad, locking ribs mach¬ Company of New York. Two hundred of each were
ined into the metal, and the interior surface of the obtained for extended troop trials, after which it
slide had two corresponding grooves. With the pistol was decided that the Colt held most promise and
loaded and ready to fire, the slide was forced forwards Colt were asked to make some improvements in the
by the action of a return spring, and the pressure of design.
the breech-block on the bottom of the cartridge was The principal change was the abandonment of the
transmitted to the barrel, forcing it to move for¬ two links. Only one was now used, under the breech,
wards and upwards, due to its hinged link supports, and the muzzle rode in a removable bushing in the
so that the ribs on top engaged in the grooves in the front end of the slide. This simplified manufacture
underside of the top of the slide. and assembly without interfering with the essential
On firing, the slide recoiled due to the pressure action of the locking system. More trials were
on the base of the cartridge pushing back on the carried out and the Colt was finally accepted into
breech-block. But due to the meshing of the ribs US service as the Model of 1911. Except for some
and grooves, the slide carried the barrel back with very minor modifications made in the 1920s as a
it, the two being thus securely locked together for result of experience during World War I, it remains
a short time until the action of the links drew the the standard US service pistol to this day and is,
barrel downwards and disengaged the lugs. This without any doubt at all, the best combat pistol
period was quite long enough to allow the bullet to ever made. Extremely reliable, robust, simple,
leave the barrel and the gas pressure in the breech easy to shoot, and with a powerful cartridge capable
to drop to a safe level. As soon as the lugs disengaged of stopping the most resolute or frenzied opponent,
from the grooves in the slide, the slide was free to as a fighting man’s pistol the Colt is above all com¬
recoil while the barrel remained where it was. The petition.
recoil movement ejected the empty cartridge case One, at least, of the other contestants in the 1907
and cocked the externally-mounted hammer. The test deserves more mention, and that is the Webley-
return of the slide, under spring pressure, collected Fosbery Automatic Revolver from Britain. It might
a fresh cartridge from the magazine in the butt and be expected that with the arrival of the automatic
loaded it into the chamber, then put pressure on the pistol on the scene somebody would try to apply
barrel to force it forwards and upwards once more automatic principles to a revolver. In fact several
until it was locked in place by the engagement of people tried, but only one person made any sort of a
the lugs and grooves. success of it and he was Colonel G. V. Fosbery, V.C.
Strangely enough, the one thing that Browning In effect, the Webley-Fosbery was a six-shot Webley
did not provide on his first model was a disconnector revolver but with the pistol frame as one distinct
- with the result that the pistol smartly emptied unit and the barrel and cylinder as another. The
itself after the first pressure on the trigger. This frame had guides in its top surface, along which the
was soon rectified, since Browning saw that instead barrel/cylinder unit could move backwards and
of an asset, such a rate of fire was a liability. A new forwards. The cylinder’s outer surface was cut with
cartridge in .38 calibre was developed for the Colt a series of zig-zag grooves which engaged with a
automatic and it enjoyed some sales in the early fixed pin on the top of the frame. A recoil spring
1900s. But the US Army, though interested, were kept the barrel unit to the front of the frame.
adamant that any pistol they adopted would have to The barrel could be hinged down to expose the
 Webley-Fosbery/AUTOMATIC PISTOLS

cylinder for loading in the usual way, after which

the hammer was thumb-cocked to fire the first round.
On firing, the barrel and cylinder recoiled back
along the top of the frame, pushing the hammer
back to the cocked postion. At the same time the
pin, riding in the groove in the cylinder, rotated the
cylinder one-twelfth of a turn. At the end of the
recoil stroke, the return spring pushed the barrel
unit back to the front of the frame, and as it moved,
so the pin turned the cylinder another one-twelfth
of a turn bringing a fresh cartridge into position
behind the breech of the barrel. Fresh pressure on
the trigger now dropped the hammer to fire, after
which the whole cycle was repeated.
Due to the absorption of recoil by the spring the
Webley-Fosbery was pleasant to shoot and jumped
less than did ordinary revolvers; so much so that
when used in competition it was usually handi¬
capped. It was never officially adopted by any army,
but numbers were bought by British officers who,
at that time, were permitted to adopt whatever Above.455 Webley-
pistol they chose provided it accepted the service Fosbery Automatic
.455 cartridge. But in the brutal testing-ground of Revolver fully cocked. The
Flanders in 1914-18, the Webley-Fosbery was tried firer had to keep his arm
and found wanting. The mechanism was too exposed rigid to ensure that the
to mud and grit to be reliable in combat conditions. recoil cocked the hammer.
 TEST OF BATTLE
GUNS OF WORLD WARE
 TEST OF BATTLE/World War I Machine Guns

drum magazine

feed pawls —

cam slot

feed arm

firing pin

spade handle grip

return spring and wheel

trigger bolt

cocking handle

W orld war I on the Western Front has frequently

been likened to a great siege, in which the
match, and while the war was begun with the Maxim,
Vickers and Hotchkiss guns of prewar days, it was
Allied powers - mainly Britain, France and, soon obvious that more weapons - weapons easier
later, the United States - were trying to break into and quicker to make - were going to be needed.
the fortress which was Germany; and the principal Another point which made itself known was the
reason for the war taking that form was the use of need for machine guns to be considerably more
the machine gun. Once the ‘Race to the Sea’ by the portable than the usual run of tripod-mounted,
German Army had been checked and the trench water-cooled heavyweights, so that infantry could
lines drawn, the power of the machine gun to domin¬ carry them easily in an attack and bring them
ate ‘No Man’s Land’ was the major factor in shaping rapidly into action.
the tactics, and it needed the invention of the tank The choices were fairly limited, and on the Allied
to break the deadlock. When the war began, the side they came down to the Madsen, the Hotchkiss,
general allocation of machine guns on both sides and a new design, the Lewis. The Danish Madsen
was some 24 guns per infantry division of 12 batta¬ was not considered acceptable, because of the com¬
lions. At the end of the war the division had been plexity of its mechanism and the fact that what
pared to 9 battalions, which in practice were seldom defects the gun had were magnified when it was
more than about 50 per cent of the strength of the asked to fire the British .303in rimmed cartridge.
1914 formation, and it had 160 machine guns - which The Hotchkiss was an improved model, known
is an increase in gun strength of 1,778 per cent. generally as the ‘Light’ Hotchkiss. It used the same
no Increases of this sort demanded production to gas piston system of operation as the earlier (1895)
 barrel shroud

Previous page US Marines magazine and actuates

man a ,50in Browning the feed pawls to rotate
M1917 MG on the Western the drum and lock it.
Front in 1918. As the gas piston goes
forwards, driven by the
Above The gas-operated return spring, the firing bolt locked
Lewis Gun. The gas piston pin pushes through the
rod has a piston post and bolt to fire the cartridge.
firing pin at its rear end. Muzzle blast draws air
This rides in a cam slot in into the barrel shroud
the bolt so as to rotate and across the cooling fins and
move it to and fro. The exhausts it at the muzzle.
movement of the bolt
drives the feed arm which Right Hotchkiss fermeture
forces a round out of the nut locking system.

model, but locked the bolt by a new method, the It now went into production in vast quantities, both
‘fermeture nut’ (instead of the pivoting locking in Britain and France, and became the primary
lug). This was a hollow interrupted-thread nut armament of cavalry units.
around the breech which was rotated backwards and The British infantry received the Lewis Gun -
forwards by the action of the piston. As the bolt one of the immortals. This gun had been designed by
closed into the breech, so the fermeture nut was an American named Samuel McLean in about 1908,
rotated, and the interrupted threads closed behind but it was perfected by Captain Lewis, who also
lugs on the bolt to lock it securely. On firing, the found a manufacturer and got it into production.
movement of the piston under gas pressure first The Lewis was gas operated, using a rotating bolt
unlocked the breech by rotating the nut and then similar to the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin rifle action,
forced the bolt back to start the operating cycle but had some very unusual features. The return
again. Feed was from a thin metal strip containing spring, for example, was not the usual spiral spring
30 rounds which was inserted upside down (making lying along the axis of the bolt, but a clock-spring
feeding complicated) into the right-hand side of the contained inside a toothed pinion, which engaged
gun. This model of Hotchkiss, first introduced in with the piston by means of a rack mechanism. This
1909, had been taken into French service in calibre had the advantage that it could easily be regulated
8mm Lebel in small numbers, and was also adopted for strength by a key, and could in this way counter¬
by the American Army as the ‘Benet-Mercie Machine act a loss of power caused by dirt in the mechanism
Rifle’, from the inventors’ names and the fact that or could be used to regulate the rate of fire within
that it was light and came with a shoulder stock. small limits. Another innovation was the distinct- ill
 FAMOUS GUNS Lewis Gun
This weapon was Army luminaries, after production would be weapon it is noteworthy
originally designed by which four guns were measured in hundreds that it was first fired from
Samuel N. Maclean and handed over to the Board of thousands. an aircraft as early as
Lieutenant Colonel O.M. of Ordnance for testing. Lewis never received 7th June 1912. It was
Lissak of the US Army as The Board proved much encouragement from taken up in a Wright Type
the ‘Lissak-Maclean Rifle’, reluctant to decide on the the US Army. This was B Pusher, flown by
but they were unable to design, so Lewis took back probably due to a clash Lieutenant Milling and
raise any interest in the his four guns and went to between him and General the gun fired by Captain
idea and eventually sold Belgium. William Crozier, Chief of Chandler. The target, a
their patents to the A new company, the Ordnance, an autocratic 2m (6ft) square of cloth,
Automatic Firearms Armes Automatiques arbiter of what was right was fired at from an
Company of Buffalo, Lewis, was set up and and what was wrong in altitude of 76m (250ft)
New York. This firm asked manufacture began, military equipment. It was during three passes and
Colonel Isaac N. Lewis, largely of specimens for not until the Lewis Gun was successfully hit.
US Army Retd, in 1910 to assessment by European was shown to be the only On 22nd August 1914,
look at the design and see armies. The Birmingham possible choice as an two British pilots,
if he could turn it into a Small Arms Company were aircraft gun that it was Lieutenants Strange and
workable gun. interested and took out a accepted. It was never Penn-Gaskell, took up a
By 1911 Lewis had licence to manufacture in accepted as a US ground
produced five pilot models Britain. Shortly after this, weapon.
which were demonstrated World War I broke out and Since the Lewis achieved
at Fort Myers to the the Lewis Gun entered such fame as an air
Secretary for War, the service with the British
Chief of Staff and other and Belgium armies;

LEWIS GUN
Calibre .303in
Length 128.2cm (50.5in)
Weight 12.24kg (27.01b)
Barrel 66.1cm (26.04in)
Rifling 4 grooves, 1/hand
Foresight Blade
Rear sight Aperture,
to 2,000yd (1,829m)
Action Gas
Rate of fire 550rpm
Feed system Drum
magazines, 47 or 97
rounds
Muzzle velocity
745m/sec (2,450ft/sec)
Bullet weight 13.9g
(215gr)
112
 Lewis Gun FAMOUS GUNS
Lewis gun in a Henri do it again in case the British Lewis guns in bought 1,157 guns in
Farman and engaged a Germans got the same idea reserve stocks which were .30in calibre from the US.
German Albatross at some and began firing back. brought back into service Many guns were issued to
1,520m (5,000ft) altitude Although obsolete by when World War II broke merchant ships, trawlers
without hitting it. On 1939, there were 50,000 out. In addition, Britain and minesweepers. They
reporting this, they were were also widely issued to
immediately told never to the Home Guard for use
as a section light
machine gun.

Left The Lewis on a shaky

anti-aircraft mount in
1916, with range-finder to
the right.

Above The Lewis' breech

and feed mechanism cut
away. The radial fins for
air-cooling the barrel are
clearly seen to the right of
the locked turning bolt.
Beside the trigger guard is
the coiled helical spring.

Right World War I air ace

‘Billy ’ Bishop shows the
elevation of his Nieuport’s
Mk 2 Lewis. 113
 TEST OF BATTLE/Chauchat
ive method of feed - from a 47-shot drum mounted
flat on top of the gun action.
Most peculiar of all was Lewis’s method of cooling
the gun. The barrel was surrounded by aluminium
fins, parallel with the bore, and shrouded in a steel
jacket, which was open at the rear but which pro¬
jected a distance in front of the muzzle. According
to Lewis’s theory, the blast of gas at the muzzle as
the gun fired set up a current of air which was in¬
duced past the gun breech, through the jacket
between the fins, and out of the muzzle end, thus
drawing cool air across the barrel as long as the gun
was firing. This idea was accepted. But during World
War II a number of Lewis Guns without this cooling
system were used as infantry weapons and never
over-heated; which led some people to suspect that
Lewis may not have been entirely correct, and that Above Lt. Val A. Browning Below This US corporal
the poor infantryman had been carrying a lot of fires his father's water- carries the Chauchat LMG
extra weight around to little purpose. Nevertheless, cooled .30in M1917 MG. with 20-round magazine.
the Lewis was successfully manufactured in large
numbers during World War I, one reason being that
six could be made in the same time as one Vickers.
When the United States entered the war in 1917
the US Army could muster 282 Maxim guns, 158
Colt-Browning M1896 machine guns, and 670 Benet-
Mercie ‘rifles’ - not an impressive collection for a
nation about to enter the Great War. The Army’s
first reaction was to order 4,600 Vickers guns to be
made by the Colt company, and they also bought
some Lewis guns. But the Lewis was under some
sort of cloud in American service, due largely to a
personality clash between Lewis and his old com¬
mander, General William Crozier, who was the
Chief of Ordnance and therefore had the last word
on what weapons the US Army obtained. The US
Marines managed to equip with Lewis guns, but
the Army were never permitted to have them in any
number.
Instead, when they got to France they were en¬
cumbered with the worst machine gun ever built -
the Chauchat. This had been put together by a
commission set up to provide the French Army with
a light machine gun to supplement the Hotchkiss.
It used the ‘long-recoil’ system of operation - in
which all the recoiling parts, including the barrel,
travel back the entire length of the cartridge - and
fed from a peculiar half-moon magazine fixed under
the gun. The Chauchat’s list of faults is impressive:
the enormous movement of the long-recoil func¬
tioning caused excessive vibration; the barrel
support bearings (which the gun required for the
barrel to recoil a long distance) soon wore and
caused a loss of accuracy; and the complex mechan¬
ism almost guaranteed that no one ever fired a full
magazine without the gun jamming at least once
in the process. In spite of all this, the Americans
accepted 37,000 of them, chambered for the .30-06
Springfield rifle cartridge. This was more powerful
than the original 8mm French cartridge and the
Chauchats almost shook themselves to pieces. It
has been reliably estimated that over 50 per cent of
American Chauchats were thrown away by their
114 disgusted crews.
 Browning Machine Gun/TEST OF BATTLE
Salvation, however, was just around the corner. The French flyer Roland Garros is credited with
John Browning had been working on a new design the idea of mounting a machine gun on top of his
of machine gun for some years, basing the operation engine cowling, where he could aim along it, and of
on short recoil of the barrel. In this system, the then fixing pieces of steel plate to his propeller so
barrel recoils for only a portion of the total recoil that any bullets striking the propeller were deflected
stroke before it is unlocked from the bolt and is and did not cut off the spinning blades. This allowed
stopped. The bolt continues to move back under greater precision of aim and Garros was soon carving
its own momentum (or it may be helped, as in a swath through the German aircraft. But when he
Browning’s gun, by the action of a mechanical crashed in German territory, his secret was out.
device known as an ‘accelerator’) until stopped and The standard German aviation machine gun was
returned by the bolt spring. Because less time is the Parabellum, a redesigned and much-lightened
needed before the barrel has returned to a position Maxim gun which was air cooled. Fokker, the
in which it can receive a new round, the short-recoil aircraft designer, now took this gun and developed
system can achieve a much higher rate of fire than a synchronizing mechanism which, attached to the
the long-recoil system. trigger linkage, prevented the gun from firing
Browning had been unable to raise any interest in whenever a propeller blade was in front of the
prewar days, but in February 1917 he was invited to muzzle. With this, the German fighters did great
demonstrate the gun to the Army. This was success¬ execution until, in their turn, they lost an aircraft
ful, but another demonstration was called for in behind Allied lines and their secret became known.
May 1917. At this, the gun fired 20,000 rounds non¬ Finally the Allies adopted the Constantinesco
stop, and then, after a pause, another 20,000. The hydraulic synchronizer and mounted two British
inspecting board were reluctant to believe that this Vickers guns on their fighter aircraft.
sort of reliability could be expected from run-of-the- On the ground, the siege gradually turned again
mill production weapons, so Browning produced into mobile warfare, and part of this was due to a
another gun, loaded it, and then kept feeding it German general, von Hutier, who had developed a
ammunition until he ran out. After firing non-stop technique of advancing in small parties of ‘Storm
for 48 minutes 12 seconds, and after using up 28,920 Troops’ instead of in the rigid lines so beloved of the
rounds, the gun stopped. Browning then had himself traditionalists. These small squads of well-trained
blindfolded and he stripped and reassembled the gun, men could, under cover of gas and smoke bombard¬
ready to fire but for ammunition. That did the trick. ments, filter through the front lines, bypassing
Within weeks, contracts for 10,000 guns were placed. difficult positions, to cut communications and
The machine gun became the standard article in isolate the front so that it could be neutralized by
aerial combat in World War I. Allied machines began the following infantry. To do this, the Storm Troops
carrying Lewis guns, operated either by an observer had to be more than well-trained. They had to be
as a ‘free’ gun - that is, one which could be swung well-armed with something light, fast-firing and
from side to side, up and down, to point in any accurate at short ranges. No existing weapon filled
direction - or as ‘fixed’ guns - mounted on the upper this specification, and so von Hutier went to the
wing of a biplane to fire forwards, so that aiming German gun designers and asked them to make
the gun became a matter of aiming the aeroplane. something entirely new.
SHORT RECOIL
LONG RECOIL

Right Long recoil: (1)

barrel spring, (2) bolt lock,
(3) bolt, (4) unlocking
device, (5) bolt spring,
(6) bolt latch, (7) lock open,
(8) spent case, (9) bolt
latched, (10) latch lugs
engaged, (11) bolt
unlatched. Short recoil:
(1) barrel spring, (2)
moving barrel, (3) recoil
buffers, (4) bolt lock, (5)
bolt, (6) accelerator, (7)
unlocking cam, (8) bolt 10 11
spring, (9) backplate bolt return and reload
buffer. 115
RAPID FIRE
 RAPID FIRE/Bergmann Submachine Gun
V on Hutier’s specifications for a gun - light¬
weight, hand-held, short-range but fast-firing
gun body, collected a cartridge from the magazine,
chambered it, and then fired it by the firing pin
(that is, automatic) - for use by his advance which was inside the bolt. The pressure exerted on
‘Storm Troops’, fairly well sums up the definition of the base of the cartridge case by the exploding
the submachine gun, although the name ‘submachine charge then blew the bolt back against its spring,
gun’ did not come into use until the 1920s. The gun allowing an ejector on the bolt to pull the empty
has also been known variously as a machine pistol cartridge case from the chamber. As the bolt reached
and machine carbine. The definition of a submachine the end of its travel, it was either held by the trigger
gun traditionally includes the qualification that it mechanism ready for the next shot, or, if the firer
fires pistol ammunition. kept the trigger pressed, then the recoil spring sent
Von Hutier’s needs were answered by Hugo the bolt forwards to fire the next round.
Schmeisser, designer for the Theodor Bergmann That was the commonly accepted method of
company. The weapon Schmeisser produced in 1917 operation, but in fact there was rather more to it
was the ‘Bergmann Muskete’, the world’s first sub¬ than that. The 9mm Parabellum was a powerful
machine gun. (It is ironic that the gun which cartridge, and in order to use an unlocked breech in
Schmeisser designed was always called the Berg¬ this blowback model, the bolt would have had to be
mann, while a gun which he did not design went into much heavier and the recoil spring much stronger.
history as the ‘Schmeisser’, as we shall see.) To get round this, Schmeisser adopted an artillery
The design of the Bergmann was deceivingly design technique called ‘differential recoil’ and
simple. It consisted of only four basic parts - the turned it into something generally called ‘advanced
barrel with its perforated casing; the body; the bolt; primer ignition’ or ‘differential locking’. To under¬
and the wooden stock. The barrel lay at the front of stand this system it is necessary to know two things
the body, and in the body ran the cylindrical bolt, about the Bergmann bolt. Firstly, the firing pin,
controlled by a trigger below the stock. Into the inside the bolt, is the bearing surface on which the
side of the body, through an angled housing, went recoil spring pushes, and the pin’s shoulders, hard
the magazine, and, in order to utilize existing against the bolt, transfer the thrust. This means
production components, the magazine was the that the firing pin is always protruding from the
‘snail’ helical magazine which had been developed front of the bolt. Secondly, the extractor claw,
for a long-barrelled version of the Parabellum which snaps over the cartridge rim, is a strong and
Pistol 08 and which held 32 rounds of 9mm Para¬ broad item, stiffly sprung. Now consider the opera¬
bellum ammunition. tion again.
On the face of it, the gun operated by simple When the bolt picks up the new cartridge from the
blow back action. The bolt was pulled back by a magazine and forces it into the mouth of the cham¬
cocking handle until it was held against the power ber, as the cartridge lines up with the barrel it is
of the recoil spring by the trigger mechanism. On the extractor which is actually pushing it, thus
pulling the trigger, the bolt flew forwards in the keeping the base of the cartridge clear of the face of

jacket barrel rifling grooves

firing

Previous page An FBI Left The Bergmann M1918

agent fires the M1928 SMG disassembled.
Thompson SMG on a Pressing a catch at the
training range. rear of the body allowed
the stock to be folded
Above The Bergmann and the main operating
cocked and ready to fire spring with bolt to be
except that there is no removed. Not shown are
magazine loaded. the magazine and its
Two grooves of the six- adapter-sleeve (to prevent
118 groove rifling can be seen. it fouling the bolt).
 Vilar Perosa/RAPID FIRE
the bolt - and of the firing pin. As the cartridge by the Officine Vilar Perosa, from which it took the
enters the chamber its progress is checked by fric¬ name of ‘VP’ or Vilar Perosa. This fired a 9mm
tion, and at a certain point this is enough to over¬ bullet, using either the Italian service 9mm Glisenti
come the spring pressure of the extractor claw, cartridge or the 9mm Parabellum; both are the
which then rides up and snaps over the rim of the same in dimensions though differing in power.
cartridge and into the extractor groove. As this The mechanism was on a different principle to that
happens, so the bolt snaps forwards, the firing pin of the Bergmann, for the VP used delayed blowback.
hits the cap on the cartridge, and the cartridge is The bolt, travelling back and forth in the gun body,
fired. At that instant the bolt, which weighs over has a lug on it which engages in a groove in the
680g (1.51b), is still moving forwards and the recoil blow body. This groove is curved at the forward end, so
on the cartridge case has first to stop that forward that as the bolt reaches the breech, so it is turned
movement, then reverse it to drive the bolt back. by the action of the groove on the lug. But note that
It is this absorption of the forward movement which the bolt is not actually locked to the breech. The
makes the operation possible without excessive firing pin, floating in the bolt and propelled by the
weight or length, because this uses up a high pro¬ recoil spring in the same way as that of the Berg¬
portion of the recoil force which would otherwise mann, also has a lug which rides in the same groove.
be blowing the bolt back at high speed. But due to being positioned further back than the
The Bergmann Muskete was issued in the summer bolt lug, it moves only in the straight section of the
of 1918, being officially known as the Maschinen- groove and simply ensures that the firing pin cannot
pistole 18 or ‘MP18’. Plans were afoot to provide all rotate when the bolt does. The face of the striker
officers, NCOs and 10 per cent of the soldiers in had a shaped cam which mated with a cutaway
infantry battalions with the weapon, but it came portion inside the bolt, so that only if the bolt was
too late and only about 36,000 were ever made. They rotated through about 45 at the end of the closing
were issued to von Hutier’s Storm Troops, who used stroke could the firing pin be pushed forwards by
them very successfully in one or two actions, but the spring to hit the cartridge cap. On firing, the
by that time the odds were against the Germans and recoil force on the bolt had to overcome the friction
the submachine gun failed to make much impression. of the lug in the groove and thus turn the bolt back
At much the same late stage of World War I, the through 45 before it could move straight back. At
Italian Army had discovered the submachine gun the same time, the mating faces of the cam and bolt
by accident. Most of their activity during the war ensured that the firing pin was withdrawn inside the
took place on the mountainous border with Austria, bolt before recoil began. The net result was, firstly,
and the mountain troops had requested a machine that the blowback action was slightly delayed,
gun a good deal lighter and more handy than the allowing breech pressure to drop before the breech
usual Maxim pattern. A suitable weapon was design¬ was opened, and, secondly, that the gun could not
ed in 1915 by Bethel Revelli, who had also designed a possibly be fired unless the breech was properly
full-sized machine gun for the Army, and it was built closed.

bolt — r(rearsight return spring

dismantling catch

sear trigger

119
 RAPID FIRE/Tommy Gun

almost ignored. The Allied Disarmament Commis¬

sion did not consider them to be military weapons
at all and forbade the German Army to own them,
though it permitted the German police forces to
possess a few. The great problem was that of fitting
such a weapon into the military vocabulary. It was
not a rifle, and infantry always carried rifles, so it
was no use to them. It was not a machine gun,
because it did not have the range, so it could not be
used in that role. The best thing to do, it seemed,
would be to ignore it and hope it would go away.
But it was not going to go away, and this was to
be due largely to one man, Brigadier-General John
T. Thompson. Thompson had been an officer in the
This was a sound mechanism but Revelli then put US Ordnance Department responsible for small arms
it into a somewhat peculiar weapon. The gun itself design and development until he retired in 1914. He
was a simple straight-line affair of body and barrel, then set about designing an automatic rifle. He
feeding from a top-mounted magazine, but Revelli considered that recoil operation would mean too
anchored two guns together side by side, controlling heavy a weapon and gas operation too complex, and
them by a common spade grip at the rear end which he was convinced that he ought to be able to design
carried two thumb-triggers. It was then mounted a blowback weapon. Unfortunately he was aiming
into a steel shield for use in defensive positions or it at a military rifle, and the cartridges were far too
could be fitted to a tray-like board suspended around powerful for blowback functioning.
a soldier’s neck, who then marched into action with In 1915 a Commander Blish, a retired US Navy
the gun in front of him like a match-seller’s tray. officer, patented a delayed blowback system which
Needless to say, because it used pistol ammuni¬ Thompson thought would solve his problem. The
tion, the VP was not very effective in the light Blish system used a floating ‘H-Piece’ which slid up
machine gun role since its range was nothing worth and down an oblique groove in the bolt and locked
speaking of and its rate of fire was astronomical. into a similar oblique groove in the body of the gun
Due to light bolts and strong recoil springs, 3,000 when the bolt was closed. The sudden pressure on
rounds a minute from the twin gun was common¬ the bolt following the firing of the cartridge caused
place. After trying it for some months, the Italian this H-Piece to jam solidly in the two grooves due
Army asked the Beretta company to have a look at to friction and pressure, but as the pressure dropped
it and see if they could turn it into something more after the bullet had left the barrel, the friction was
useful. The task was given to a young engineer eased and the bolt was free to move back, its oblique
named Tullio Marengoni, who was later to become groove lifting the H-Piece from its locking groove
Beretta’s principal designer. Marengoni split the in the gun body. The whole process, therefore,
VP in half and put the single guns so obtained on to depended upon a very fine balance of friction and
wooden stocks resembling rifles. He added a trigger pressure.
mechanism and a folding bayonet and arrived at the Thompson, with Blish and a financial backer,
Beretta Model 1918 submachine gun, a far more formed the ‘Auto-Ordnance Corporation’ in 1916
practical weapon than the VP had ever been. The with a view to developing a rifle. One Mr Eickhoff
Italian Army was so impressed that it withdrew was engaged as engineer and in 1917, when Thompson
almost all the VPs and sent them to Beretta to be was recalled to military service, Eickhoff continued
converted. to work on the rifle, assisted by a colleague, Oscar
120 When World War I ended, the submachine gun was W. Payne. Between them, they soon found that the
 Suomi/RAPID FIRE
Far left The twin-barrel Left The M1921A1
Vilar Perosa (top) was the Thompson with a 20-round
first SMG in the world. box magazine and without
It weighed a hefty 6.52kg the Cutts Compensator on
(14.375lb) unloaded. This the muzzle (see artwork
model is on the normal overleaf). Two seconds
bipod mount with two automatic fire would
25-round curved box exhaust a magazine.
magazines. The VP's
successor was the M1918 Below The Cutts
Beretta (bottom) which Compensator's four
had the same barrel, vertical slots diverted
retarded blowback action muzzle blast gases upwards
and magazine, but after the bullet's passage.
weighed only 3.26kg This helped counteract the
(7.2lb) unloaded. muzzle's tendency to lift.

Blish lock would not function with a high-powered

rifle cartridge, but that it could be made to work
quite well with the US Army’s .45in pistol round.
Thompson therefore changed the concept of the
weapon from an automatic rifle to a hand-held
machine gun which he called the ‘Trench Broom’
because it would sweep the trenches clear of enemies.
Work continued but the end of the war came before
the weapon was perfected.
After the war Thompson, retired again, began
promoting the sale of his new ‘Submachine Gun’ - a
descriptive phrase which he invented and which has
since passed into common use. Sales were poor,
because it was a complex and expensive gun to make,
but Thompson had the Colt Company build sufficient operating a locking clamp; the bolt was cocked by a
components to make up 15,000 guns. What undoubt¬ retracting rod with an operating knob at the rear
edly saved the ‘Tommy gun’ from an early demise of the gun body; the 36-round box magazine was a
was the publicity which it attracted from its use by peculiar semi-circular device which protruded for¬
the gangs and gang-busters during the Prohibition wards below the barrel; and the bolt was a two-piece
era in America in the 1920s and the subsequent construction with separate firing pin, though this
portrayal on the films. Yet, equally certainly, it was later removed and a fixed firing pin in the front
was this gangster image which bedevilled the end of the bolt was substituted.
chances of military acceptance for a long time. It was a remarkably good weapon for its day, but
The first military adoption of the Thompson was it could stand improvement and Lahti worked on it
by the US Marines, who used it in Nicaragua in for a few years. He eventually produced his Model
1927, and as a result of their favourable reports, a 1931 which was adopted in large numbers by the
1928 or ‘Navy’ model was produced. This featured a Finnish Army and then made available commer¬
‘Cutts Compensator’ on the muzzle, a device which cially as the ‘Suomi 1931’. It was used by the Swedish,
directed a proportion of the muzzle blast upwards, Norwegian and Swiss Armies and sufficient numbers
thus tending to force down the muzzle during auto¬ were sold to other countries for the Suomi to take
matic fire and counteract the tendency for the part in almost every major conflict for many years.
muzzle to rise. This 1928 model also had a straight The 1931 improved on the earlier model in several
wooden fore-end instead of the familiar pistol grip ways. The peculiar semi-circular box magazine was
of the original 1921 version. dropped in favour of a 71-round drum below the
The early Thompson guns showed up in some odd barrel; the weapon was chambered for the 9mm
places, and one of those was the Baltic States, who Parabellum cartridge; the firing pin was fixed and
were having various civil commotions in the 1920s. the operation became the same as that of the Berg-
Whether this drew attention to the submachine gun mann; and the somewhat fiddly retracting knob was
idea is not certain, but the next design to come replaced by a handle resembling a rifle bolt. The
forward was from Finland. The noted Finnish barrel was surrounded by a perforated jacket to
designer Aimo Lahti began experimenting with allow it to be gripped without burning the hand,
submachine gun designs in the early 1920s and and a muzzle compensator, doubtless based on the
eventually produced one for sale in 1926. This was Cutts device, was frequently fitted. But like all
in 7.65mm Parabellum calibre - an odd one for a successful gunmakers, Lahti was quite ready to
submachine gun - and it featured some interesting bend his design to suit the wishes of individual
design ideas. The barrel could be quickly removed by customers, and so Suomis with bipods, with remov¬ al
 FAMOUS GUNS Thompson

The "Thompson" made by Colt"s Patent

submachine gun Firearms Company. The
commemorates Brigadier first batch were delivered
General John Taliaferro in March 1921 and
Thompson (1860-1940) Thompsons son,
though the actual design Marcellus, sold 495 to
is due to Theodor Eickhoff American agents of the
and Oscar W. Payne, Irish Republican Army,
while the breech-locking a fact discovered when the
system was devised by Department of Justice
Commander John B. Blish, raided a ship in New York
US Navy. Harbor and found the
The original model, guns. The subsequent
called the "Persuader", was publicity was unpleasant,
belt fed. But the rate of fire but certainly brought the
was too great for the feed Thompson to public notice.
system and it was re¬ On 4th October 1925 the
designed as the Sallis-MacErlane gang of
Annihilator", using a Chicago attempted to kill
box magazine. The final Spike O"Donnell, a
version, which appeared business rival, by spraying
in 1919, was called the his HQ with a Thompson
"Submachine Gun" and fired from a speeding car.
featured the 50-round The "Tommy Gun" was
drum magazine that came born. In 1926 Al Capone
to be associated with the bought a Thompson,
Thompson. It was first killed three men with it,
demonstrated during the filed off the serial number
National Match shooting and threw the gun away.
contest at Camp Perry, Unfortunately for him,
Ohio, in 1920. there was a second, secret
Thompsons Auto- serial number on the gun,
Ordnance Corporation by means of which the
had no manufacturing purchase was traced back
facilities, so he had the to him, leading to his
122 components for 15,000 guns eventual imprisonment.
 Thompson FAMOUS GUNS

In 1927 the US Marines bought out by Thomas European war would lead Above A side-view of the
took Thompsons to Ryan, its financial backer. to a demand for Thompson famousM1928Al Thompson
Nicaragua and Shanghai In 1938 he sold what was guns came true in 1939. with horizontal fore-grip
for the weapon's first left of the company to In November the French (optional sling swivel
military use. But in 1930 Russel Maguire. Army ordered 6,000, then attached), Cutts
the Thompson family was Maguire's hunch that a the British Army ordered Compensator and 50-
107,500 and the US Army round drum magazine.
H-piece 20,450. Colt refused to The single-shot and safety
make them, having been catches can be seen just to
less than pleased with the the right and above the
‘gangster' publicity, so trigger guard.
the Savage Arms Company
obtained the contract. Left How the Blish delay
Eventually 1.75 million, device worked in the
plus enough spare parts Thompson. The phosphor
to make another 250,000, bronze H-shaped piece
were made during the war locked the gunbody to the
including a simplified bolt until falling gas
version which did away pressure released the bolt
with the controversial to full recoil.
Blish lock.
After the war the THOMPSON M1928A1
company changed hands Calibre .45in
twice more, but the Length 85.7cm (33.75in)
Weight 4.88kg (10.751b)
Thompson is still available Barrel 266mm (10.5in)
today. John T. Thompson Rifling 6 grooves, r/hand
died of a heart attack in Foresight Blade
Rearsight Aperture,
June 1940 just as his dream to 600yd (548m)
was being fulfilled. Action Blowback
Rate of fire 700rpm
Feed system 20 or
Far left Winston 30-round box magazine,
Churchill poses with or 50 or 100-round drum
magazine
the M1928A1 Thompson Muzzle velocity
in 1940. This one has the 282m/sec (920ft/sec)
Bullet weight 14.88g
vertical pistol fore-grip (230gr)
and Cutts Compensator. 123
RAPID FIRE/Steyr-Solothum

bolt lowered and fully recoiled

hammer bolt raised and locked for firing
rearsight firing

buffer

magazine spring

able butts, with smooth barrels and no butt for use

in tanks, with box magazines feeding from the
bottom or the top of the weapon can all be found.
The Suomi was one of the first submachine guns to
be tested by the British Army, in the early 1930s.
and they were so impressed with it that from then
magazine
on it became the yardstick by which to measure
others - and very few ever managed to combine the
Suomi’s mechanical reliability, accuracy, and econ¬
omy in one package.
Shortly before the Suomi appeared, a submachine several German army weapons appeared to be of
gun was placed on the market in Switzerland - the Swiss origin.
Steyr-Solothurn Sl-100. This weapon had a peculiar The Steyr-Solothurn submachine gun was very
history which demonstrates the shifts to which much in the same style as the original Bergmann - a
German armament manufacturers were prepared to wooden-stocked weapon with perforated barrel
go in those days. The weapon was originally designed jacket - except that the recoil spring was contained
in 1920 by a German named Louis Stange, for the in a tube running down inside the butt. It was
Rheinische Metallwaaren und Maschinenfabrik of exceptionally well-made and finished and has, in
Diisseldorf, who are better known by the name they the past, been called the ‘Rolls Royce’ of submachine
later adopted, Rheinmetall. Due to the restrictions guns. One minor but interesting detail was the
imposed by the Versailles Treaty, Rheinmetall provision of a magazine loader in the magazine
could not produce the gun in Germany. They there¬ housing; several of these guns were chambered for
fore acquired a large holding in the Austrian Weap¬ 7.63mm Mauser cartridge, which was always supplied
ons Company at Steyr and also bought a moribund in 10-round clips for use in the pistol. To get the
Swiss engineering company, Solothurn AG. In effect rounds out of the clip and into the submachine gun’s
Rheinmetall in Germany now became the design box magazine could have been an awkward job, but
office, Solothurn AG became the development for the magazine loader. The empty magazine was
engineers, and Waffenfabrik Steyr the production clipped under the side-entry magazine housing;
factory, with a fourth subsidiary, Steyr-Solothurn above it, through the magazine housing, was a slot
Waffen AG of Zurich being the market outlet. In into which the clip was placed, after which a sweep
this way tracks were effectively covered. So effect¬ of the thumb pushed the cartridges out of the clip
ively, in fact, that it was not until after World War II and into the magazine. Three quick moves like that
that the connection was unravelled, explaining why and the magazine was full.
 Browning Automatic Rifle/RAPID FIRE

.30in cartridge

recoil spring bullet being fired

www* —£—-

' - ■-
~~ A r
-SBS|

.; "..,h

gas port

gas piston head

The Steyr-Solothurn was widely used by the

German Army during World War II. The Austrian
Army adopted the gun as their ‘MP34’, having it
chambered for the 9mm Mauser ‘Export’ cartridge -
probably the most powerful round ever used in a
submachine gun. South America and China bought
it in 7.63mm Mauser and 9mm Parabellum chamber¬
ing, while the Portuguese Army bought it in 7.65mm
Parabellum; they were later to buy the last batch
ever made, in 1942, these being 9mm calibre.
It will be recalled that General Thompson had
been trying to perfect an automatic rifle but changed
his direction and developed the submachine gun
instead. Once he had the submachine gun under way,
he turned once again to the automatic rifle, since
he and many others were convinced by what they
had seen during World War I that an automatic rifle
was a necessity as a military arm.
Top ‘Phantom9 drawing halts the bolt and a spring At the same time as Browning had demonstrated
of the Browning Automatic concealed in the buffer his machine gun in 1917, he also displayed another
Rifle's mechanism in two throws the bolt back to weapon, which he called his ‘Automatic Rifle’. This
positions: breech closed load a fresh round. was operated by a gas piston which ran under the
and locked; and breech barrel and actuated the bolt. The bolt was locked on
open and fully recoiled. Above A World War I firing by means of tipping up its rear edge to jam
In the forward position the period US soldier aims the firmly against a face inside the top of the gun body.
breech-block has been Browning Automatic Feed was from a removeable box magazine which
lifted to fit a recess in the Rifle Ml918. It could fire fitted under the gun, and a small bipod was provided
top of the gun body. On single shots or bursts. As to allow it to be fired from the prone position. It was,
recoil, the gas piston rod it weighed 7.28kg (16lb), in fact, a light machine gun, but it had been pro¬
lowers the bolt to unlock a bipod was added to the duced in answer to a tactical theory which called
it and drives it back to next model, the 1918Al. for ‘walking fire’ - troops carrying light automatics
extract the empty case. Sights were graduated to and firing from the hip as they advanced across ‘No
The buffer in the butt 1,500yd (1,372m). Man’s Land’ - and thus it came to be called the 125
 RAPID FIRE/Mondragon Automatic Rifle
Browning Automatic Rifle, or ‘BAR’ for short. But
designing weapons and having them accepted was
one side of the story; producing them was another.
Few machine guns or automatic rifles were actually
in the hands of the US Army by the time the war
ended, though production was to continue after the
war and Browning had in fact designed what was to
become the standard automatic weapon of the
American forces for many years.
Ever since the introduction of repeating rifles,
inventors had tried to perfect an ‘automatic’ or
‘semi-automatic’ rifle, the difference being that an
automatic rifle fired like a machine gun, so long as
the trigger was pressed, while a semi-automatic or
self-loader fired a single shot for each pressure of
the trigger. The advantage claimed was that with
either of these weapons the soldier would have
nothing to do, once he had loaded it, but lay the
sights on the target and press the trigger. However,
limited experience with the earliest models soon
showed that to fire a full-automatic rifle with the
heavy service cartridges of the day was out of the
question, since the arm leapt and bucked all over
the place. So the semi-automatic came into vogue,
though still called an ‘automatic’ to distinguish it
from the conventional hand-operated weapon. After
the advent of the BAR, though, the distinction was
necessary between full and semi-automatic weapons.
Semi-automatic rifles had been marketed for
several years as civilian arms. The Winchester
company, for example, marketed a thoroughly
serviceable weapon in 1905 in two calibres - .32in and
.35in - while the Remington company produced a
.35in model in the following year, a gun designed by
John Browning. Similarly, German, Belgian and
French gunmakers made sporting semi-automatic
rifles, but every one was a simple blowback using a
fairly low-power cartridge. Indeed, many of them
had special rounds designed for them in order to
obtain the best possible ballistics within the limita¬
tions of the blowback system. But when military
authorities expressed any interest in automatic
rifles, they invariably did so by issuing a list of
‘desirable features’, and heading the list was always
the demand that the breech had to be securely
locked at the moment of discharge and not unlocked
until the chamber pressure dropped to a safe level.
The first automatic rifle to gain service acceptance Top The Mondragon be shut off and the bolt
was a Danish design, adopted in limited quantities Automatic Rifle of 1903 worked manually,
by the Danish Navy in the 1880s. It was not a success, with German magazine.
however. The mechanism, suitably reworked, went The gas operation could Above Breech detail.
on to become the Madsen machine gun. Then came
the Italian Cei-Rigotti, using a gas piston to operate 1915. The Germans soon found that the mechanism
a normal type of bolt-action. But the first automatic was too delicate to stand up to the testing condi¬
rifle to gain wider acceptance came, strangely, from tions of the mud-logged Western Front and most of
Mexico, not usually thought of as being a source of the rifles, fitted with a special 30-shot drum maga¬
firearms designs. There General Manuel Mondragon zine, were issued to aviators. The German experience
invented a gas-operated rifle which was adopted in with automatic rifles on the ground seems to have
7mm calibre with an 8-round box magazine by the confirmed everyone’s worst suspicions about the
Mexican Army in 1908. The lack of manufacturing things, and little more was heard of the idea during
facilities in Mexico meant that it had to be made the war years. The only other design to come for¬
elsewhere - in Switzerland - and a number were ward, also in 1915, was a Mauser, but this too was
126 bought from the Swiss by the German Army in relegated to use by the German air forces after some
 Federov Automatic Rifle/RAPID FIRE

trials in the trenches. Chauchat who helped to design the ill-fated Chau¬
World War I had seen more attempts at building chat machine gun). It was a poor design, long, heavy
an acceptable semi-automatic rifle after the Mon¬ and badly-balanced and its 8mm Lebel cartridges
dragon and Mauser failures. In Russia a designer had to be loaded into a special 5-round clip to suit
named Vasiliy Federov had begun working on a the feed system of this gas-operated rifle. The
design as early as 1908; by 1916 it was good enough to designers persisted with it, producing a shorter,
be ordered into production and was used at the lighter model in 1918, but no amount of tinkering
front. Only the wretched supply and manufacturing could improve what was basically a bad weapon and
situation in Russia at that time prevented the eventually, in the 1930s, they were converted to
Federov ‘Automat’ from going into majorproduction manual, straight-pull bolt operation and given to
and service. One of the most unusual things about the French colonial troops.
Federov was that it was not designed for the standard There was, therefore, a fair amount of knowledge
Russian cartridge. This was a fat, rimmed-case, in the 1920s about semi-automatic rifles and how
7.62mm round which was an awkward shape for they could be expected to stand up to combat,
automatic feeding, and often of inconsistent manu¬ though it is doubtful if anyone in the West knew of
facture. After the Russo-Japanese War, on the other the Federov. As a result , the late 1920s saw a number
hand, the Russian Army, which had captured stocks of semi-automatic rifle designs put forward, notably
of Japanese 6.5mm rifles and ammunition, did some in the United States and Britain. One of the first
design exercises based on the Japanese Meiji cart¬ was the Farquhar-Hill, which had first appeared in
ridge, probably for no more than interest’s sake. Britain before 1914 as a recoil-operated rifle and was
Federov designed his rifle around this smaller round, then changed to gas operation. It was tried several
accepting the lower power in exchange for the lesser times by the British Army but was never accepted.
stress and lighter weapon which resulted. It is quite At first the grounds were its admitted early stage
remarkable that an Army generally considered to be of development and consequent unreliability, but
ultra-conservative - not to say hide-bound - was later there was a hardening of military arteries
willing to accept a weapon which demanded its own against semi-automatic rifles in general and it is
special ammunition, and it says a great deal for also believed that there was a personality clash
Federov’s design that it was good enough to over¬ between the inventors and the authorities. Whatever
come this objection. the reason, the Farquhar-Hill rifle, although con¬
The French also fielded a semi-automatic rifle, tinuously developed until 1930 to a very sound wea¬
known as the St. Etienne (from its place of manu¬ pon, never got any further.
facture) or ‘RSC’ (from the initials of the designers, Another contestant, tried in both the US and
Ribeyrolle, Sutter and Chauchat — yes, the same Britain, was the aptly-named ‘Bang’ rifle, invented 127
 RAPID FIRE/Bang Rifle

by Soren H. Bang, a Dane. This rifle used an idea Springfield Arsenal. There he perfected a self¬
first patented by Maxim in the 1880s but then aban¬ loading rifle which used a toggle-joint lock, similar
doned as impractical, the idea of trapping the escap¬ to that on the Parabellum pistol, but which was
ing gas at the muzzle, behind the bullet, and using it designed to act as a delayed blowback mechanism.
to operate the mechanism. A cone surrounded the It required careful design of the various cam sur¬
muzzle and this caught the blast and was thus faces in the toggle to obtain a slow initial movement
pulled forwards. By suitable linkage, a rod connected so that the chamber pressure could drop before the
to this cone unlocked and retracted the breech¬ breech began to open, followed by a rapid actuation
block, the usual spring being used to complete the to extract the case and reload. Unfortunately, this
return action. One minor advantage of the Bang meant that the extraction movement actually
rifle was that since the bullet had left the barrel began while the cartridge case was still tightly
before the gas could impinge on the muzzle trap, the expanded against the chamber walls4 and this fric¬
breech opening was always delayed until breech tion led to cartridge cases being torn in half. The
pressure had dropped. But apart from that there only solution to this sort of problem was to lubricate
was little to commend the Bang rifles. They were the cases, and Pedersen developed a dry-wax coating
expensive to make, easily deranged, and prone to applied during manufacture which made the rifle
overheating, and no one ever adopted them. work very well. But lubricated cases are not popular
One design which very nearly made it was the with military authorities. They tend to gather dust
American Pedersen. John Pedersen was a designer and carry it into the rifle chamber which actually
who had worked with the Remington company until makes things worse. So the Pedersen rifle was turned
the war, when he had gone to the government’s down.

A schematic diagram of German semi-automatic blows the cone forwards breech-block which is
the muzzle cone actuation rifle. A cone surrounding and this movement is driven back to open the
system used on the Bang the muzzle traps some of transferred, by an breech. Springs return the
128 Rifle and Walther M1941 the emergent gases. This operating rod, to the cone and breech-block.
 Pedersen Semi-Automatic Rifle/RAPID FIRE

Above The .276 Pedersen magazine, and was sighted

semi-automatic Rifle to 1,200yd (1,098m).
developed in 1923. Rejected by the US Army
in 1929, the Pedersen was
Below Detail of its made under licence in
toggle action. The 114.3cm England, but the British
(45in) rifle weighed 4.1kg Army declined it after
(9lb), had a 10-round tests in 1932.

At the same time, and in the same arsenal, another Mac Arthur and he, while approving of the rifle, was
American designer had produced a gas-operated not in favour of the .276in cartridge. Mac Arthur
semi-automatic rifle which fired the same .276in based his decision not on any ballistic grounds, but
cartridge as the Pedersen, though without requiring on the purely logistic viewpoint that the Army had
it to be lubricated. John Garand had first developed, stocks of several million rounds of the existing
in about 1920, a primer-actuated rifle in which the cartridge plus the machinery for making several
set-back of the primer unlocked the bolt, after which millions more, and that, with finance so short, it
blow-back action completed the loading cycle. He would be folly to change cartridges. He therefore
offered the design to the US Navy who examined it, ruled that the Garand had to accept the standard
considered it to be impractical and turned it down, .30in calibre cartridge, and the rifle had to be re¬
but offered Garand a post on the design staff at designed. It was finally ready in 1932 and was stand¬
Springfield which he accepted. There he continued ardized as the ‘Rifle .30 Ml’, but due to the prevailing
working on his rifle, changing the operation to a gas financial climate, production did not begin until
piston, and eventually, in competitive tests held in 1936. Even with this delay, the American Army
1929, the Garand was selected to be the future US became the first army in the world to adopt a semi¬
Army service rifle. automatic rifle as the standard arm of her infantry¬
The Chief of Staff at that time was General Douglas man. 129
 FAMOUS GUNS Springfield Model 1903 Rifle

In 1892, after examining

no fewer than 53 patterns
of breech-loading rifle, the
US Ordnance Department
standardized the Krag-
Jorgensen as the US
Army's new rifle. It was a
poor and inexplicable
choice, and in 1898 the
Spanish-American War
ruthlessly exposed the
’ Krag'sdeficencies when
it came up against the
latest Mauser rifles in the
hands of Spanish forces
defending Cuba. In a
nutshell the Krag was too
weak to fire a reasonably
powerful cartridge and it
could not be clip-loaded.
During 1900-1 the
Ordnance Department
deliberated again, testing Like all Mauser's later Above The Springfield's
Spanish and German designs, the Springfield breech closed. The rear
Mausers. Eventually they used a bolt with two sight is graduated to
decided that the Mauser locking lugs on the front 2,700yd (2,469m).
system was the one to end which locked into
adopt and they designed a recesses in the mouth of and the pattern remained
new rifle around the the chamber, plus an basically unchanged. The
Mauser bolt and auxiliary lug on the bolt main variants were the
magazine. According to body. This made for an easier manufactured
one story, a license was extremely strong bolt and M1903A3 adopted in 1942
obtained from Mauser. In an accurate weapon and the M1903A4 sniper
another version this though like all Mauser rifle with telescopic sights.
formality was overlooked bolts it could not be Production was 945,846
until Mauser claimed manipulated as quickly and 26,650 respectively.
indemnification for the as the Lee bolt action.
use of their design. Although officially
Whichever way it was, replaced by the Ml Garand SPRINGFIELD M1903
Mauser was paid $200,000 in 1936, the Springfield Calibre .30in
for the patented features. remained in service until Length 109.7cm (43.2in)
Development work was the end of World War II, Weight 3.94kg (8.691b)
Barrel 61.0cm (24.0in)
done at the Springfield since there were never Rifling 4 grooves, 1/hand
Arsenal, Massachusetts, enough Garands to arm Foresight Blade
Rear sight Aperture,
whence came the rifle's every GI. After 1945 the to 800yd (731m)
popular name; officially it Springfield was relegated Action Bolt
was 'Rifle, US, M1903'. As to training and home Rate of fire 12 rpm
Feed system 5-round
with the British Lee- defence. Even so, the US Integral magazine
Enfield of the same year, Marine Corps used it in Muzzle velocity
it was a short rifle for use the Korean War (1950-53). 853m/sec (2,800ft/sec)
Bullet weight 11.25g
by infantry and mounted About 2,250,000 (174gr)
130 troops. Springfields were made
 Garand Ml Rifle FAMOUS GUNS

automatically ejected
from the magazine.
In postwar years various
modifications were
designed, finishing up with
the M14 Rifle that replaced
the original Ml. The M14
is, in fact, little more than
a Garand with the less
desirable features removed.
The eight-round clip
loading system was
discarded because it was
impossible to top it up
with loose rounds between
shots and the ejected clip
could give away the firer
if it dropped on hard
ground. The replacement
was a removeable 20-
round box magazine. The
port for tapping gas to the
Above Loading an to ammunition availability. piston was moved nearer
8-round clip of .30in Operation of the Garand the breech. A cut-off gas
M1906 cartridges into the was by a gas piston below system was installed to
Garand"s breech. The the barrel which drove an give a more gentle action
cartridges are in two operating rod. This, by without sacrificing power.
staggered rows offour. means of a cam, rotated Finally, the calibre was
the bolt to unlock it, and altered to 7.62mm NATO.
Left US paratrooper of thrust it back to open the Garand Ml rifles were
82nd Airborne Division breech and eject the spent adopted by many nations
(1944-45 period) shown case. A return spring after the war and they
with his Garand rifle. around the piston rod then were also made under
pulled the rod and bolt licence by Beretta of Italy.
The Garand, or Rifle, back, stripping a round That firm’s BM59 rifle
US Ml, was the first from the magazine and series evolved from the
semi-automatic rifle to be chambering it before Garand and M14.
adopted by any army, and rotating the bolt to lock it.
there is no doubt that it A hammer, cocked by the GARAND Ml
helped establish the returning bolt, was then Calibre .30in
automatic rifle worldwide. released by the trigger to Length 110.7cm (43.6in)
Weight 4.31kg (9.51b)
By September 1941 only strike a firing pin inside Barrel 61.0cm (24.0in)
60,000 had been issued to the bolt. The loading Rifling 4 grooves, r/hand
the US Army but another system used an 8-round Foresight Blade
Rearsight Aperture,
four million were supplied clip dropped complete into to 1,200yd (1,100m)
in World War II. the magazine. A spring- Action Gas
Rate of fire 20rpm
It had been designed by loaded follower then
Feed system 8-round
John C. Garand at forced the cartridges out clip-fed magazine
Springfield Arsenal during of the clip. After the last Muzzle velocity
shot had been fired the bolt 853m/sec (2,800ft/sec)
1922-32. Originally Bullet weight 11.25g
developed in .276in calibre, remained open and the (174gr)
it was changed to .30in due empty clip was
 ROAD TO WAR
GUNS OF WORLD WAR II

— II HH^nt»* *»
fsmsm _
L I ■ •'"I"
 I
ROAD TO WAR/Chatellerault Machine Gun
t was not only the Inventors of submachine
guns and semi-automatic rifles who were at
work in the 1920s and 1930s. The clouds of war
were gathering over Europe, and every class of fire¬
arms came under scrutiny, their performance during
World War I being weighed and examined. The most
obvious area of interest was the light machine gun
field, since although light guns had been used during
the war, they were not, as a rule, satisfactory.
The French, having been the owners of the worst
gun - the Chauchat - were early in the race and set
about designing a replacement weapon in the early
1920s. They were astute enough to see that the
biggest obstacle to a successful gun was their 8mm
Lebel cartridge - a fat, conical, rimmed case, totally
unsuitable for automatic feed. Their task, therefore,
was to develop a new service round. After some work
with the 7.92mm Mauser cartridge, they decided to
take the 7.5mm Swiss service round as their model,
and in 1924 produced a cartridge and a machine gun
to suit. But instead of issuing it to the French Army,
it was offered for sale to the Jugoslav and Rumanian
governments. At demonstrations arranged for them,
the gun performed erratically, finally disgracing
itself by blowing up and seriously injuring the man
who was firing it. The purchasing commissions went
elsewhere for their machine guns while the French
went back to the workshops to try and improve
matters. The fault was eventually traced to the
ammunition. The cartridge was redesigned with a
shorter case and the weapon appeared once more in
1929 as the Chatellerault machine gun, named after
the manufacturing arsenal.
The Chatellerault used a gas-piston arrangement
and a method of breech-locking which owes a great
deal to the Browning Automatic Rifle. A gas piston
below the barrel drove the bolt back and, on the
return stroke, chambered a fresh cartridge from the
magazine. As the breech closed, the rear end of the Czech machine gun made by the Zbrojovka Brno
bolt was thrust up so that it became wedged firmly company and he thought it so good that the powers-
against shoulders formed inside the gun body, so that-were back in Whitehall ought to hear about it.
that the breech was securely locked. It was fed from Surprisingly, the authorities took some notice,
a box magazine mounted above the body, and had a bought a gun and some ammunition, and tried it out.
short bipod. One unusual feature was the provision The ZB Model 26, as the Czech gun was known, was
of two triggers, the rear trigger giving automatic a gas-operated light gun which, like so many of its
fire and the front trigger used for firing single shots. contemporaries including the Chatellerault, locked
In its final form the Chatellerault was a reliable and the bolt by tipping it up to wedge in front of shoul¬
successful weapon. ders in the gun body. A box magazine fed into the
Britain was also looking for a machine gun. The top of the action, and the barrel was finned in order
Hotchkiss and Lewis both had their defects, and in to assist cooling. The gas was tapped off close to the
1932 a series of tests of possible replacements took muzzle, giving a slow rate of fire and a very smooth
place. The most favoured gun was the Vickers- action, and the piston and gas cylinder were of
Berthier, designed by a French Army officer, Andre stainless steel in order to resist corrosion. One
Berthier, in the early 1920s and manufactured in unique feature was a quick-release device at the
Britain by Vickers. A gas-operated gun which used front of the gun body which allowed the barrel to be
a similar bolt-locking system to the Browning Auto¬ removed in a couple of seconds and replaced by a
matic Rifle, it fed from a top-mounted magazine, fresh, cool, barrel. This allowed sustained fire to be
had very few moving parts, and could be rapidly kept up and also, by changing barrels before they
dismantled without the use of any tools. The Indian got too hot, reduced the erosive wear caused by the
Army adopted it in 1933, but while the British Army high temperature of the internal gases.
were still considering the matter they were advised Tests in Britain showed that the Model 26 was
of a new design by the military attache at the British definitely the best gun available, but the British
134 Embassy in Prague. He had seen specimens of a Army felt that one or two minor improvements
Bren Gun/ROAD TO WAR
Previous page The
working parts of the Bren
LMG cut away. The piston
and bolt, magazine and
spring, and attachment of
the interchangeable
barrel can all be seen.
Cutaway weapons of this
type were made in the
Royal Small Arms Factory
(Enfield, Middlesex), often
by apprentices, for use as
demonstration and
instructional models.

Above Bren Mk 1
mounted unusually on a
tripod for the sustained
fire role, especially fixed-
line firing at night. The
tripod could also be
re-assembled as an A A
mount.

Left Two Australian Bren

gunners advance in New
Guinea, 1943. One man
has lowered the gun's
bipod to rest its 10.15kg
(22.3lb) weight on the tree
stump. The other carries
his Bren on a sling with
the bipod folded forward. 135
 ROAD TO WAR/Bren Gun
would make it nearly perfect. In the first place, it reliability; very good accuracy; and steadiness in
had to be chambered for the British .303in rimmed firing and a fairly low rate of fire which allowed
cartridge, and not the 7.92mm rimless Mauser in better aim and did not waste ammunition. It was
which calibre the test gun had been supplied. The easy to teach; easy to use, with very few drills to
barrel was then to be shortened, to make the gun learn (the Lewis, for example, had 23 different kinds
rather more handy to carry; the gas port brought of possible stoppage and the gunner had to know
nearer the breech; the sight graduated in Imperial them all by heart - the Bren had just three); and it
yards; and the magazine changed from a straight was easy to strip and maintain. Not only did it serve
box to a curved one, to cater for the rimmed British the British Army (and Commonwealth armies)
cartridge. These were done in a surprisingly short throughout World War II, but it was also made in
time. The resulting gun was officially called the Canada for the Chinese Nationalist Army and, in
ZB Model 33. Only about a dozen were made in its original Model 26 form, was used by the German
Czechoslovakia, solely as sales specimens for demon¬ Army as well. Re-chambered for the 7.62mm NATO
stration in Britain. There the gun was approved, cartridge it still serves today in Britain and many
and production facilities were set up at the Royal other countries.
Small Arms Factory, Enfield. Drawings were receiv¬ Although the German Army used the ZB26, this
ed in January 1935 and the first guns came off the was simply because they needed every machine gun
production line in September 1937. they could lay their hands on by the middle of the
By the time World War II broke out in September war. Their stated doctrine, though, did not embrace
1939, guns were coming off at a rate of 400 a week. the light machine gun as such. The German Army
All that was left was to give it a name, since the was the first to perceive the need for a ‘universal’
British Army, at that time, did not follow the rest machine gun - one which could function as the
of the world in giving numbers and dates to their squad light machine gun today, and tomorrow func¬
weapons. Taking the BR from BRno, the place tion as a sustained-fire medium machine gun for
where the gun had been designed, and adding EN long-range harassing fire - tasks which, in every
from ENfield, where it was being made, gave BREN - other army, were split between two distinctly
and so the Bren gun was born. different types of gun.
The Bren gun was undoubtedly among the best On the face of it, trying to reconcile these two
machine gun designs of all time. It offered absolute tasks was attempting the impossible. The light gun

Germany's two
general purpose MGs in
World War II designed for
tripod, bipod or AA
mountings. This all¬
purpose concept originated
after World War I when
Germany was forbidden to
make heavy MGs.

Right
The 12.1kg (26.7lb) MG34 is
being carried by a
Volksgrenadier corporal
with a pannier full of
spares and cleaners.

Far right The MG42

was .44kg (1.2lb) lighter
with a 95mm (3.75in)
shorter barrel. It had a
roller-tipped bolt as
opposed to the MG34's
rotating bolt. Once the
bolt is locked into the
breech another forward
movement by the bolt (red
arrow) fires the round.
The MG42 could not fire
single shots but had a top
cyclic rate of1,300rpm
as against the MG34's
136 900rpm.
 MG30 and MG34/ROAD TO WAR
needed to be light, so that it could be easily carried to unlock by two rollers riding in cam tracks in the
by one man with the infantry section; it did not tubular gun body. It was a very slender weapon, the
have to fire more than short bursts, so cooling was body being a prolongation of the barrel and the butt
no particular problem; and its function in life was a prolongation of the body, giving a ‘straight line’
to provide covering fire for the riflemen who were configuration. This delivered the recoil in a straight
the basis around which the infantry section was line to the firer’s shoulder, instead of via a bent
built. The medium machine gun, on the other hand, butt-stock, and this helped to prevent the gun muzzle
needed the ability to keep up sustained fire; a long from rising when fired. The barrel was surrounded
range; a tripod or other heavy mounting; and usually by a perforated jacket which allowed cooling air to
some form of optical sight so that the guns could be circulate, and the barrel could be rapidly changed
sited in concealed positions and still fire on indicated simply by twisting the butt through 90° and pulling
targets. it off, drawing out the bolt, and then pulling the
The Germans argued with much of this, particu¬ barrel out through the back of the gun body.
larly with the role of the light machine gun. In their About 5,000 of these were made, being sold to
view, the gun was the base of fire for the infantry Austria and Hungary. The German Army took only
section, the rifles being there solely to keep the a few because they were not entirely convinced that
enemy off the machine-gunner’s back. Therefore it was the best weapon available. They passed some
the gun had to be the best available. It had to be samples of the gun to the Mauser company and
just light enough to be carried, but it also had to be asked for the design to be improved.
tough enough to do duty as a medium gun. When Mauser had finished with it, the MG30 bore
When the restrictions imposed on Germany by the very little resemblance to the gun the Army had
Versailles Treaty began to lose their teeth, one of given them. The MG30 originally used a box maga¬
the first guns to be offered to the German Reichswehr zine feeding from the left side. That had gone, and
was from the Solothurn Company of Switzerland the new design fed either from a 250-round belt or,
which, as we have already seen, was a ‘front’ for by changing the top cover of the body, from a 75-
Rheinmetall of Dusseldorf. The Solothurn MG30 round ‘saddle drum’ magazine. The rotating bolt
(Maschinengewehr 1930) designed by Louis Stange, went, replaced by a bolt in which only the head
was an extremely advanced design which used barrel rotated, locking into the breech by interrupted
recoil to drive back the bolt, which was then rotated threads. A gas trap was fitted to the muzzle to make
the gun recoil faster and thus boost the rate of fire
to 850 rounds a minute. The barrel changing system
was modified by making the gun body hinge to the
back end of the barrel jacket, so that by swinging
the gun body to the side, the barrel could be pulled
feed cover straight out of the jacket. And finally the trigger
(in open position) mechanism was changed and a double trigger fitted.
Pressure on the top portion of the trigger gave
single shots, while pressure on the bottom gave
automatic fire. A bipod was fitted to the barrel
jacket for squad work, while a tripod was available
for sustained fire. The German Army was delighted.
It called it their MG34 (Maschinengewehr 1934) and
it became Germany’s standard machine gun.
The MG34 only had one fault - it was too good. The
quality of workmanship demanded meant extremely
precise and long manufacturing processes, and the

137
 FAMOUS GUNS Browning GP35

have done so had not the the Browning slightly

war intervened. During more accurate. The barrel
1940-44 the occupied bushing in the front of the
Herstal factory made frame was also changed,
319,000 pistols for the and the magazine made to
German Army. But the take 13 rounds instead of
design drawings were got seven. Unfortunately this
out to England and thence led to a change in the
to Canada where the John trigger mechanism layout
Inglis Company of Toronto that has caused complaints
produced 151,800 from target shooters, but
John Browning was was finished in February Brownings for the Chinese since this pistol was
never a man to sit on his 1927, FN continued their Nationalist Army followed designed for battle, this
hands if he thought work and in 1928 the by the Canadian Army and objection can hardly be
something needed pistol had reached its final British airborne troops. sustained. The GP-35 is
improving. No sooner had form - a hammer-fired After the war production undoubtedly one of the
the Colt M1911 pistol gone weapon with a double-row reverted to FN. Since then world's great guns and a
into service with the US magazine holding the the GP-35 has become the fitting tribute to the genius
Army than Browning was unprecedented number standard NATO military of Browning.
designing a better one. of 13 cartridges. pistol and been adopted by
Due to World War I the Unfortunately the Wall many other countries. Above Browning 1935
idea was shelved until the Street Crash of1929 put an Browning's design High Power Automatic
1920s. In conjunction with end to any hope of putting changes from the Colt Pistol (US nomenclature).
Belgian Fabrique National the pistol on the market. Ml911 pattern were small
D'Armes de Guerre of Firearms sales slumped but effective. The swinging GP35
Herstal (near Liege), and FN's management link was changed into a Calibre 9mm Parabellum
Browning had completed decided to withhold capital Length 197mm (7.75in)
fixed ramp under the Weight 0.99kg (2.181b)
the first prototype by the investment until things breech end of the barrel. Barrel 118mm (4.65in)
end of1923. This was a improved. Production This worked against a Rifling 4 grooves, r/hand
striker-fired pistol twist
finally got underway in cross-pin on the pistol Foresight Blade
chambered for the 9mm late 1934, and in 1935 the frame. The effect is the Rearsight Fixed
Parabellum cartridge. In ‘Grande Puissance, same, to pull down the V-notch
Action Recoil
1924 the striker was Modele 1935' was adopted barrel's breech end and Rate of fire 25rpm
abandoned in favour of an as the Belgian Army's free the locking lugs from Feed system 13-round
external hammer and more service pistol. The Baltic box magazine
the slide. But the shaping Muzzle velocity
prototypes followed. States, China, Peru and of the ramp avoids tipping 335m/sec (l,110ft/sec)
Browning died in Rumania soon bought the barrel as soon as recoil Bullet weight 7.45g
138 December 1926, the design GP-35s and others would (115gr)
starts and thus makes the
 Beretta Modello 1934 FAMOUS GUNS

The Beretta Company, The design was gradually ranges the Beretta was It has also sold widely in
with a long and refined until in 1934 the normally fired. the commercial market,
distinguished record of Model 1934 became the The Model 1935 was the and, at the time of writing,
making sporting arms, standard-issue pistol. 1934 pistol chambered for has just been revamped
went into the pistol field This used the same sort of 7.65mm cartridges and into the Model 92 with a
during World War I to open-fronted slide, but had adopted by the Italian Air 15-shot magazine and a
produce a sidearm for the an external hammer, and Force. The basic design double-action lockwork.
Italian Army. The Model the barrel could be removed has been retained since There seems to be little
1915 was a 7.65mm by pulling back the slide for commercial pistols in doubt that this will become
blowback pistol designed and rotating the safety various calibres. The a popular military pistol
by Tullio Marengoni, later catch to lock it back. As the Model 84, introduced late in the tradition begun by
famous for the Beretta catch rotated, so its shaft, in 1977, looks much like the Model 1915.
SMG designs, and it laid inside the frame, came the Ml934 except for
down the basic outline clear of the lug holding streamlining and a double¬ Below Beretta 9mm
that has characterized the barrel and only a smart action lockwork. Modello 1934, standard
Beretta pistols ever since. tap on the barrel was After World War lithe service pistol of the Italian
The barrel was pinned to needed to take it out 9mm Short cartridge was Army and Navy. The date
the frame, with a slide for cleaning. no longer acceptable as a of manufacture indicates
unit forming a breech The Model 34 was combat round. After the calendar year and also
behind the barrel and with chambered for the 9mm joining NATO, which the 21st year of the
arms reaching alongside Short cartridge, a round standardized on the 9mm Fascist regime.
the barrel to contain a low-powered enough to Parabellum for pistols and
recoil spring below. The work safely in a blowback SMGs, the Italian Army BERETTA Modello 1934
pistol was fired by an pistol but with enough adopted a new Beretta, the Calibre 9mm Short
internal hammer. bullet mass to make a Model 51, in 1957. This Length 152mm (6in)
Weight 0.66kg (1.461b)
This weapon found practical combat weapon still uses the open-fronted Barrel 94mm (3.75in)
immediate favour with its if not a devastatingly slide layout with external Rifling 4 grooves, r/hand
users; the contemporary hammer but locks the Foresight Blade
lethal one. Its only serious Rearsight Fixed U-notch
service pistol was the 9mm drawback was a lack of breech with a wedge Action Blowback
Glisenti which had a accuracy, since the sights similar to that used on the Rate of fire 20rpm
Feed system 7-round
number of defects. The were not on the barrel and Walther P-38. The result box magazine
small size and complete wear soon caused the slide was a very good military Muzzle velocity
reliability of the Beretta to move and misalign the pistol used also by the 250m/sec (825ft/sec)
Bullet weight 6.16g
more than compensated for sights. But this was less armies and secret services (95gr)
the reduction in calibre. important over the short of Egypt and Israel.

139
 ROAD TO WAR/MG42 and Browning GP35 Automatic Pistol
fit and finish of the parts was so fine that relatively to be provided in order to build up stocks.
minor quantities of dust or dirt could upset it. After John Browning had never been completely satis¬
the war broke out, there were five major factories in fied with the Colt M1911 .45in pistol which the US
Germany doing nothing but making MG34s as hard Army had adopted, and he kept playing with the
as they could, backed up by a number of smaller design throughout the war years. Colt, however,
firms making components. By 1941 it was obvious were happy with the M1911, so Browning took the
that a new design, easier and quicker to make, was road to Belgium once more and interested the
needed, but even so the MG34 continued in production Fabrique Nationale of Liege, and with their engin¬
until the end of the war. It has been reliably estimat¬ eers he produced a prototype pistol in 1923. Modifica¬
ed that there were probably more MG34s in use tions and more prototypes followed until Browning
during the war than any other single model. died in 1926. In the following year the FN engineers
Its replacement, easier and quicker to manufac¬ took out the patents for the new pistol. It had
ture, was the MG42. The mechanism was changed to been intended to put it into production in 1929, but
use a non-rotating bolt which locked into the breech the Depression put paid to any such plan and the
by means of two rollers which were cammed out¬ FN company decided to conserve their capital until
wards. Movement of the bolt drove a pivoted arm in things got better. This happened in 1934 and the new
the gun’s top cover and this, in turn, drove feed design went into production in the following year
pawls which lifted the ammunition belt into the as the ‘Pistolet a Grande Puissance, Modele 35’.
gun. Barrels could be changed in a matter of seconds Since ‘Grande Puissance’ translates as ‘High Power’,
by unlatching the breech end and swinging the it has since become known as the Browning High
barrel out through a slot in the cooling jacket. Power or the GP35.
Some 750,000 MG42s were made before the war ended. Browning’s principal innovation was to alter the
In postwar years many nations took them into use, ‘swinging link’ system of locking, changing it to a
and when the German Army was reformed in the fixed cam under the breech. He also improved the
1950s they looked no further than the MG42 when a magazine (in the butt) so that it would now hold
new machine gun was required. Now in 7.62mm thirteen 9mm Parabellum cartridges in a double
NATO chambering, the MG1 (as it is now known) column and yet still keep grip dimensions which
continues to serve with distinction. the average hand could hold. The GP35 was an
The other field of inter-war activity lay with instant success,being purchased by several European
pistols. World War I marked, for many nations, the armies, though, since the Belgian Army had first
borderline between military revolvers and military priority, deliveries were relatively small. After
automatic pistols, and the vast numbers of pistols World War II it was widely adopted elsewhere.
used up during the war meant that many second-rate The Polish Army had considerable weapons
weapons had to be bought. In the aftermath of the problems in the 1930s because it was armed with a
war, many countries decided to make a clean sweep, haphazard collection of equipment left behind by
get rid of the various handguns they held, and start the previous occupying forces, dumped as the course
with a fresh model. of World War I had flowed to and fro, and acquired
Some degree of argument still arose over the as reparations and free gifts after the war. To bring
relative advantages of the revolver and the auto¬ some order into the pistol inventory, a competition
matic pistol, even though the war had shown that was advertised to which all comers were invited in
automatics were quite viable combat weapons. order to select a standard service pistol.
Briefly, the arguments in favour of either can be Against some very powerful competition, the
summed up as follows: winners were two Polish designers, Wilniewczyc and
The revolver is more robust and reliable; it is readily Skrzpinski, who produced a pistol built on very
seen to be loaded or empty; and is not stopped by similar lines to the GP35. It used a similar sort of
poor ammunition, since simply pulling the trigger cam beneath the barrel to withdraw the locking
places a fresh cartridge under the hammer - with an lugs from the slide, which argues some sort of licence
automatic pistol, the failure of one cartridge jams from Fabrique Nationale of Belgium, though no
the gun. public disclosure of such an arrangement has ever
The automatic, on the other hand, carries more been made. One rather unusual feature of the Polish
rounds in the magazine than the revolver; it is Model 35 was that, with the pistol loaded and a
faster to reload if spare magazines are available; cartridge in the chamber, pressing a catch at the
it is ballistically more efficient, since there is no rear end of the slide would lower the hammer and
leak of gas at the cylinder/barrel junction; and it is disconnect it from the trigger so that the pistol
generally more compact than a revolver of equal could be carried safely. To make it ready for use,
calibre. all that was necessary was to thumb the hammer
Such apparently clear-cut statements obviously back to full cock.
invite a number of qualifications, and even today The French Army’s standard handgun was the
there is still room for argument and discussion. Mle 1892 8mm revolver, a venerable weapon of great
Nevertheless, the 1920s saw a great deal of develop¬ robustness but one which was outclassed by this
ment in automatic pistols for the simple reason that time. During the War, vast numbers of cheap Span¬
most of the service revolvers were of pre-1900 vintage ish blowback automatic pistols of dubious quality
140 and were feeling their age, and something fresh had had been purchased in order to provide the numbers
 Walther Pistols/ROAD TO WAR
of pistols needed, and in the late 1920s it was decided danger threatened, the revolver could be drawn, and
to sweep all these away in favour of a new French a quick pull through on the trigger would cock and
design. Eventually a design from the Societe Alsa- release the hammer to fire the pistol immediately.
cienne de Constructions Mechanique (SACM) was What Walther did was to take the revolver’s
adopted as the Modele 1935. It seems that 1935 was ‘double action’ and apply it to the automatic pistol.
a good year for pistols. It must be said that Walther was not the first to do
This Mle 35 was designed by Charles Petter, an this, but he was the first to do it efficiently and to
enigmatic Swiss who had worked for SACM as a make a commercial success of it. With the Walther
designer for some time and, once again, there is Model PP, you inserted a full magazine, then pulled
little doubt that Petter was influenced by the back on the slide and released it so as to chamber a
Browning-FN patent of 1927 since he also used the cartridge and cock the hammer. You then pushed
fixed cam in place of the swinging link. Generally down the safety catch, which was, unusually, on the
speaking, the pistol was a sound and reliable weapon, slide instead of the pistol frame. Pressure on this
but it was handicapped by being designed around catch first rotated a steel block into place between
an odd cartridge - the 7.65mm French service ‘Lon¬ the firing pin and the hammer, and then released
gue’ round - which had insufficient calibre or energy the hammer to fall on to the block. The pistol could
to be a worthwhile military cartridge. It is said that now be carried in perfect safety. When required, the
experimental pistols in 9mm Parabellum were made safety catch was pushed clear, turning the block
for the Rumanian government shortly before the out of the way, and the trigger pulled, causing the
outbreak of World War II, but no production of hammer to rise to full cock and then fall on to the
these ever took place. This was a pity, since in 9mm firing pin to fire the round in the chamber. Once the
Parabellum it could have been a very good pistol. pistol fired, the normal recoil action of the slide
The German Army, of course, had the Parabellum re-cocked the hammer at each shot, so that the
pistol, which had served them well since 1908. But second and subsequent shots were fired in the usual
the Parabellum had been designed in those spacious ‘single-action’ mode.
days when skilled workmen came cheap, and making Walther’s pistol was an instant success and was
a pistol was a matter of taking a slab of steel and widely adopted by police forces all over the Contin¬
machining about 90 per cent of it away until you ent. It was followed by his PPK (Polizei Pistole,
had what you needed. This sort of design was, by the Kriminal) intended for concealed carriage by plain¬
1930s, becoming outdated. What was needed was a clothes police. This pistol was simply a slightly
design specifically aimed at mass production, speed smaller version of the PP, also chambered for the
of manufacture, and, where possible, cheapness; all, 7.65mm cartridge, and having the same double¬
of course, without sacrificing reliability, robustness action lock.
or accuracy. It was a tall order, but the Walther When the Army began looking for a new service
company felt they could meet it. pistol to supplant the Parabellum, Walther’s first
Walther had been making pocket pistols since reaction was to enlarge the Model PP to take 9mm
about 1908, but except for a brief excursion under Parabellum, call it the Model MP (Militarisches
pressure in 1916-18, they had not attempted a military Pistole) and offer that. The Army were not particu¬
pistol, nor had they made a locked-breech model. larly impressed. A blowback pistol in 9mm Parabel¬
They had won considerable fame in 1929 when they lum demanded a powerful recoil spring to hold the
placed their Model PP (for Polizei Pistole) on the breech closed until chamber pressure had dropped
market. This was in 7.65mm calibre, and was a to a safe level, and once the spring began to age and
shapely blowback pistol which introduced something lost its original power, troubles followed.
quite unusual in automatics - a double-action lock. Walther then went away and came back with
With the average automatic pistol, the options for something totally different - a locked-breech pistol
carrying it about were two. Having inserted a full firing 9mm Parabellum which used a wedge below
magazine, you could then either leave it at that, the barrel to hold barrel and slide together until
keep the chamber empty, and, when the need arose, the bullet was out of the muzzle. It also had the
grasp the slide and pull it back so as to cock the double-action lock, but had the hammer concealed
hammer and load the chamber; or you could work inside the slide. This was sound engineering, but it
the slide as soon as you had put the magazine in, does not appeal to armies, since one cannot tell
set the safety catch, and walk around with the whether or not the pistol is cocked by simply look¬
hammer cocked over a loaded chamber, relying on ing at it. Walther therefore went away again and
the safety catch to prevent any untoward accident. redesigned the pistol to have an external hammer.
Neither of these options were entirely satisfactory This time the Army approved, and the ‘Pistole 38’
for police or military applications. If the gun were or ‘P-38’ was authorized as the standard German
carried loaded and cocked, there was danger of an Army pistol. Issues began in 1939, but production of
accident. If it was carried with the chamber empty the Parabellum P-08 was to continue until 1942, so
and the hammer uncocked, then two hands were great was the demand for pistols.
needed to bring it into action. Germany’s other requirement was a submachine
Revolvers, of course, did not have this problem. gun. The Spanish Civil War (1936-39), which elements
The six chambers were loaded, and the hammer of the German forces had attended, brought the
rested clear of the cartridge, in perfect safety. When submachine gun into prominence, and demonstrated
 FAMOUS GUNS Walther P38

The Pistole ’08 had a a sear catch which released solidly so that when the barrel but allowed the
sound reputation in the the hammer to drop until hammer fell, the pin could slide to go back and
German Army but by the its face struck the rear end not go forwards and fire a complete the unloading¬
early 1930s it had to be of the slide. The pistol round. This demanded loading-cocking cycle. On
admitted that it was not a could then be bolstered high-quality material, and the return slide stroke, the
design which lent itself to and carried in absolute it is known that some of barrel was forced
mass production. The safety. When required, all the pistols made by a sub¬ forwards, the wedge
Army therefore asked for that was needed was to contractor late in the war lifting to lock barrel and
a new design, and the release the safety catch used poor quality steel in slide together again.
outcome was the Walther and pull the trigger. the firing pins. These, after As well as being adopted
P-38. Releasing the catch some use, crystallized and by the German Army, the
The principal novelty of dropped the firing pin fractured when the Walther was sold to the
the P-38 was the double¬ back into line and pulling hammer fell, firing the Swiss Army to become the
action lock, used for the the trigger lifted and cartridge in the chamber, P-39. A small number were
first time on a military dropped the hammer to to the surprise of the pistol made available to the civil
pistol. Also new was the fire the pistol. Thereafter, owner and probably to the market but during the war
rather complex safety shots could be fired in the discomfiture of some this production was taken
mechanism. Several usual semi-automatic unsuspecting by-stander. over by the Luftwaffe.
commentators had fashion. That flaw apart, the P-38 The Army's heavy demand
misgivings about these In fact the Army P-38 was a fine pistol. The led to contracts going to
features, but Walther had made a slight change to breech was securely locked Mauser and Spreewerke
been using them on smaller this mechanism in the when firing by a wedge GmbH of Berlin.
weapons since 1929. With interests of quicker unit under the barrel. The In postwar years the
the gun loaded and the manufacture, by omitting wedge moved back with the P-38 returned as the P-I of
hammer locked, pressing the mechanism which barrel and this in turn the West German Armed
on the safety catch lifted withdrew the firing pin forced the slide back, until Forces. It is also available
the firing pin and moved into the slide. In the the rear edge of the wedge in 7.65mm and 9mm
it inside the slide. The military version, the firing locked into a recess in the Parabellum, and .22in
142 firing pin then pressed on pin was merely locked pistol frame. This held the rimflre chambering.
 Walther P38 FAMOUS GUNS

The picture shows the

Walther P-38’s compact
lines. This poorly-finished
gun produced in World
War II was made by
Spreewerke GmbH of
Berlin. Production of the
P-38 up to 1945 totalled
1,240,000.

WALTHER P38
Calibre 9mm
Parabellum
Length 212mm (8.38in)
Weight 0.840kg (1.841b)
Barrel 127mm (5.0in)
Rifling 6 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
Rearsight Fixed
U-notch
Action Recoil
Rate of fire 30rpm
Feed system 8-round
magazine
Muzzle velocity
380m/sec (l,246ft/sec)
Bullet weight 7.45g
(115gr)
143
 ROAD TO WAR/Maschinenpistole 38
firing pin — bolt

heat dissipating bar

some of its overlooked virtues. It was simple to Above Cutaway of the

teach, easy to use, and cheap to make. The battle¬ Maschinenpistole 38. Like
grounds of Spain showed that it was an ideal weapon the Bergmann MP18 it
to put into the hands of hurriedly-enlisted troops fired from the open-bolt
with little training, and, by extension from this, it position. During firing the
was obviously an ideal weapon for large conscript bolt was blown back
armies suddenly mobilized for war. against the firing pin unit,
As with every other army, the Germans had looked so compressing the
at submachine guns, even bought a few, but, also telescoping recoil-spring
like every other traditional army, they were not unit (the MP38ys novel
quite sure where the submachine gun fitted. Spain feature) against the rear
showed the answer - it fitted well with the blitzkrieg of the frame. The
(‘lightning war’) idea, because the submachine gun magazine held 32 rounds
was essentially a weapon for the attack. With a of 9mm Parabellum
submachine gun you did not sit in a trench and snipe ammunition that could be
away at, say, 300m range; you got out of the trench fired at up to 500 rpm.
and got in close, otherwise the gun was useless. And Foresight was an open
this sort of tactic went well with the Panzer theories. U-notch with an L rear
So the Wehrmacht began looking for a submachine flip sight graduated for
gun. 100 and 200m (1101219yd).
As it happened the Ermawerke factory of Erfurt Over 1,047,400 of this
was ready with a design. Erma had a designer called weapon and its
Heinrich Vollmer who had been working on sub¬ development, the MP40,
machine guns since the 1920s and had developed a were produced, 1938-1945.
unique telescoping recoil-spring unit which formed
the heart of a number of Erma designs. The bolt was Right The ubiquitous
much the same as the original Bergmann, a hollowed- PPSh41 7.62mm SMG in
out unit which carried inside it the firing pin. But the hands of a Black Sea
in the Vollmer design the firing pin formed part of Fleet sailor. This version
the foremost of three light metal tubes which has the 35-round box
telescoped into each other and contained the recoil magazine instead of the
spring. This meant that the spring unit could be more common 71-round
easily removed for cleaning and maintenance. drum housing. (The
In 1938 the German Army asked the manager of ammunition belts are not
Ermawerke to produce them a compact, reliable and for the SMG.)
cheap submachine gun. He was back within weeks
bearing a prototype, since the design had already
been under way. The Army found it acceptable and
it was immediately adopted as the MP (Maschinen- folding steel butt-stock. It has, ironically, gone down
pistole) 38. It was to become the archetypal German in popular history as the ‘Schmeisser’ submachine
submachine gun. No present-day television play or gun, though Hugo Schmeisser - designer of the
film portraying the German Army would dare be ‘Bergmann’ MP18 - had nothing whatever to do with
without an MP38 across somebody’s chest. It broke its design.
new ground in several respects. It was the first Another army which had some practical experi¬
weapon to use nothing but metal and plastic - no ence in Spain and which saw the advantages of sub¬
wooden stock or pistol grip; the first to utilize machine guns was the Soviet Army. It too had
144 stamped steel components; and the first to adopt a dabbled with submachine gun designs and in fact
 PPD-34 Submachine Gun/ROAD TO WAR
telescoping return spring case ^ rearsight return spring

butt

dismantling catch sear

trigger
magazine

had one in limited production. This was the PPD-34

(Pistolet Pulemyot Degtyaryova or ‘Machine Pistol
designed by Degtyaryov’), and in 1938 it was slightly
modified and the production stepped up. It was a
fairly conventional design, which appears to have
leaned heavily on the Bergmann MP18 and the
Suomi for its inspiration, to the extent of copying
the Suomi drum magazine. However, a box magazine
was also provided, and in order to simplify the
magazine housing, the drum was given an odd up¬
ward extension, resembling the top 5cm (2in) of the
box magazine, so that it could be pushed into the
box-magazine housing. This was not a particularly
good idea, and Degtyaryov set about redesigning
the weapon, at the same time making it easier to
produce. The result became the PPD-40, since it was
first made in 1940, and while it retained much the
same mechanism and layout as the earlier model, it
used the Suomi magazine without alteration, the
gun’s housing being suitably altered and the alter¬
native box magazine dropped.
1940, of course, found Britain faced with the possi¬
bility of invasion, and having lost far too many
weapons on the far side of the Channel. Submachine
guns appeared as a quick and cheap way to provide
ample firepower for the Home Guard, volunteers,
airfield guards, Commandos and just plain soldiers.
The only question was, which design to adopt? In
late 1939 a number of Thompsons had been bought
from the US and used by fighting patrols on the 145
 ROAD TO WAR/Sten Gun
Franco-German border. These troops had reported A curious by-product of the Sten Gun was the
favourably on the Tommy gun’s reliability, but adoption of silenced weapons. Commando and other
were less enthusiastic about the characteristic raiding parties using Sten guns asked if a silent
drum magazine. Apparently the cartridges inside version could be developed for use in night raids.
were prone to slap back and forth as the weapon was The silent firearm had long been the target of a
carried, advertising the patrol’s presence for kilo¬ number of inventors, and it had been popularized
metres around. The drum magazine vanished at by novels and films, but the hard facts of the matter
once, never to be seen again on a military Thompson. were very different to the popular impression.
Unfortunately, while the Thompson was consid¬ The noise arising when a firearm is discharged
ered to be the best submachine gun available, it was comes from two sources - the explosion of the cart¬
extremely expensive, slow to manufacture and, of ridge in the chamber, which becomes audible when
course, had to be brought across the Atlantic. the high-velocity gases emerge from the gun muzzle;
Something cheaper and capable of manufacture in and secondly from the bullet itself as it goes through
Britain was wanted, and after looking at various the air faster than the speed of sound. Today, people
designs, it was decided to take the original Berg- are familiar with sonic booms, but in the early 1940s
mann of 1918, as later modified to take a straight box few but scientists had ever heard of them. To silence
magazine, and build it in England. Some slight a weapon effectively, therefore, not only had the
redesign was done in order to suit British dimension¬ cartridge to be muffled, but the bullet had to be
ing and methods, and the ‘Lanchester4 submachine sub-sonic, otherwise it announced its arrival with a
gun was born. The Lanchester was tested, and plans distinct crack.
were drawn up for putting it into production. Since the Sten gun fired the 9mm Parabellum
But at the proverbial eleventh hour, two designers, cartridge with a muzzle velocity of about 365m per
Major R. V. Shepherd and Mr H. J. Turpin, of the second (l,200ft/sec), and since the speed of sound is
Design Department of the Royal Small Arms Fac¬ about 335m/sec (l,100ft/sec), both sounds had to be
tory at Enfield, appeared with a submachine gun dealt with. The solution was to fit a special short
they had developed. It was demonstrated in January barrel, drilled with holes so as to release gas from
1941, passed all the acceptance tests, and became the behind the bullet and thus lower the velocity to a
immortal Sten gun - the name being derived in a sub-sonic level. This barrel was then surrounded by
similar fashion to that of the Bren, from the initials a long tubular casing containing cupped baffles and
of the designers and the place of birth of the design. sealed at the muzzle by a rubber disc. The casing
The Sten was the British Army’s introduction to was perforated, and around it went an outer casing,
the ‘functional firearm’, and it horrified many of the separated from the inner by a series of felt rings.
old school. It was simply a metal tube, one end of Thus, when a shot was fired, the bullet had its veloc¬
which held a barrel and the other end of which had ity reduced by the perforated barrel, and the gases
a bolt and return spring working in it, held in by a which left the barrel were trapped by the baffles and
simple bayonet-cap. The magazine entered from the swirled around inside the inner casing before escap¬
left side of the weapon, so that it could lie across ing into the outer casing. All this movement gradu¬
the firer’s forearm for additional stability and it ally reduced the gases’ velocity until, by the time
did not interfere when the gun was being fired from they escaped to the atmosphere, they were moving
the prone position. The butt was a simple frame of too slowly to generate any sound waves. Just 15m
welded tube, the trigger mechanism was concealed (50ft) away from the silenced Sten, the only noise
by folded sheet metal and a short wooden hand- discernable was the mechanical noise of the bolt
guard, and there was a plain folding fore-grip. It was moving forwards.
also provided with a spoon-like flash hider and Silencers found other applications during the war
muzzle compensator. But even this simple design years. They were often provided for automatic
was capable of being pruned, and subsequent models pistols used by various resistance and partisan
did away with the flash hider, the wooden fore-end groups, though, as with the Sten gun, the noise
and the fore-grip until the design was as basic as it made by the slide moving back and forth tended to
could possibly be. nullify some of the advantages of the silencer. (A
Due to its simplicity, the production figures were silencer is not effective on a revolver, since the
staggering. BSA Ltd made over 400,000, plus 350,000 slight leak of gas at the cylinder/barrel joint gener¬
spare barrels. The Royal Ordnance Factory at ates most of the noise.)
Fazacklery, near Liverpool, turned out 20,000 guns Probably the most effective silenced weapon of
a week for much of the war. There were other fac¬ World War II was the De Lisle Carbine - a .45in
tories in Britain turning them out at the same rate. calibre weapon firing the US automatic pistol
There was the Canadian factory at Long Branch cartridge (since this was sub-sonic) and using a
turning them out by the tens of thousands. And modified Lee-Enfield action. The barrel went into a
there were even underground resistance workshops very large silencer carried on a Lee-Enfield type of
in France and Denmark making them. Finally the rifle stock, and since there were no moving parts
Germans copied it with the intention of arming other than the firing pin when the gun fired, it really
their own home guard, the ‘Volkssturm’. It is doubt¬ was silent. Moreover, since the barrel was rather
ful if anyone knows how many Stens were made, longer than usual for the calibre, it was highly
146 but the figure must run into millions. accurate and had a good range.
Sten Gun /ROAD TO WAR

Above The Sten Mk II(S)

(silencer) with a very early
infra-red sight. The canvas
heat-resistant cover on
the silencer is in the firer's
left hand.

Left Disassembled Sten

Mk II. Clockwise from
bottom left, the magazine,
receiver (gun body), barrel,
firing pin, bolt, main
spring and metal stock.

Below Sten Mk V, a
quality 1944 model with
wooden stock, pistol grip
and rifle foresight.
NEW DIRECTIONS
M
 NEW DIRECTIONS/Assault Rifles

D uring the 1930s a number of German Army

officers sat down to contemplate the possibility
lighter, making it easier to handle, and the
cartridges would be lighter, so that the soldier could
of a new service rifle, and instead of simply carry more of them. And, in spite of the reduced
asking for the mixture as before, they began to power, it would still be effective to ranges of 500m or
question some of the absolute fundamentals of rifle 600m (550-650yd), all that appeared to be needed.
design. Broadly speaking, the military rifle of the As a result of this reasoning, a new 7mm cartridge
period was a fairly heavy, long, powerful weapon, was developed, having a shorter bullet and cart¬
firing a cartridge which was accurate to 1.6km ridge case than the conventional rifle cartridge, and
(1 mile) distant and sometimes better than that on work began on developing a suitable automatic
the hands of an expert. It was the cartridge which rifle. By the time the cartridge design had been
governed the rifle. With powerful cartridges, light resolved, the war had begun, and the designers were
rifles were impossible, since the recoil is proportion¬ astute enough to realize that, while suggesting a
ate to the ratio between bullet weight and velocity new cartridge would be bad enough, suggesting a
and rifle weight, so that firing a heavy bullet at high change of calibre would be worse, so the cartridge
velocity demanded a heavy rifle in order to keep the was redesigned in the standard 7.92mm calibre, thus
recoil energy within the limits that the average man allowing much of the manufacture to be done in
could accept. existing machinery.
But, asked the Germans, how often did the average The Haenel and Walther companies were asked to
soldier shoot at targets 1.6km away? Come to that, develop rifles to suit the new ‘short’ cartridge, their
how many average soldiers could see a target that instructions being that the weapon had to be design¬
far away? They were not speaking of practice ed with mass-production and cheapness well to the
targets - 3m (10ft) squares of white board - but of fore, and in 1942 they both produced prototypes.
active service targets - men in drab uniforms covered These were known as the MKb42(H) and MKb42(W),
in mud, creeping under hedges and close to the for Maschinen-Karabiner (Machine Carbine), the
ground - and it takes exceptional eyesight to see letters showing the manufacturer. Several thousand
such a target even at 400m (440yd). Examination of of each were made and sent to the Russian Front for
records of World War I showed that few soldiers ever evaluation in combat, and as a result the Haenel
had the chance to fire a rifle at much more than design was selected for further development. It is of
400m range, so that the heavy and powerful bullet interest to see that it had been designed by Hugo
was a waste of energy. It still had a useful role in Schmeisser, who had also designed what amounts
the support machine gun, but in a rifle? There were to the World War I equivalent.
grave doubts. At this point in the story, politics entered into it.
From these and similar arguments, the conclusion The Army was convinced that it had an ideal service
was reached that what was needed was a new cart¬ rifle. It was gas-operated, using a rotating bolt, and
ridge, less powerful than the traditional military offered ‘selective fire’ - that is, it could be fired in
round. If it were less powerful it could be made the single shot mode as a rifle, or at 500 rounds a
shorter. If it were shorter, then the rifle could be minute as a light machine gun. It was reliable, and
shorter, since the length of a rifle’s mechanism was was well-liked by those who had used it. But when
largely governed by the length of the cartridge it approval was sought for putting it into production,
150 had to feed. If it was less powerful, the rifle could be the idea was vetoed by Adolf Hitler on the grounds
 AK47 and EM2/NEW DIRECTIONS

Previous page (top) designers, discovering the reasoning which had led
Armalite AR-15; (middle) to the new weapon, and began to take an interest in
Gyrojet, VP70, and Sig the idea themselves. The Russians, who had develop¬
pistols; (bottom) EM2. ed a healthy respect for the StuG 44 from being the
principal opponents of it, had already begun work
Above The futuristic lines on their own design of short cartridge and now set to
of the Sturmgewehr work to produce a rifle to match. This was the work
(Assault Rifle) 44. of Mikhail Kalashnikov and was to enter service in
Weighing 5.1kg (11.251b), 1947 as the Automat Kalashnikova or AK47. The
it soon exhausted its AK47 has since earned its place as one of the best
30-round magazines at automatic rifles ever developed and certainly one of
500 rpm. the most widely distributed, having been supplied
to the various satellite nations. Over 35 million are
that it did not have sufficient range. He, having been said to have been made in the last 30 years.
a soldier on the Western Front in 1917-18, knew all In Britain, the post-World War II years seemed to
about rifles and knew, of course, that long range was be a good time to institute a change of rifle, since the
vital. No argument would move him, and the short .303in bolt-action Lee-Enfields were now obsolete,
rifle appeared to be doomed before it began. But the and a new short cartridge in .280in calibre was
soldiers had their own ways of dealing with this. developed. It was followed in 1949 by a new rifle,
Like all good soldiers, they saluted, fell out - and simply known as the ‘EM2’ for Enfield Model 2,
then went away and put the rifle into production which was quite revolutionary in its design. All
anyway. But in order to conceal it in the monthly things being equal, the longer the barrel of a rifle,
production returns which Hitler always studied, the greater the bullet velocity it will develop and
they gave it a new name. It became the Machine the better the ballistics. But short cartridges sug¬
Pistol 43 and thus appeared in the submachine gun gested short rifles and short rifles meant short
totals; and since Hitler was a believer in submachine barrels.
guns, he was quite pleased to see the monthly pro¬ This dilemma was resolved by Noel Kent-Lemon,
duction increasing. the designer of the EM2, by using a layout known
Inevitably, of course, the cat got out of the bag in (for no very good reason) as the ‘bull-pup’ layout.
the end. At a conference of commanders from the This had been invented many years before by com¬
Russian Front. Hitler is reputed to have asked them petition shooters who were also trying to get the
what equipment they wanted, and was somewhat longest possible barrel into a manageable rifle, and
astounded when they all asked for more supplies of it meant placing the barrel on the rifle stock so that
the new rifle. He was more astounded when he found the breech mechanism was just in front of the butt-
that a shrewd High Command had actually armed his plate. In other words, when the firer lay down and
personal bodyguard with the new weapon. Eventu¬ took aim in the usual way, the chamber of the rifle
ally the uproar died down and Hitler gave the new was alongside his ear. Since the barrel now started
rifle his blessing, bestowing on it a new title - the at the butt end of the stock, it could be longer than
Sturmgewehr 44 or ‘Assault Rifle’. normal without exceeding the usual overall length
After the war the Allies interrogated the German of a rifle. Such an arrangement in a bolt-action 151
 NEW DIRECTIONS/FN Rifles

rifle was obviously unsatisfactory for military use by the gas piston, the cams lifted the bolt and un¬
(where the bolt had to be manipulated rapidly with¬ locked it from engagement in faces cut in the gun
out taking the rifle from the shoulder), but it was body. Then bolt and bolt carrier recoiled and were
quite satisfactory for some kinds of competitive returned by a spring, collecting a fresh round from
shooting. But now that the mechanism could be the bottom-mounted magazine on the way and
actuated automatically, there was no constraint to chambering it. As the bolt closed on the cartridge,
having it on a military weapon - except the horrified the carrier continued to run forwards so that the
faces of some traditionalists. internal cams now pressed down the rear end of the
The EM2 was produced in small numbers for bolt and locked it. The Modele 49 was a successful
evaluation. Gas-operated, and with a revolutionary weapon, numbers being sold throughout the world,
optical sight, it was well-balanced and reliable, and it was used in the Korean War by the Belgian
accurate and robust. All seemed well, but it ran into contingent. But Fabrique Nationale were not satis¬
political trouble. The other countries in the North fied and continued to work on the design, eventually
Atlantic Treaty Organization, particularly the producing the FAL or Fusil Automatique Leger.
Americans, were less convinced of the virtues of the This weapon was fortunate enough to appear just
short cartridge, and after much bitter argument, as NATO had decided on their 7.62mm cartridge and
NATO settled on a new round - the 7.62mm cart¬ when many of the NATO members were looking for
ridge - which was little more than a slightly-short¬ a suitable rifle to adopt. FN astutely produced the
ened US .30in round. Attempts to redesign the EM2 FAL in 7.62mm and put it on sale. It used the same
to take this round were not successful, and the basic mechanism of gas piston and bolt carrier as
design was abandoned. did the Modele 49 but in a more reliable and more
During the immediate postwar years almost every easily manufactured package. After trials had shown
army in the world decided to get rid of its bolt-action its ability, orders followed, and from about 1953
rifles and equip with an automatic, and as luck onwards it was bought by some 36 different countries.
would have it the Belgian Fabrique Nationale It was adopted by the British Army as their ‘Rifle
company was ready with a suitable design. Work L1A1’ to replace the Lee-Enfield instead of the
on this had begun well before the war but had been unfortunate EM2.
put into cold storage during the German occupation. With the widespread adoption of the 7.62mm NATO
As soon as work could be resumed, the design was cartridge (for it was taken into use by many other
completed and the rifle offered for sale. nations outside NATO) it might be thought that the
Known as the ‘Modele 49’ or SAFN (Semi-Auto¬ ‘short’ cartridge and assault rifle idea had died
matic, FN) it was a gas-operated rifle, the piston except in Russia, and for several years this seemed
being above the barrel and being driven back to to be the case. But in the 1950s the US Air Force
strike a ‘bolt carrier’. This was a hollow unit sliding required a ‘Survival Rifle’ - a lightweight collapsible
back and forth in the gun body and with cams on its rifle which could be carried by aircrews and used by
152 inner surface. As it moved back, after being struck them for either self-defence or hunting if their
 Armalite Rifle 15/NEW DIRECTIONS
Left Cutaway of British Below South Vietnamese
L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle soldier of 1970-75 with US
(SLR), a modified Belgian 5.56mm M16A1 (Armalite)
FN. The carrying handle, AR15 Rifle. Its low weight
a special Trilux night of 2.88kg (6.35lb) suited
sight, and 20-round Asian troops, pleased also
magazine are prominent. with its performance.

aircraft was forced to land in a hostile or isolated

environment. The order for this went to the Arma¬
lite Company, who had been formed to make civil
weapons and who had amalgamated with the Fair-
child Engine and Airplane Corporation. Since they
made more profit out of the Air Force order than
they had from selling civilian weapons, Armalite
began to concentrate on military designs and em¬
ployed a designer named Eugene Stoner, a former
US Marine and soon to become one of the world’s
leading firearms designers.
Stoner knew all about the ‘short’ cartridge idea,
and he began by developing a new cartridge based
on a Remington deer-hunting round. The calibre
was 5.56mm and Stoner re-worked the round until
he had a 55-grain bullet travelling at 990m/sec
(3,250ft/sec) and lethal up to 450m (500yd) range. He
then developed the ‘AR-15’ rifle around the cart¬
ridge. The AR-15 broke new ground in many direc¬
tions. It used a direct gas system of operation in
which there was no piston of the conventional type,
merely a tube which led gas back to the face of the
bolt carrier and simply blew it back. Extensive use
was made of light alloy and precision casting to
simplify manufacture and reduce weight. All the
furniture was of plastic, and the design was laid out
in a straight line, instead of the butt dropping as in
traditional rifle designs. The sights were high set,
the rear sight forming part of the permanently
attached carrying handle. The whole thing looked
very ‘space-age’, but it also looked ‘cheap and nasty’,
which gave it a considerable handicap to overcome.
Although the US Army was unenthusiastic, in
1962 the US Air Force bought numbers of AR-15s for
use by guards at Air Force bases. Again, that might
have been the end of the matter, except that in 1963 153
 FAMOUSGUNS Kalashnikov

Above An AKM with have been made, more than

pressed steel gun body. any other gun in history.
The easiest way to
distinguish an AKM from Below Communist People's
an AK47 is to look for the Militia of Ho Chi Minh
semi-circular gas relief City (Saigon), Vietnam,
cut out above the barrel. on parade with Chinese
The AK47 has four Type 56H AK47 Assault
circular holes. It is Rifles in 1975. The folded
estimated that over 35 knife bayonets are quite
million Kalashnikovs apparent.

This rifle, probably the

most successful automatic
rifle so far introduced,
was designed by Mikhail
Kalashnikov (born 1920)
who developed an
unsuspected talent for
firearms design while
convalescing after being
wounded in the Battle of
Bryansk (1941), where he
had been a tank
commander. Kalashnikov
first designed an SMG,
then a carbine, both sound
designs with no current
military requirement. In
1943 the Soviets developed
154 their 7.62mm Ml943 ‘short*
 Kalashnikov FAMOUS GUNS

AK47
Calibre 7.62mm
Length 87.0cm (34.25in)
Weight 4.80kg (10.581b)
Barrel 415mm (16.34in)
Rifling 4 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Post
Rearsight U-notch, to
800m (875yd), 1,000m
(1,093yd) for AKM
Action Gas
Rate of fire 600rpm
Feed system 30-round
box magazine
Muzzle velocity
600m/sec (2,350ft/sec)
Bullet weight 7.89g
(122gr)

cartridge around which motion to a bolt carrier. butt and fore-end were of can be found with a
Kalashnikov designed his This rotates and unlocks seasoned wood. The AKM wooden stock and a
automatic rifle. It was the bolt and then draws it uses pressed and formed permanently attached
taken into service in 1947 to the rear, cocking the sheet steel in its folding bayonet or with a
as the Avtomat firing hammer construction. Though folding steel stock and no
Kalashnikova (AK-47). simultaneously. The early models had wood bayonet; the Hungarians
The designer later carrier and bolt are then furniture, later models use a version with a
improved the system of returned by a spring, use a folding metal stock. forward pistol grip as an
manufacture, leading to chambering a fresh round The AKM is therefore SMG; the Bulgarians
the introduction of the from the 30-round 1.1kg (2.5lb) lighter than dispense with a cleaning
AKM Rifle in 1959. magazine. A selector lever the AK-47. rod and a bayonet lug;
Subsequently the basic allows either single shots As well as Soviet models, the Poles fit a grenade-
Kalashnikov mechanism or automatic fire at a several variations have launcher on the muzzle;
was adapted to a series of practical rate of about appeared in other and the Finns have
MGs. 100 rpm. countries: the East German bought a license to produce
The AK rifle is gas The AK47 was made in model has a folding steel a modified version as their
operated; a piston above the conventional manner, butt; the Rumanian has service rifle and also sell
the barrel being driven most of it being machined furniture of laminated it commercially in single¬
back to impart rearward from solid steel while the wood; the Chinese Type 56 shot form.
 NEW DIRECTIONS/Armalite Action

5.56 mm cartridg

rearsight adjuster hammer bolt carrier

ai

magazine platfori

buffer

trigger

magazine spring

magazine

Above The Armalite Right Colt Commando the USAF sent a detachment to Vietnam, armed
action (barrel has been with 5.56mm x 45mm with AR-15s. The South Vietnamese Army saw them
shortened). Gas is passing (.223in xl.77in) round, and realized that these small, light rifles were just
down the tube above and developed as a handier what was wanted, since the average Vietnamese
parallel to the barrel. It version of the AR15 for soldier was only about 150cm (5ft) tall and weighed
will cause the locked bolt SMG use. The 254mm under 45kg (lOOlbs). The Vietnamese Army bought
to unlock and move back. (lOin) barrel is half the AR-15s and reported enthusiastically; US Special
The spent case will be length of the AR15's. The Forces serving in Vietnam tried them out and also
ejected through the open telescopic butt has been reported favourably. Eventually, the AR-15 was
dust cover after being fully extended for shoulder taken into regular US Army service as the M16
withdrawn from the firing. A 102mm (4in) rifle, and the US Army, who had scorned a 7mm
chamber by an extractor flash-hider is fitted. It is cartridge as too small some years earlier, now
on the bolt. A port in the used by US Special Forces embraced the 5.56mm round.
bolt carrier's side exhausts (the Green Berets) and Since that time the 5.56mm cartridge has been
156 the gas. perhaps the British SAS. taken into use all over the world, many manufac-
 Over hung Bolt Design/NEW DIRECTIONS

turers producing rifles to suit. And with the reduc¬ allowed for the ejection of the spent case and feed
tion in rifle size which the 5.56mm cartridge has of the fresh cartridge.
allowed, there is now a considerable body of opinion As a result of this design, the barrel length was
which suggests that the day of the submachine gun 280mm (llin), the bolt ‘over-hung’ it by 165mm
is over, since a modern assault rifle in 5.56mm (6.5in), and the entire length from muzzle to end of
calibre is little larger or heavier than the average the body was only 445mm (17.5in). By comparison,
9mm submachine gun, can fire as rapidly, can also the German MP 38, which had a 250mm (9.9in) barrel,
be used as a rifle, has longer range, and eases the had a body and barrel length of 630mm (24.8in).
supply problem by having but one weapon and one Another advantage of the design was that the pistol
cartridge instead of two. grip could be brought close under the centre of
However, this point of view does not appear to balance and also used as the magazine housing.
have daunted the submachine gun makers as yet, This location of the magazine makes magazine¬
and in the years after the war the submachine gun changing in the dark much easier, since one hand
was a growth industry. The only major innovation always tends to find the other.
in submachine gun design first appeared in a pro¬ The ‘over-hung’ bolt design soon spread, and
duction weapon in 1949 when the Czech VZ-23 was probably the most famous post-war submachine
placed on the market. Until this design appeared, gun, the Israeli-made ‘Uzi’, was one of the first to
the overall length of a submachine gun had been adopt it. The Uzi also popularized another fitting -
determined by the length of the barrel plus the the grip safety. A metal plate at the rear of the
length of body necessary to allow the bolt to recipro¬ pistol grip had to be securely pressed in, by gripping
cate sufficiently far to soak up the recoil and reload. the weapon properly, before the bolt could be moved
Vaclav Holek, the Czech designer, changed all this or the gun fired. This answered one of the greatest
by bringing the barrel back into the gun body for a defects of the submachine gun, its liability to go off
considerable distance and then hollowing out the accidentally if dropped or jarred. With a blowback
bolt so that when the breech was closed, most of the submachine gun, jarring the butt on the ground
bolt lay in front of the breech face and surrounded could cause the bolt to move back, not far enough to
the barrel. Behind the breech there was only suffi¬ engage with the firing mechanism and be held, but
cient thickness of bolt to withstand recoil and far enough to go past the magazine and load and fire
mount the firing pin and extractor. Slots in the bolt a cartridge as it bounced back. Many soldiers were
 FAMOUS GUNS

The Uzi SMG was bolt’; the breech face is overall length (without
developed in the late 1940s not at the front end of the butt) is only 44.45cm
by Major Uziel Gal of the bolt, but is recessed 88mm (17.5in).
Israeli Army and went into (3.5in) farther back. Thus, Another advantage is
production in 1951. Major at the moment of firing, that due to the shorter bolt
Gal had closely studied the bolt surrounds the movement, the pistol grip
almost every SMG then rear end of the barrel and can be brought forwards to
available and his design much of the bolt’s mass is the centre of balance and
was much influenced by in front of the breech face. can act as a magazine
the Czechoslovak VZ-23 As a result of this, the housing. This gives
model. barrel can be set into the extremely good
The main mechanical gun body and it is possible mechanical support to the
novelty of the Uzi was the to have a 26cm (10.2in) magazine, avoids a shift
principle of the ‘overhung barrel in a gun whose of balance as the

Left An Israeli uzi

infantryman with the Uzi Calibre 9mm
SMG in front of his M3 Length 64.0cm (25.2in)
Weight 3.5kg (7.71b)
White half-track. Being so Barrel 260mm (10.2in)
short, the Uzi is ideal for Rifling 4 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
troops in armoured vehicles. Rearsight Two-position
aperture, 100 and
Right The same woo den- 200m (110/219yd)
Action Blowback
stocked Uzi with carrying Rate of fire 600rpm
sling. The detachable Feed system 25, 32 or
203mm (8in) stock makes 40-round box magazine
Muzzle velocity
it 640mm (25.2in) long. It 390m/sec (l,280ft/sec)
can be fired one-handed Bullet weight 7.44g
158 like a pistol. (115gr)
 Uzi FAMOUS GUNS

mt

magazine empties, and folding metal stick. top of the body cover is The Uzi was an
also makes magazine Safety was carefully linked with the cocking immediate success and
changing much quicker, considered from the very handle. This prevents a even though it is almost
especially in the dark. start and two special shot being fired if the 30 years old, it remains one
The Uzi is largely made features incorporated handle is accidentally of the best SMGs in
from sheet metal pressings in the Uzi. First, a released during the existence. After the
welded together. The first grip safety at the rear cocking stroke. Once the Israeli Army, it was
models were fitted with edge of the pistol grip bolt has been drawn back adopted by the West
wooden butts, fore-end prevents the gun being about 2.6cm (not enough German and Dutch armies
and pistol grip, but these cocked or fired unless it is to pick up a cartridge) it and then by many African
were soon changed to pressed in by a hand cannot go back into the and South American
high-impact plastic holding the pistol grip in forward position without forces. It was also built
material for the grip and the firing position. Second, first being fully drawn under licence by FN of
fore-end and an ingenious a ratchet device under the back and cocked. Belgium. 159
 NEW DIRECTIONS/Skorpion
killed or wounded in this way in the early days of
World War II, and various extempore safety meas¬
ures - slots into which the cocking handle could be
turned, or clamps which held the bolt securely - were
added to designs. But the Uzi grip safety was prob¬
ably the best solution, and one that has been widely
copied.
The present tendency is for submachine guns to
get smaller and smaller. They are losing their place
in the foot soldier’s armoury to the assault rifle, as
we have already noted, but there is still a useful role
for them as personal weapons for crews of armoured
vehicles or combat aircraft. And in both these
applications, the smaller the weapon is, the better
it will be liked.
Probably the best example of this type of weapon
is the Czech Army’s ‘Skorpion’. With the wire stock
folded across its top, the Skorpion is no more than
270mm (10.65in) long, has a 115mm (4.5in) barrel, and
can be carried in a holster and fired single-handed of his customers were more enthusiastic than
like a pistol. But when more firepower is needed, knowledgeable, converted his Mauser copy - sold as
the stock is unfolded and the lever selector set to the ‘Royal’ - to fire full automatic and provided it
‘Auto’ to give a rate of fire of 700 rounds a minute. with a detachable magazine. With the holster-stock
One problem with a weapon of such a small size is fitted, it became a ‘machine pistol’ or submachine
that the necessarily light bolt will move very fast gun of sorts, sold well, and was copied by other
and thus give a very high rate of fire. This was Spanish makers.
countered in the Skorpion by putting an inertia In fact, it was a pretty dismal sort of weapon by
mechanism inside the pistol grip. As the bolt recoil¬ any account. Due to the lightness of the bolt and the
ed, it drove a weight down the grip against the power of the cartridge - it was chambered for the
resistance of a spring. At the same time, the bolt 7.63mm Mauser round - the rate of fire was astronom¬
was held by a trip-catch in the rear position. The ical - well over 1,000 rounds a minute - so that the
weight rebounded from the bottom of the grip and, entire magazine was loosed off in less than a second.
when it reached the top, tripped the catch and This made the weapon uncontrollable, the violent
released the bolt to fire the next round. The duration recoil action and muzzle blast causing the muzzle to
of this action is very brief, but sufficient to delay rise rapidly so that only the first shot was near the
the bolt’s return and thus reduce the rate of fire to target, the remainder of the burst being shot into
manageable proportions. the sky. In self-defence, the Mauser company had to
The Skorpion actually seems to be a rationaliza¬ put similar designs on the market in the early 1930s
tion of a much older idea - the ‘machine pistol’ - a but in spite of being better engineered, these could
weapon which came about more or less by accident. not overcome the inherent disadvantages of the
In the middle 1920s, when the German gunmakers design, and few were produced.
were finding life difficult, those of Spain saw their The idea then died for some years but was revived
opportunity. One or two Spanish companies began in the Soviet Union in the 1950s with the issue of the
making outright copies of the Mauser Military pistol Stechkin pistol. This was a blowback pistol, loosely
for sale in South America and the Far East, markets based on the Walther PP design but rather larger
which had traditionally been filled by Germany. and without the double-action lock. In place of that,
One shrewd manufacturer, appreciating that some it was provided with a full-automatic ability, to be
used when the pistol was clipped to its wooden
holster-stock, a similar fitment to that of the
Mauser. It was chambered for a peculiar 9mm cart¬
ridge invented by the Russians - the 9mm Soviet, or
9mm x 18 (the second figure being the length of the
cartridge case in millimetres). This is more powerful
and longer than the 9mm Browning Short cartridge,
but shorter and less powerful than the 9mm Para-
bellum cartridge, and seems to have been designed
in order to have the most powerful cartridge possible
to be used with a blowback pistol. The Stechkin
could fire this at 725 rounds a minute, but recent
reports indicate that the Soviet Army has had
second thoughts about the idea and has withdrawn
the Stechkin from service.
160 In the early 1960s a new idea suddenly appeared in
 Uzi Action/NEW DIRECTIONS
cocking handle chambered 9mm cartridge bolt guide and spring
bolt firing pin ejector
rearsight

...

barrel
trigger
folded metal stock

magazine spring

bolt uncocked
Above The Uzi SMG just barrel

before firing. It can be seen

how the recessed bolt locking sear
overhangs the barrel thus
making the gun so short.
The centre of balance just
above the pistol grip helps
magazine
one-handed firing. The
magazine gripsafety
gripsafety must be
squeezed when firing. ” release

bolt cocked
Far left The Czech VZ-61
Skorpion SMG with a
7.65mm round. The 251mm
(9.9in) metal stock is
retracted but the gun
could still be fired. It
weighs only 1.31kg (2.87lb)
unloaded.

magazine
bolt moving forward
and loading a round

extractor
trigger

ejection slot

ejector Left Two views of the Above The grip safety

open for feed UzVs bolt, hollowed out works by means of a
in front. The firing pin locking sear when the Uzi
is an integrally formed pip is (1) uncocked or (2)
on its face. The bolt has cocked. Pressing the
bottom view openings at the bottom for safety (3) frees the
feeding cartridges and, locking sear and allows a
top right, to eject them. trigger pull to free the bolt. 161
 NEW DIRECTIONS/ Burst Fire' Facility

automatic rifle designs. It is hard to say who invent¬ shots, there will be a saving of ammunition and a
ed it, since it seemed to appear in several places at probable increase in accuracy. This seems to have
the same time. The idea was called the ‘burst-fire been the theory which has prompted one West
facility’ and took the form of an additional position German firm, Heckler and Koch GmbH, to produce
of the rifle safety catch. When turned to this position, a modern design of machine pistol, their ‘VP70’.
an internal mechanism was engaged which resulted This is a blowback pistol, chambered for the 9mm
in a fixed number of shots - usually three or five - Parabellum round, which can be used as a normal
being fired for one pressure on the trigger. The handgun. By attaching the plastic holster-stock, a
reasoning behind it ran something like this: if single connection is made with the trigger mechanism
shots are fired and the first one misses, the soldier which allows selection of either single shots or a
instinctively takes pains over aiming his second three-round burst-fire facility. At present the pistol
and subsequent shots in which time the enemy may is still being evaluated.
escape. If automatic fire is used and the first shot The pistol field has been rich in unusual ideas in
misses, the ‘climb’ of the gun may very well spray postwar years, and one of the most unusual was the
the shots in the wrong place. But if the first squeeze ‘Gyrojet’ pistol. This was the product of two Ameri¬
of the trigger brings three shots, then if the first cans, Mainhardt and Biehl, who had set up a company
misses, the second and third, being fired without to develop engineering patents. As it happened,
pause, will be slightly dispersed and may well strike nothing very good came their way, and they began
the target. There are, of course, several loopholes to look at firearms, feeling that since the existing
in this argument, as doubtless can be seen, but it technology was fairly ancient, there might be room
seemed to have merit and for some years it was a for improvement. At this time (1960), rockets were
considerable arguing point. It seems to have died the coming thing, and they set about developing
away, however, and no current service weapon uses what amounts to a handheld rocket launcher in the
the burst-fire facility. shape of a pistol. The heart of the design was the
But, thinking back to the drawbacks of machine projectile, a tiny rocket little bigger than a con¬
pistols, there is some merit in providing a burst-fire ventional .45in pistol cartridge, which had a number
capability on a machine pistol. In such weapons, as of angled ‘venturis’ in the base, surrounding a per¬
we have already pointed out, the rate of fire is such cussion cap. The offset angle of the venturis not
that only the first two or three rounds have any only propelled the rocket but also gave it spin in
chance of going near the target, since the climb of order to stabilise it in flight.
the gun disperses the remaining rounds harmlessly. The launcher was pistol-shaped and carried a
162 So if the burst is confined to just those first three magazine in the butt in conventional fashion - but
 Gyrojet and Dardick Pistols/NEW DIRECTIONS

Left The British Army's Above right The 127mm

new 4.85mm LMG with (5in) barrel version of the
folded bipod and 30-round Gyrojet pistol. The holes
magazine. The sight is an are to prevent excessive
optical x 4 Trilux. The 4.85 gas pressure. Cast in
weighs only 4.08kg (9lb) aluminium alloy the gun
and no recoil can be felt. weighs only .453kg (lib).
The rifle version is 80 per
cent the same and has a Below right Dardick .38
20-round magazine. Series 1100 Pistol and its
Perhaps recalibred for the ‘tround’ feed system. The
standard round NATO 1100 weighs .7kg (1.56lb)
eventually selects, they and has a 76mm (3in)
will be in service c.1984. barrel.

that was as far as resemblance with convention

went. The firing mechanism was a hammer mounted
in front of the trigger. It struck backwards to hit
the nose of the rocket at the top of the magazine cylinder
column and thus it sat at the end of the launcher -
in the same position as a conventional cartridge
would be in the breech of a conventional gun. Behind
the rocket, forming part of the standing breech,was
a fixed striker. Thus, when the trigger was pulled, trounds
the hammer sprang up, hit the rocket on the nose,
and drove it back so that the percussion cap in its
base struck against the fixed striker. As a result, i— magazine
the rocket propellant was ignited and the rocket
was launched from the weapon. The rocket weighed
about 11.3g (0.4oz), attained a maximum velocity of magazine spring
about 365m/sec (l,200ft/sec), and was of 13mm calibre.
Pistol launchers and small carbine-pattern laun¬ revolver in which the cylinder has three triangular
chers were developed, and the Gyrojet ‘pistol’ went cut-outs which, to some extent, resemble conven¬
on sale in 1965 at the then high price of $250. But tional chambers. But this cylinder does not function
efforts to interest the military failed. The accuracy as a magazine. It is a transport and firing device,
was far below that of a conventional pistol - one the cartridges being carried in a conventional box
report spoke of 280mm (llin) groups at 9m (10yd) magazine inside the pistol’s butt. The cartridges
range - the velocity falls off rapidly once the rocket were triangular - Dardick coined the word ‘tround’
fuel is burned out, and the cost of ammunition was to describe them - and were in fact standard com¬
high. Apart from achieving some spectacular pub¬ mercial cartridges encased in a polycarbonate
licity in one of the James Bond films, the Gyrojet plastic sleeve. These were fed up the magazine in
failed to make an impression and the company the usual way and entered one of the cut-out sec¬
eventually turned to other things. tions in the cylinder. This was then indexed round
More conventional in some respects, was the by the trigger mechanism. During its travel, the
Dardick pistol, conceived by an American, David tround was prevented from falling out by a thin
Dardick, in 1949. His invention was what he called metal cover, and when the tround arrived in line
the ‘open chamber gun’. It can be best likened to a behind the pistol barrel, it was kept in place by the 163
FAMOUS GUNS Walther PP
This pistol appeared in The PP became the Manurhin to make both the PPK’s barrel and slide.
1929, the culmination of a standard police pistol models for some years. By Length remained the same
line of pocket sidearms throughout Europe in the the mid-1960s the Walther but the vital depth
begun in 1908. In 7.65mm 1930s and was widely sold factory had been measurement was
calibre, the Model PP’s commercially. Although reorganized in Ulm and increased to 104.14mm
greatest novelty was a the standard calibre was production then reverted (4.1in), thus allowing its
double-action lock (later 7.65mm, versions in .22in to the parent firm once legal importation into
used on the military P-38). rimfire, 6.35mm and 9mm more. Numerous licensed the US.
This permitted the Walther Short chambering were and unlicensed copies and
to be carried with the also made, in fewer near-copies have also Below A compact 9mm
chamber loaded and the numbers. appeared in other Walther PPK (of post-1965
hammer down in perfect The PP’s success as a countries. manufacture) with its
safety, yet allowed it to be holster pistol prompted In 1968 the US magazine loaded.
fired by simply releasing development of a more Government passed the
the safety catch and compact model for pocket Gun Control Act, which,
WALTHER PP
pulling the trigger. or concealed use. This was among other restrictions,
Another innovation was introduced in 1931 as the forbad the importation of Calibre 7.65mm
the adoption of a ‘signal Model PPK. It was simply any pistol measuring less Length 172mm (6.8in)
Weight 0.680kg (1.51b)
pin’ in the top of the slide, a smaller PP, though after than 101.6mm (4in) from Barrel 100mm (3.9in)
a spring-loaded pin whose the first few had been made the bottom of the butt to Rifling 6 grooves, r/hand
front end rested on the rim there was a change of butt the top of the slide. At that Foresight Blade
Rearsight Fixed
of a cartridge in the design to allow a one-piece time the PPK was selling V-notch
chamber. This forced the plastic grip to be used. The widely among plain clothes Action Blowback
pin back so that the rear Rate of fire 25 rpm
PPK was also made in the policemen in America, but Feed system 8-round
end exposed itself above same alternative calibres. was banned because it box magazine
the hammer. Thus a After the war patents for measured 99mm (3.9in). Muzzle velocity
290m/sec (950ft/sec)
loaded chamber could be these pistols were still valid Walther developed the Bullet weight 4.65g
seen or felt, a most useful so Walther licensed the PPKIS for the US market, (72gr)
safety feature. French company of simply the PP frame with
 Smith and Wesson Magnum FAMOUS GUNS

In the early 1930s, Elmer with a striking energy of offered in the same barrel powerful physique'. If
Keith, an American pistol 972 joules (717 ft-lb force). lengths, the shorter being that was true of a 1.36kg
user of considerable For several years the .357 more popular, and is fitted (3lb) gun with 222.25mm
repute, developed his own Magnum was the most with a target rear sight. (8.75in) barrel, one is
design of .38 revolver powerful handgun A less luxurious version is inclined to speculate about
cartridge. He used a 11.2g available. The calibre the Model 28 'Highway the physique of whoever
(173grain = 0.39oz) bullet designation of .357 (which Patrolman', available is firing the 878g (1.93lb),
with a powerful charge, is the barrel diameter of with 101.6mm (4in) or 63.5mm (2.5in) barrel
firing it from a .38-44 all .38in revolvers) was 152.4mm (6in) barrels, and, Combat Magnum. Since
' Outdoorsman' revolver. chosen to distinguish the as the title implies, popular ammunition is the same,
Major Douglas B. Wesson, Magnum from the general with US police forces. the lighter gun generates
of the Smith and Wesson run of .38s. The cartridge Finally there came the much more recoil force.
Company, became case was made about Model 19'Combat
interested and in 1934 2.5mm (O.lin) longer than Magnum', a light weight Above A .357 Smith and
began designing a revolver the normal .38 case so that Model 27 on a slightly Wesson Magnum is shown
to shootal0.22g it would not fit chambers smaller frame. Normally with its cylinder open and
(158 grain = 0.36oz) Keith of lesser revolvers. with a 4in or 6in barrel, cartridges being extracted.
bullet at as high a velocity The .357 Magnum was at a special 'snub' version
as possible. The resulting first available only to with 63.5mm (2.5in) barrel
MAGNUM MODEL 27
weapon was the .357 special order, but demand and rounded butt is also
6in Barrel
Magnum Revolver, became so great that it made.
introduced in 1935. went into general The .357 Magnum was Calibre .357in
Length 285mm (11.25in)
The revolver was built production. The 222.25mm the gun which began the Weight 1.25kg (2.751b)
using the .44 Target (8.75in) barrel was 'Magnum' fashion and its Barrel 152mm (6.0in)
model's frame as a basis, supplemented by other reduction in size is Rifling 5 grooves, r/hand
Foresight Blade
in order to obtain ample lengths, from 88.9mm interesting. In 1935 the Rearsight fixed V-notch
strength. The barrel was (3.5in) upwards, and about Smith and Wesson Action Revolver
222.25mm (8.75in) long, 5,500 were made before Company said that 'we Rate of fire 12 rpm
Feed system 6-shot
with a stiffening rib along production stopped in do not recommend this gun cylinder
the top, and the pistol 1941. for the ordinary user' but Muzzle velocity
442m/sec (l,450ft/sec)
weighed 1.36kg (3lb). The After the war it began that it was 'intended for Bullet weight 10.22g
bullet developed again, the pistol now being men of large build and (158gr)
435.86m/sec (1430ft/sec) called the Model 27. It is more than ordinarily
 NEW DIRECTIONS/.357 Magnum

top strap of the pistol frame forming* the third side because they feel that there is a need for a weapon
of the triangular ‘chamber’ in which the tround lay. of some particular characteristic, be it high velocity,
The hammer now fell and fired the ‘tround’, the heavy bullet, long barrel, or what-have-you. The
bullet passing up the barrel in the usual way. The United States, with its less repressive firearms laws,
next movement of the trigger revolved the cylinder ready availability of weapons and components, and
to eject the fired ‘tround’ and bring the next one in firearms-oriented population, has been the home of
line with the barrel. most of these innovators, and they have been res¬
Dardick produced two models of pistol, both in ponsible for innumerable developments in the
.38in calibre, though by the use of interchangeable firearms world.
barrels and adapters they could be made to fire 9mm In the 1930s the Smith and Wesson company began
Parabellum or .22in rounds. Although they worked, the magnum trend by developing the .357 Magnum
they were sufficiently different to meet a certain revolver. This was, in effect, a high-velocity .38 built
amount of customer resistance. Moreover, the on the frame of a .44 revolver and thus endowing it
ammunition was not readily available, and, in with the weight and strength needed to withstand
comparison with conventional pistols, they were the heavy loading of the new Magnum cartridge.
expensive. Due to a combination of these factors, Calibre .357in is actually the bore dimension of all
the pistol was discontinued after a few years. The .38in revolvers. How they came to be called ‘.38’ is a
idea, however, has continued to be developed and is question which has never been thoroughly answered.
currently being evaluated as a possible means of Smith and Wesson chose to use the correct dimension
operating an aircraft cannon. in the title in order to differentiate between the new
One pistol development which appears to have cartridge and the rest of the .38 world, and they also
prospered beyond the original intention is that of made the cartridge case rather longer so that it
the ‘Magnum’ pistol. There have always been shoot¬ would not chamber in their ordinary .38 revolvers,
ers for whom the available firearms are not enough, which were not built to withstand the new cartridge.
either because they feel that their own potential as The .357 Magnum became a popular cartridge with
166 marksmen is not being sufficiently stretched or target shooters, hunters and police, and in postwar
 Vulcan Aircraft Guns/NEW DIRECTIONS

Left Demonstration model of bullets as possible in the shortest possible time.

of the British General This demand was stated as early as 1944 by the US
Purpose MG L7A1 which Air Force, and some inspired engineers removed an
is a slightly altered Belgian old Gatling gun from a museum, geared it to an
FN Mitrailleur a Gaz electric motor, and fired short bursts at rates up to
(MAG). A 250-round belt 5,000 shots a minute. This was far in excess of the
of 7.62mm NATO rate which could be achieved by any other type of
ammunition is shown machine gun, and it was therefore decided to take
loaded. This gas-generated the Gatling design and bring it up to date. The
tipping bolt gun weighs project was given to the General Electric Company
10.89kg (24lb) withits bipod. and became ‘Project Vulcan’.
In 1949 an electrically-driven prototype gun in
Above Night strafing by a .60in calibre was fired at 6,000 rounds per minute
7.62mm Vulcan Mini-gun. (rpm). The mechanism was exactly that of the
original Gatling, a few changes being made to suit
years other magnum cartridges appeared, each being modern production methods and the modern ammun¬
accompanied by a suitably strengthened pistol. ition. Development continued, changing the calibre
Some have prospered, some have not - there seems to 20mm in order to be able to use high explosive
to be no rule-of-thumb which can forecast how well projectiles and thus do more damage to the target,
a magnum cartridge will be received. The latest and in 1956 the 20mm Vulcan aircraft gun went into
introduction has been the .44in Magnum automatic service. The designers then turned to smaller cali¬
pistol called the ‘Auto-Mag’, the cartridge for which bres and developed a 7.62mm version, the Vulcan
was put together from a .44in revolver bullet and a M134. This uses six barrels driven by a 28-volt electric
cut-down 7.62mm NATO rifle cartridge case. The motor. An electronic control system allows selection
pistol is a recoil-operated weapon using a rotating of any two rates of fire between 400 rpm minimum
bolt controlled by cam tracks in the pistol frame. It and 6,000 rpm maximum. As a ground weapon it is
weighs over 1.55kg (3.51b), fires the .44in bullet at scarcely practical - due to the need for power supply,
544m/sec (1,785ft/sec), and develops a recoil energy and the need for cumbersome ammunition-feed
of about 16.25 joules (12ft-lb) force). Considering that arrangements to cater for the gun’s enormous
the US service rifle develops a recoil energy of appetite - but mounted in a vehicle as an anti¬
15 joules (llft-lb force), it can be seen that the aircraft weapon, or in a helicopter for ground attack,
Auto-Mag is something of a handful to fire. It seems it delivers a devastating stream of bullets which
probable that with this monster, the end of the can literally chop their way through undergrowth
magnum trail has been reached. or light buildings.
The machine gun world has also seen some new With the acceptance by the US Forces of the
developments in postwar years, largely due to the 5.56mm cartridge, the General Electric Company
demands of modern fighting aircraft. With aircraft quickly produced a 5.56mm version of the Vulcan
speeds into the four figures, the amount of time which they called the ‘Six-Pak’. This is more feasible
available to engage a target has dropped to fractions as a ground weapon, since the whole gun, with power
of a second, and it became necessary to develop supply and 1,000 rounds, weighs only 38kg (851b),
machine guns which would deliver as great a weight and it is currently being evaluated by the US Army. 167
SPORTING GUNS
 SPORTING GUNS/Shotguns
T he hunting scene is currently dominated by the
shotgun. Far more people use shotguns than
use rifles, largely because of the availability
of suitable game such as game birds - the grouse,
pheasant, partridge and waterfowl - and because the
limited range of a shotgun permits bird shooting to
take place close to inhabited areas.
The double-barreled shotgun, with the barrels
side-by-side has, for years, been the archetypal
shotgun, but in recent years other types have gained
favour. The ‘over-and-under’, with the barrels
superimposed, has its adherents, who hold to the
view that aiming is more certain since there is a
well-defined line across the one upper barrel rather
than a somewhat nebulous line of sight up the rib in
between the two barrels of the traditional gun. Thus
the over-and-under appears where more precise
pointing is demanded, such as in trap shooting.
Multiple-loading guns are favoured by some
people, though it has to be said that there are ‘tradit¬
ional’ shooters who regard them as an abomination.
The ‘slide-action’ or ‘trombone’ gun, with a tubular
magazine and with the breech operated by sliding
the wooden fore-end back and forth is perhaps looked
on with more favour than the pure automatic wea¬
pon. These usually accept five shots and are either
gas or recoil operated in much the same way as an
automatic rifle. Their principal virtue is that they
hold two-and-a-half times as much ammunition as a
traditional double gun and can be ‘topped up’ with¬
out having to unload, so that one is always ready
for a suddenly-presented shot as a bird swoops into
range. On the other hand it seems true to say that
they do tend to encourage the less responsible type
of hunter in indiscriminate gunfire. Anyone doubting though coupled with high velocities. One American
this should walk through the Portuguese country¬ expert, asked his opinion on the best rifle for game
side on August 1, when the hunting season opens. shooting, is said to have answered, ‘The heaviest
The fusillade of gunfire resembles the Battle of Mons. damn gun you can carry all day’, and there is a lot
The use of the rifle in hunting begins with shooting to be said for that. In years gone by the ‘double rifle’,
rabbits with a .22 and ends with shooting elephants a rifle with two side-by-side barrels and, at first
with a .500 Express rifle. And, we might add, there glance, indistinguishable from a shotgun, was the
are hunters who consider that rifle shooting is too preferred weapon of English hunters. Such a gun,
easy and go armed with pistols to do the same thing. chambered for the .500 Express cartridge, was a
Once out of the ‘vermin class’ - rabbits, woodchucks formidable weapon both for the target and for the
and so forth - there are few, if any, rules about what man who fired it. Today the calibres have dropped -
rifle should be used for what game. Every hunter has .300 Magnum, .375, .335, .476, .458 are standard load¬
his own ideas about what calibre and cartridge is ings. The double rifle has almost disappeared in
best for a given target, though it is noticeable that favour of the bolt action, usually based on the Mau¬
there do tend to be fashions in this. ser bolt, or, in less powerful calibres, the lever-action
In the 1920s there was a sudden swing away from based on the Winchester design.
the massive calibres which had been popular for ‘big The airgun has made a surprising return in recent
game’ shooting. For years the standards had been years. Fifty or more years ago, airgun clubs were
in the .45in, .476in, .500in calibre area, firing massive common in Britain, but by the 1930s the airgun had
lead bullets at median velocities to achieve a power¬ become little more than a child’s toy, particularly
ful knock-down blow. Then came the sudden fashion in the United States. But legislation and economics
for small calibres fired at extremely high velocities. have, between them, brought the airgun back into
Their protagonists argued that the product of bullet prominence in both Britain and the US. Airgun clubs
mass times velocity worked out the same way, so are once more flourishing, tournaments are being
that the result would be the same. The ballisticians contested, and some highly sophisticated and
knew, the shooters knew, but nobody remembered expensive weapons are appearing.
to tell the elephants and lions - and there is a neat The airgun is, in its basic form, a simple machine.
row of crosses in a Nairobi graveyard to prove it. A piston is pulled back against a spring and held
170 Today the fashion has moved back to large calibres, there by a trip mechanism. A lead pellet is inserted
 Shotguns/SPORTING GUNS

Previous page Veriere automatic ejectors and barrel dissipates heat breaks forward and
Extralusso (Side-by side’ special bouquet engraving. sideways to avoid air downward for loading or
double barrel, side-lock turbulence, giving a better cartridge ejection.
12-bore shotgun, made by Above A 12-bore ‘over and sight along the two small
the Italian firm of under ’ (one barrel above beads. Below right Duck
Abbiatico Salvinelli. It the other) double barrel shooting with decoys and
has double Purdey-type shotgun for trap shooting. Below left This side-by- a pump action ‘over and
under bolting, selective A ventilated rib above the side barrelled shotgun under’ 12-bore.
 SPORTING GUNS/Airguns

foresight
compressed air piston mainspring

pellet loading

breech broken
piston forced back

■
k i/——v»
'Ll
n_
trigger

piston released

trigger pulled

into the barrel and the trigger is pulled. This releases US), and .308 Winchester - the civilian equivalent
the piston which flies forwards in a cylinder, com¬ of 7.62mm NATO - about £26 per hundred (about
pressing air which is then channelled into the breech $39 in the US).
to blow the pellet from the barrel. Within this At prices like this, the traditional sort of rifle and
simple framework many refinements are possible. pistol shooting can soon become expensive. One
For example, it will be apparent that when the piston way out of the dilemma is to manufacture one’s own
flies forwards there will be a sensible change in the ammunition - ‘handloading’ as it is termed. One can
balance of the weapon, and this is countered in some start either by purchasing a quantity of commercial
modern designs by arranging for a similar weight ammunition, firing it, and preserving the cartridge
to be propelled in the opposite direction in order to cases. Or one can buy fired cases (or even new ones).
cancel out the piston’s effect. Rifling of the barrel The cases then have the primers removed, are
needs to be carefully tailored to suit the airgun. The cleaned, checked, and brought to ‘new’ dimensions
deep rifling needed with the high velocities of power¬ once again by a special tool known as a ‘resizing die’.
burning weapons is not required with the low- Powder is then bought in bulk, weighed into charges
powered airgun, and with less pressure behind the and filled into the cases; bullets bought and fitted;
pellet, there is less deformation into the rifling, so primers bought and pressed into the cases.
shallow grooves are needed. The result is a round of ammunition ready for
The matter of expense is one which is continuing firing at a cost considerably less than the cost of
to shape sports shooting. The only way to become a commercial ammunition - once the expenditure on
proficient shot is to shoot. A noted American exhibi¬ reloading tools has been amortized. The other
tion shooter was once asked what was needed to advantage of this system is that the shooter is not
become a first-class shot. ‘About ten years’, he restricted to the charge and bullet prescribed by
replied, ‘and several car-loads of ammunition.’ In the ammunition manufacturer. He can experiment
1979, .45 automatic pistol ‘Match grade’ ammunition with lighter or stronger charges, different weights
172 cost about £23 per hundred rounds (about $23 in the and shapes of bullet, until he arrives at a loading
 ‘Black Powder ShootingVSPORTING GUNS
Left The air gun totally different bullet. For example, the .22in
rearsight mechanism. The weapon Varminter began as a .250in Savage case with the
is shown being fired and neck reduced to take a special jacketed .22in bullet.
loaded. Breaking the This was one of the more successful designs and
breech (far left) not only later appeared in commercial form. Another, the
enables the pellet to be k8mm-06’ was developed when owners of 8mm Mauser
loaded but also forces back rifles found that the supply of commercial ammuni¬
the piston, cocking it to tion had dried up. They therefore expanded the rifle
fire. chamber to take the standard US Army .30-06 cart¬
ridge case, and then modified the case neck to take
Below left This Walther the 8mm bullet. One expert has estimated that there
LGR .177 Match Air Rifle have been upwards of 200 different wildcat rounds
is recoilless (piston and developed in the US alone, and there appear to be
counterweight system) new ones coming along to replace the failures at a
and weighs 5.44kg (12lb). rate which will probably keep this figure fairly
The large knob is the constant.
cocking lever and the rifle Another way of economizing which has gained
has finely adjustable ground in recent years has been to revert com¬
micrometer aperture pletely and go back to using gunpowder and per¬
sights. cussion caps or even flintlocks. ‘Black Powder
Shooting’ has become immensely popular in the last
Below A Brown Bess flint ten years, both in the US and in Europe, and there
lock musket being fired by are several companies fully engaged in producing
a latter-day enthusiast. factory-built replicas of old weapons - from ‘Ken¬
The ignition of the tucky Rifles’ to imitations of Brown Bess, from
priming powder in the flintlock dragoon pistols to copies of the early
pan, a moment before the Remington and Colt cap-and-ball revolvers.
main charge is fired, has It must be said that economy is not the whole
not made the firer flinch. story. There is a good deal of sensuous satisfaction
from firing a black-powder gun. The recoil and
report differ from those of a smokeless-powder arm,
and the cloud of powder smoke which wreathes the
shooter has its own peculiar attraction. Originally
this movement was devoted to target shooting, but
there is now a growing band of devotees using black-
powder rifles and shotguns for hunting. Not only do
they have the pleasure of using their older weapons,
but there is also the element of a ‘handicap’ favour¬
ing the hunted animals, giving them rather more of
a sporting chance than they are likely to get with
the very latest products of the gunsmiths’ art.
In the last 600 years, the hand firearm has come a
long way - from a roughly cast lump of bronze, to
the intricate and finely-machined target pistol or
rifle or the lovingly-crafted shotgun of the present
which precisely suits his particular weapon and his day. It may seem premature to say that future
particular method of using it. advances will be relatively minor, but it certainly
Handloading also benefits a class of firearms looks as if the powder-fired projectile-discharging
enthusiast most common in the United States, the firearm has reached the point where major further
‘wild-catter’. The term has no bearing on the object development is extremely unlikely.
of the shooter’s expertise. It is of doubtful etymology There has been no significant advance in principles
but it indicates that the shooter was not satisfied of operation since the development of the automatic
with the calibres which the gunmakers have seen rifle and the submachine gun, and even they were
fit to provide, but, instead, has developed a calibre founded on basic principles which had been known
and loading of his own. Some wildcatters are un¬ for years. There have, it is true, been attempts to
doubtedly frustrated firearms designers who would devise something entirely different - a solenoid gun,
be happiest in a military arsenal somewhere, design¬ for example, in which a magnetic field is employed
ing and building weapons. Others are simply hunters to discharge a missile - but these have been aberrant
or target shooters who are quite convinced that curiosities which have come and gone, while the
their pet project is the answer to flatter trajectories, traditional gun has stood the test of time. It may
higher velocities, or better killing power. well be that in future years, historians will point to
Wildcat cartridges are usually characterized by the latter part of the twentieth century and say,
commercial cases which are modified to accept a ‘This was the zenith of firearms development’. 173
 BY WAY OF
ACCOMPANIMENT
 BY WAY OF ACCOMPANIMENT/Bullet Streamlining
I t may seem obvious, but it is frequently forgot¬
ten that the best of guns is nothing without
base drag was negligible in comparison. But during
World War I the long-range machine gun came into
ammunition. The bullet is the weapon - the greater use, and field experience indicated that at
gun merely a means of getting the weapon to the long range there was a serious fall-off in accuracy.
target. More experiments were carried out and these showed
It is not unknown for a good gun to be spoiled by that once the bullet dropped below the speed of
poor ammunition, or an indifferent gun to be im¬ sound, as it did at long ranges, the base drag became
proved out of all recognition by well-designed the more important of the two factors, causing
ammunition. A case in point is the Smith and instability and inaccuracy of flight. This was cured
Wesson .44in ‘American’ revolver. As originally by the development of the ‘streamlined’ bullet, one
produced, its accuracy was no more than average in which the base was slightly tapered so as to give
due to the poor fit of the bullet in the barrel. When the airflow a smoother run to the base of the bullet.
the Russians decided to adopt the weapon, they Unfortunately, streamlining or ‘boat-tailing’ the
redesigned the cartridge, increasing the size of the base upset one of the basic mechanical features of
bullet and making it a better fit into the rifling. the bullet, its ‘set-up’ into the rifling. The average
This small alteration transformed the .44 into a rifle bullet had a base which was not precisely flat
first-class target pistol. but slightly concave, and the effect of the propelling
Modern ammunition began with the researches of gas on this was slightly to expand the base and thus
the Swiss designer Major Rubin, who developed the make a perfect gas-tight seal in the rifling. But once
compound bullet having a lead core and a hard-metal the bullet was streamlined, this ‘set-up’ did not take
jacket. This gave the combined advantages of mass place, and inaccuracy began before the bullet had
(from the core) and freedom from fouling in the even left the barrel, since there was a tendency for
barrel (from the jacket) and, allied with smokeless gas to leak around the bullet, and this led to erosion

powder, enabled automatic arms and repeating Previous page Rifle Rifle; French 7.5mm x 54
rifles to become a practical possibility. It also cartridges. Left to right: Ml929; NATO 7.62mm x 51
changed the shape of rifle bullets from short, fat US .30 M1941 Tracer Ml; M1954; .450 Martini-Henry
lead slugs to long, thin, jacketed bullets which Austrian 8mm Mannlicher M1871 in Boxer wrapped
retained their velocity better through the air. M1888; Soviet 7.62mm x brass case; French 8mm
The matter might have rested there but for the 39 M1943; .600 Express Lebel M1886; British .303in.
discovery of high-speed spark photography. This
enabled pictures to be obtained of bullets in flight of the gun barrel. The answer to this lay in special
and also showed the air flow and shock waves which dimensioning of the bullet and careful selection of
were built up around the bullet. The photographs the jacket metal so as to achieve even engraving
made it possible to obtain positive information about into the rifling. Nevertheless, the streamlined bullet
the effect of changes in bullet shape, and one of the was difficult to manufacture and still caused barrel
first benefits of this came in 1905 when the German erosion, and most countries restricted its use to
Army adopted a pointed rifle bullet in place of the machine guns, in which the barrels could be changed
round-nose pattern previously used. This gave periodically, and retained flat-based bullets for
better flight characteristics and maintained velocity rifles in order to preserve their accuracy.
to a greater distance. This lead was followed by most Having got the bullet to fly through the air
other nations, the French adding a twist by intro¬ accurately, the next consideration is its effect at
ducing their ‘Balle D\ made entirely of bronze. the target. Apart from specialist military bullets
The pointed bullet with its base at right angles (such as tracer or armour-piercing), most bullets are
was selected as there are two factors which affect designed to kill, either animals or people. In the
the flight of a bullet - the shock wave generated at earliest days of the gun there was little finesse about
the nose due to exceeding the speed of sound; and the this. The bullet was a solid lump of soft lead which
turbulent drag caused by the airflow passing into struck the target’s body, deformed due to its impact,
the area behind the base as the bullet cleaves the air. and tore its way through, causing serious injury.
The spark photographs and practical experiments But - strange as it may seem - the criterion of
showed that the shock wave was the biggest factor, efficiency of a bullet is not whether it kills, but
176 and that tapering the nose reduced the effect. The whether it incapacitates. A dead soldier is a dead
 Dum-Dum Bullets/BY WAY OF ACCOMPANIMENT
soldier, but a wounded soldier often means two or pistol instead of the .45in calibre, and they were
three enemy out of the line since, human nature distressed to find that the .38 had little effect on
being what it is, when a man goes down wounded, charging tribesmen. It was this experience which
often a companion or two will go to his aid, at which led to the Ordnance Department specifying a .45
point they are no longer combat-effective. Moreover, bullet for their future arms.
it is of little use to wound a man if the wound is such The Hague Convention of 1899 however, outlawed
that he can continue to fight, or to wound an animal such bullets as the ‘Man-stopper’ and since then
so that it can still run, seek cover, and escape the military bullets, except those for some revolvers,
hunter. So, over the years, the criterion of bullet have been fully-jacketed types which tend to pierce
efficiency has come to be its ‘knock-down’ power - rather than knock down. Recently, however, there
whether the impact puts the victim flat on the has been a great deal of ill-informed notoriety
ground, irrespective of the seriousness of the wound. attaching to the 5.56mm bullets fired from the
The best examples of this come from the late Armalite and other rifles. Frequently it has been
nineteenth century, when wars against fanatic alleged that they are explosive or that they ‘tumble
tribesmen and the like were still commonplace. The in flight, end-over-end, so as to tear into their
British service revolver bullet was a pointed .455in target’. A moment’s thought would make it clear
of hard lead/antimony compound, and experience that any bullet which tumbled end-over-end would
soon showed that a charging fanatic, armed with a scarcely be accurate, yet these stories persist. The
spear or sword, could be hit more than once with truth is that the 5.56mm bullet can deliver a devas¬
these bullets and could still keep coming, moving tating knock-down blow and a serious wound, in
fast enough to overcome the impact of the bullet spite of its small size, simply because the designers
and still slice the pistol-holder with his blade. To of the rifles take advantage of ballistic facts.
counter this, a new bullet - known as the ‘Man- A bullet passing through the air carries, stored

Above Six shadowgraphs In(l), velocity is about within it, so many joules (or foot-pounds) of energy,
( high-speed silhouette 840m Isec (2 ,755ft/sec) or the product of its mass and velocity. It can lose this
photographs made with 2\ x speed of sound. In (2) energy gradually, by friction and air drag, until
high-voltage spark to (6) a bullet penetrates gravity takes over and it falls to the ground at the
illumination) of a 7.62mm a polypropylene sheet at end of its flight. Or it can lose it suddenly by striking
L2A2 British Rifle bullet. c.520ml sec (1,700 ft/sec). a target and, stopping, transferring the energy to
the target as a blow. In most cases, of course, the
stopper’ - was developed. It was a simple lead cylin¬ strike of the bullet falls somewhere between these
der, with the nose formed into a concave cup. When two extremes, since the bullet passes through the
this struck, the head mushroomed out and delivered target and only yields a portion of its energy.
such a massive blow that even a charging fanatic This is where the spinning of the bullet comes to
would be knocked off his feet. play. If the bullet is well stabilized, the spin persists
To give rifle users a similarly powerful bullet, the during the passage through the target, and this
Dum-Dum Arsenal in India produced the ‘Dum-Dum’ tends to keep the bullet on course and encourage it
bullet. In recent years any soft-nosed bullet has to pass through. In the case of the 5.56mm bullet,
come to be called ‘Dum-Dum’, but the genuine however, the amount of spin given to the bullet is
article was the British .303in rifle bullet with the only just sufficient to keep it stable throughout its
metal envelope slit back from the nose for about calculated effective range, say to 1,000m (3,300ft).
6mm (0.25in). It was invented by Captain Bertie Any interference with the bullet’s flight - either by
Clay, Superintendent of Dum-Dum, and was first striking a target or even a leaf or blade of grass - is
used to horrible effect at the Battle of Omdurman sufficient to upset the stability. The bullet then
(1898). The object of the design was that on impact, topples in flight and no longer follows its theoretical
the soft lead core would, due to its momentum, pass trajectory. If the upsetting factor is a target, then
through the slit envelope and ‘mushroom’ out to the toppling bullet delivers all its energy to the
give a greater impact and stopping power. target in one massive blow - and it is this which
The American Army learned the same lesson in the accounts for the effect of the 5.56mm bullet.
Phillipine Insurrection of 1900. They had, some time For hunting, however, there are no restrictions on
previously, adopted the .38 revolver as the service the shape or form that a bullet can take, probably 177
 BY WAY OF ACCOMPANIMENT/Taper-Bore Ammunition
because there were no animals present at The Hague
in 1899. And in order to obtain the greatest possibility
of a clean kill, partially-jacketed bullets, which
leave the core exposed at the tip, are the most
popular. The exposed soft point spreads on impact
and delivers more energy to the target, ensuring
greater wounding power and more certain knock¬
down of the game. Obviously, the choice of bullet,
both calibre and type, is governed by the type of
game to be hunted - the bullet which would stop a
charging rhinoceros would be unsuited to hunting
rabbits, and vice versa.
Since the effect of a bullet is governed by con¬
siderations of its mass and its velocity, achieving
high velocity in rifles has always been desirable.
This is true not only for the effect of the bullet on
the target, but also because a high velocity means
a flat trajectory, that is, the bullet travelling closer
to the ideal straight line between gun and target
and thus simplifying the design of the sights. The
easy way to achieve high velocity is simply to put a
bigger cartridge behind the bullet, as in the various
‘magnum’ rounds; but this brings problems of recoil
and weight in its train. Other ways have been tried.
One method, originally patented in the early 1900s,
is to make the rifle barrel with a gradually diminish¬
ing calibre as it reaches the muzzle, the breech Top Inside view of a rifled - the spiral ridges and
calibre being, say, 7.5mm and the muzzle calibre, barrel, showing the ‘ lands’ grooves of the rifling.
say, 6.5mm. Having done this, the next task is to
design a bullet which is 7.5mm when loaded but had to be surrounded by a plastic sheath. This filled
which will conform to the reduction in calibre and the bore and acted as a gas seal, and dragged the
emerge as a 6.5mm. The advantage in this is that flechette up the barrel. Once they both arrived at the
since the velocity of the bullet is governed by the muzzle, the plastic sheath was discarded and the
gas pressure on its base, reducing the base area will flechette left to travel to the target at velocities in
increase the unit pressure and boost the velocity. the order of l,370m/sec (4,500ft/sec). Unfortunately
Rifles on this plan were built in the 1920s and 1930s the early promise of flechette was not fulfilled - its
by a German gunsmith named Gerlich, who not only accuracy at anything but extremely short ranges
promoted the idea for use in hunting rifles but also is poor, and it is expensive and difficult to manu¬
tried to interest various military authorities in the facture to the degree of precision demanded. By the
idea for sniping rifles. The bullets were made with 1970s, little had been heard of it.
‘skirts’ on the jacket which were squeezed in during One of the more entertaining ammunition ideas to
travel down the rifle bore, or with the jacket swelled appear in recent years has been the multiple-bullet
out in the wall so that it could be squeezed without cartridge. In fact, like almost everything else in the
deforming the core. The idea worked, and several ordnance world, the idea is not new. It was patented
hunters were enthusiastic about the ‘Halger’ rifles by (among others) none other than Georg Luger as
which used Gerlich’s bullets, but they were expen¬ early as 1910. But it was not until the 1950s that the
sive, and so was the ammunition, and they did not idea began to prosper, as a result of various US Army
make the inventor a fortune. Gerlich later applied investigations into marksmanship and the lack of
his talents to heavier weapons and was the guiding it among soldiers. By fitting two bullets in the
hand behind some of Germany’s most potent anti¬ cartridge case, and cutting the base of the second
tank guns of World War II, which used the ‘taper- bullet slightly obliquely, it was then possible to
bore’ system. discharge both at one shot, the first bullet going
In the 1960s the ‘flechette’ made its appearance as where the rifle was pointed and the second, because
a new type of rifle projectile. This was a small dart, of the cut base, taking a course slightly to one side
resembling, in general, a 2.5cm (lin) nail with three of the first. Which side it took - or, indeed whether
fins. This weighed but a fraction of the weight of a it went to the side or went above or below - was
conventional bullet, and it could be launched at entirely random since it depended on the position of
extremely high velocities. At the target, because of the bullet inside the breech. The theory was that if
the high velocity, the impact was considerable and, the first bullet was reasonably well-aimed but
like the 5.56mm bullet, the flechette gave up its missed by a small margin, then the second bullet’s
energy instantly and was severely incapacitating. slight dispersion might well result in a hit and save
The only problem lay in actually launching it. The the day. A ‘Duplex’ round in 7.62mm NATO calibre
178 flechette could not plug the bore like a bullet, and was standardized in the US Army in about 1960, but
 Special Military Rounds/BY WAY OF ACCOMPANIMENT
little has been heard of the idea since. The incendiary bullet resembles the tracer except
Military ammunition, of course, has to perform that the incendiary composition is designed to burn
other functions besides simply producing casualties. particularly fiercely to set on fire anything it
Special types of ammunition (and the specific touches. So that the composition is not entirely
tactical requirements which provided the initial consumed in flight, the first part of the filling is a
impetus for their development) include the incen¬ ‘delay’ mixture which burns relatively slowly,
diary bullet (developed after Zeppelin’s dirigibles allowing the incendiary substance to blossom forth
appeared during World War I); the tracer bullet (a at the mean fighting range. Another way of achiev¬
product of aerial combat); the explosive ‘observing’ ing the same desired effect was to hollow out the nose
bullet (used in long-range machine-gun firing); and of the bullet and fill it with phosphorus. When the
the armour-piercing bullet (designed to counter the bullet struck, the phosphorus splashed out and -
tank). All these manage to produce their specialized being spontaneously inflammable - raised fire in the
effect while keeping within the confining envelope vicinity. But phosphorus is touchy stuff, and is
of the standard-sized bullet. rarely used for this purpose today.
The tracer bullet serves as a good introduction to The same sort of construction is used for observing
this group since its construction is very basic. It is, bullets, the nose of the bullet being filled with an
in effect, a normal bullet except that the rear half explosive substance which detonates on impact.
of the core is drilled out to form a receptacle into This type of bullet is proscribed for use against
which a chemical composition is pressed, leaving the personnel, but it can be found in, for example, tank
bottom of the filling exposed. When the cartridge is machine guns which are used for determining the
fired, the flash of the powder ignites this exposed range to a target prior to opening fire with the
portion, and the tracer compound then burns away heavy armament. The explosive bullet, fired against
layer by layer, emitting flame and smoke. Thus the another tank, bursts with a flash and bang which
passage of the bullet through the air is ‘traced’ by a makes it quite obvious that hits are being scored. In
visible marker and the firer can correct his aim as a similar manner, long-range machine guns have
necessary. used these bullets for observing the fall of their
Obviously, as the tracer material burns away, the shot at ranges which made it impossible to detect
weight and balance of the bullet changes, and it no the fall of inert ball bullets.
longer performs precisely as a standard solid bullet - The armour-piercing bullet consists of a core of
commonly called a ‘ball’ - of the same size. This is hard steel or even of tungsten encased in the normal
catered for in the design, the tracer being arranged bullet envelope. This gives an additional piercing
to match the trajectory of the ball bullet up to some power which the usual sort of lead/antimony core
specified range. In this way, with, for example, a belt of the ball bullet does not have. There is, of course,
of machine gun bullets arranged with one tracer to nothing except the technical manufacturing prob¬
every four balls, the tracer gives reliable register lem to stop the incorporation of more than one of
up to the average fighting range of the gun. these features in one bullet. One can have, for ex¬

Left Diagram of a flechette Below Four bullet types.

cartridge case cartridge. The sheath or AP rounds are for
sabot flechette
sabot is discarded at the penetrating the steel plates
gun muzzle and the of light armoured vehicles.
0.324-0.648g (5-10gr) The nose is longer and
flechette flies on at four slimmer than the ball type
times the speed of sound. to reduce all resistance
seal propellant Multi-flechette rounds and penetration is also
have also been tried. helped by the flat nose.

jacket

lead alloy core

copper tube

tracer composition

priming composition

brass washer
closing disc

tracer bullet
 BY WAY OF ACCOMPANIMENT/Sights and Sighting

target rearsight

line of sight

light control
prism and lens
object glass assembly assembly eyepiece assembly eyeguard

sealing ring
elevation adjusting quick-release quick-release sight unit body
screw lever clip spring vertical aiming pointer

ample, armour-piercing/incendiary bullets. blade or triangle in the front and a notch at the back.
Having acquired a gun and some ammunition, all This arrangement gives the best compromise be¬
that remains is to hit the target - and for this, tween accuracy and speed of use, since the eye can
sights are needed. The simplest form of sight is that rapidly pick up the target across the top of the
found on shotguns and which was used on early sights. For greatest accuracy, the two sights should
muskets. A bead, or block, above the muzzle acts as be as far apart as the size of the weapon permits, but
a foresight, and there is no backsight, as the aim is at this point anatomy intervenes. The human eye is
taken by simply looking down the length of the not capable of focusing backsight, foresight and
barrel or barrels. target all at once with complete accuracy - one of
With the adoption of rifling and the consequent the three will be more or less blurred. It is for this
increase in range of weapons, something more reason that the ideal position for the sight was
precise was needed, in particular a method of apply¬ frequently abandoned on military rifles and the
ing the correct elevation to the weapon. The object backsight placed about half-way down the weapon,
of a sighting system is to correlate the optical line in front of the chamber, since this gave a better
of sight with the axis of the gun barrel in such a way likelihood of obtaining a sharp sight picture.
that the trajectory intersects the line of sight at To overcome this defect, the aperture backsight
the target. If the rifle is fired when perfectly horizon¬ was introduced at about the turn of the century.
tal, the effect of gravity is to pull down the bullet The principle on which this sight is based is that no
and thus bend the trajectory or line of flight. To attempt need be made to focus on the backsight. The
counter this, it is necessary to lift the muzzle of the sight is merely a piece of metal with a hole in it,
rifle so as to start the bullet off on an angle of eleva¬ through which the firer sees the foresight and the
tion. If this amount of elevation is correctly chosen, target. Because the hole is circular, the human eye
then the curvature of the trajectory due to gravity automatically aligns itself with the centre since
will eventually bring the bullet on to the target. this is the position giving the greatest luminosity.
To attain the correct amount of elevation, the Thus the foresight is the nearest object on which
backsight is made to extend some distance above the eye has to focus, and if a small enough rearsight
the line of the bore. Thus, a line drawn through the aperture is used, this tends to deepen the amount of
back and fore sights to the target will cause the focus of the eye so that both the foresight and the
muzzle of the rifle to be elevated to the necessary target can be comfortably accommodated. The
amount. As to what the necessary amount may be, backsight can also be brought well back, since the
this is a question which is affected by the type of closer it is to the eye, the more effective it is, and
rifle, the propelling charge and the flight character¬ this improves the sight base, the distance between
istics of the bullet, and it can only be determined fore and back sights.
by actual firing. Every improvement, of course, has to be paid for.
180 The sights on a rifle usually take the form of a With the aperture sight, the problems are, firstly,
 Optical Sights/BY WAY OF ACCOMPANIMENT
Left Setting the line of
sight to raise the gun’s
muzzle will compensate
for the bullet’s curved
trajectory in flight.

Below left An example of a

modern rifle sight. The
Trilux, in service since
1974, has a suspended
vertical aiming point with
a red triphium light source
that illuminates the target
not only at night but also
in poor daylight.

Right The Trilux on the

L2A1 British service rifle
it was devised for. The
soldier is from the Royal
Corps of Transport, an
indication of how
seriously the British Army
takes rifle marksmanship
in which every rank up to
lieutenant-colonel is
tested.

that the surround to the sight obscures the target The mount must also be made in such a fashion that
when bringing the rifle to the aim, and, secondly, the telescope can be removed and replaced and yet
that for the best results the aperture should be always go back in precisely the same alignment.
small, but a small aperture is only usable in good And, finally, the mount and telescope must be
light. Target shooters and hunters can get around positioned so that they do not interfere with the
this by having adjustable apertures or completely loading or ejection of the cartridge, or the action of
interchangeable apertures, but on military rifles the rifle, and must leave the normal open sights
this sort of solution is not practical and the aper¬ available for use in an emergency.
ture has to be a compromise. Several recent designs of military rifle have used
The ultimate form of sight is, of course, the optical a ‘unity’ optical sight in which there is no magnifi¬
or telescopic sight. This, mounted above the rifle cation of the image. This gives the advantages of
and carefully aligned, has definite advantages. In focus and good light-gathering power, but retains
the first place, it removes the focusing problem since the target at the same size as its background and
all the elements of the sight ‘picture’ - the target does not exaggerate movement as does a magnifying
and the telescope’s cross-wires - are in the same telescope. This makes it a better sight for snap
plane of focus. Moreover, since it magnifies the field shooting and for shooting at moving targets. It is,
of view, it enables a more precise aim to be taken moreover, a much simpler and more robust device
and allows small or indistinct targets to be engaged than a magnifying telescope, and can be permanently
which could not even have been seen with the naked mounted on the rifle.
eye. It also allows targets to be engaged in light too For specialized military purposes, it is possible to
poor to allow the use of open sights and, theoretic¬ go even further and use electronics to improve vision,
ally, increases the accuracy by a factor which particularly at night. These night-vision devices are
is the magnifying power of the telescope. extremely expensive and involved, and depend upon
There are, though, some problems. Probably the electronic amplification of the perceived light, the
greatest of these is the actual mounting of the amplified picture being presented in the ‘telescope’
telescope on to the rifle. The mounts on to which eyepiece in the normal way. Early versions used
the telescope fits can rarely be more than about infra-red techniques, either relying on the infra-red
15cm (6in) apart, and thus must be aligned with the emission from the target - for example, human body
utmost precision and the telescope held there with heat - or on an infra-red light source mounted on
complete rigidity. If there is 0.25mm (O.Olin) play in the weapon and ‘floodlighting’ the target area.
the mount, then the bullet will be 15cm (6in) off the While these systems worked, they were relatively
target at about 100m (110yd) range. The problem is imprecise and were only effective at short range.
made worse by the rifle’s recoil which tends to shake The modern techniques of light amplification can be
the telescope loose from the mount. This also effects effective to almost the maximum range of the
the telescope itself, loosening the optical elements. weapon and, quite literally, turn night into day.
 GUNS AND HOW THEY WORK/Conversion Figures

Calibre Conversion Shotgun and Musket Bores

The number of calibres, both metric and ‘inch’, Shotguns, muskets and early pistols were calibrated
which have been tried over the years is legion, but according to the number of bore-sized lead balls
no practical purpose would be served by listing all which went to make up one pound (lib =543.6g).
of them. The following are what might be called the Thus a 12-bore gun will accept a lead ball weighing
‘standard’ calibres, for which ammunition was most one-twelfth of a pound. The exceptions which prove
commonly used. It must be kept in mind that much the rule are the .410in and 9mm shotguns which came
of the designation of calibres is traditional: weapons late on the scene and were given ‘proper’ calibre
developed in the United States and Britain used notation.
‘inch’ calibres; those developed on the Continent 4-bore .930in calibre (23.622mm)
used metric calibres. And these calibres stay with 8-bore .835in calibre (21.21mm)
the weapons thereafter, irrespective of who speaks 10-bore .775in calibre (19.7mm)
of them or where. A Frenchman will still refer to 12-bore .729in claibre (18.52mm)
the ‘.45 Colt Frontier’, not the ‘11.43mm Colt Front¬ 14-bore .693in calibre (17.60mm)
ier’, just as an Englishman speaks of the ‘9mm 16-bore .662in calibre (16.81mm)
Parabellum’ and not the ‘.354 Parabellum’. 20-bore .615in calibre (15.62mm)
Another difficult point is that the commonly 24-bore .579in calibre (14.70mm)
accepted equivalents between inch and metric 28-bore .550in calibre (13.97mm)
calibres are not always strictly correct. The same 32-bore .526in calibre (13.36mm)
round of pistol ammunition would be called 7.65mm
in Europe and .32 Auto in America, but .32in mea¬
sures 8.13mm and not 7.65mm. There are no set rules
to be learned in this game; you just have to learn
each one individually. Ours not to reason why . ..

Inch Metric (mm) Metric (mm) Inch

.22 5.58 4.25 .167
.223 5.66 5.5 .216
.243 6.17 5.6 .22
.25 6.35 6 .236
.257 6.52 6.35 .250
.276 7.0 7.5 .295
.280 7.11 7.62 .300
.303 7.7 7.65 .301
.308 7.82 7.92 .312
.32 8.13 8.0 .314
.357 9.06 8.5 .334
.375 9.53 9.0 .354
.38 9.65 9.3 .366
.41 10.4 10.6 .417
.44 11.12 11.5 .452
.45 11.43 12.0 .472
.455 11.55 15.0 .590
.50 12.7
.577 14.6

Weights and Measures

American and British ammunition charges and
bullets are usually measured in grains or, less
frequently, drams, again a matter of traditional
usage. For those unfamiliar with these units, some
equivalents are given:
1 grain = .0648 gramme (g)
1 dram = 1.772 g
27.3 grains = 1 dram A magazine clip of ten
437.5 grains = 1 ounce (oz) = 28.349 grammes 7.63mm Mauser automatic
16 drams = 1 ounce pistol rimless cartridges,
7,000 grains = 16 oz = 1 pound (lb) = 453.6 g first issued in 1896.
182
 Index/GUNS AND HOW THEY WORK

INDEX
Page numbers in roman pistols 100,100 Garros, Roland
type indicate text refer¬
ences. Page numbers in
Berthier, General Andre,
rifle and machine-gun
Alfonse (1833-1908)31
Chassepot rifle 31.38-39
Chatellerault machine
E
Earp. Wyatt (1848-1929) 51
(1888-1918), aviator and
inventor of machine
bold indicate diagrams. designer 134 gun 134 Egg, Joseph (1820-60), gun interruptor gear
Page numbers in italics Big game rifles 170 Chauchat, Colonel 127 gunsmith 22 115
indicate photographs and Billinghurst-Requa Chauchat light machine Eickhoff, Theodor H.. Gatling. Dr Richard J.
other illustrations. battery gun 60 gun 114,134 Thompson (1818-1903)62-63,64
Birmingham Small Arms Churchill, Winston S. submachine gun Gatling machine gun

A
AAT-52 machine gun 89
Company (BSA,/d.1861)
112,146
Black powder shooting
(1874-1965) 122
Clay. Captain Bertie
(1874-1937) and Dum-
co-designer 120,122
Ejection system, Dodge's
49.50
58-59, 62-63, 62, 62-63,
64-65, 64-65,66, 86.167
General purpose
Adams, Robert, and 173,173 Dum bullet 177 EM2 rifle 148-49,151-52 machine gun (GPMG)
revolvers 46-47 Blish. Commander John Clip loading, Enfield, Royal Small 166
Advanced primer B., U.S.N. 120,122 Mannlicher's system 72 Arms factory (fd. 1856) Gerlich taper-bore rifles
ignition 118 Blish locking system Cody, William F. 74.136,146 178
Ager, Wilson 61 120,123 •Buffalo Bill'(1846-1917) Enfield 4.85mm light Gorloff, General, and
Ager ‘Coffee MilP Blowback action: 48 machine gun 162 Gatling MG 63, 86
machine gun 61 mechanism 84-85, Colt. Samuel (1814-62): Erma Company GP-35 (Browning) pistol
Agnelli, Giovanni, and 87-89, 88 and the revolver 43.43 (fd.c. 1920)144 138,138,140
fluted chamber 88 disadvantages of89 automatic pistol 104-5, ‘Exercise of the Firelock' Greener, William
Airgun 170,172 Boat-tailed bullets 176 106,140 18 (d.1869). on advantages
AK47 assault rifle 151, Bode, Major, and Colt Company (/d.1855) Express cartridge 174 of breechloading 28
154-55,154-55 jacketed bullet 70 48,93,106.114,173 Express rifle 170 Gun:
Allins, Erskine, breech Boer War 76, 76,84 Commando early claims to
conversion 30 Borchardt, Hugo submachine gun 157
American Civil War
32-33, 60-61
(c.1850-1921) 92
Borchardt pistol 92, 93, 95
New Navy revolver 56
Navy revolver 46. 47
F
Fabrique Nationale (FN)
invention of 10
early forms of
construction 10
Ammunition costs 172 Boulanger. General Paterson revolver 44 Company (/d.1889) 73, features and
Ammunition Georges (1837-91)70 Positive Safety Lock 105,138,140,141,152 definitions 11
development 176 Breech-loading: 56 Fafchamps, Captain, and Gunpowder:
AR-15 (Armalite) rifle 148 advantages 28 Frontier revolver 52-3, mitrailleuse machine composition of 8
153.153,156,156-57,177 early systems 28 53, 54,55 gun 61 discovery of 8
Armalite Company Bren light machine gun Walker revolver 44,45 FAL rifle 152,152-53 Gyrojet pistol 148,162,163
(fd.1952)152,153 132-33,134,134-35,136 Commission rifle 73 Farquhar-Hill automatic
Armour-piercing bullet Brown Bess muskets
179
Arquebus, derivation 14
20-21,24.24,173
Browning. John Moses
Crimean War 47,60
Crozier, General William
(1855-1942) 112,114
rifle 127
Federle brothers, Mauser
pistol designers 96,99
H
Hackenbuchse
Arquebusiers 9,15 (1855-1926)93,105,115, Custer's Last Stand 26-27 Federov, Vladimir G. (arquebus) 14
Assault rifle 151 138,140,141 Cutts Compensator 121, (1874-1942) 127 Haenel Company
Auto-Mag pistol 167 Browning, Lt. Valentine 121,122 Federov automatic rifle (fd. 1840) 150
Automatic pistols A. 114 Czech VZ-23 submachine 127 Haenel machine carbine
compared with Browning automatic gun 157,158 Ferguson, Major Patrick MKb42( H) 150
revolvers 140 rifle (BAR) 124-25,125, (1744-80) 25 Hague Convention, and
Automatic rifles 126-29
Auto-Ordnance
Corporation (fd. 1919)
125,134
Browning ■High-Power'
(GP35) pistol 138,138,
D
Dardick, David 163,166
Ferguson rifle 25, 25
Fermeture nut system of
breech locking 111, 111
bullets 177,178
‘Hammer the Hammer'
56, 57
120,122-23 140 Dardick magazine 163 Flechette projectiles Handgun, early Swedish
Browning machine guns Dardick pistol 163,163 178,179 10

B
Bacon, Roger (c.1216-92)
2,109,114,115
Browning pistols 105.
138,140
Deadwood Dick, alias
Nat Love 35
Degtyaryov, Vasili A.
Flintlock 18-20,18-21,173
Flintlock ignition stages
21
Handgun, two-man
version 11
Handloading of
and origins of Bullet design 176,179 (1879-1949) 145 Flobert, Louis 31 ammunition 172
gunpowder 8 ‘Bull-pup' design of rifle Degtyaryov submachine Flobert cartridge Hangfire 20. 21
Baker rifle 20-21 151 gun 145 (BB Cap) 31 Heckler and Koch GmbH
Balle D bullet 176 Burgundy. Philip. Duke De Lisle silent carbine Flobert rimfire 30 Company (fd. 1948) 162
Bang. Soren H. 128 of, (1342-1404) and 146 Fluted chamber 88 Henri Farman aircraft
Bang automatic rifle giant cannon 10 Delvigne, Captain Fokker, Anthony H.G. and machine guns 85,
128,128 Burst-fire facility 162 Gustave (1798-1876) 23 (1890-1939), aircraft 113
BB Cap (Flobert Butler, Major General Delvigne bullet 23 designer 115 Henry, Benjamin Tyler
cartridge) 31 Benjamin F. (1818-93) 63 Detonating principle of Forsyth, Rev. Alexander (1821-98) and lever-
Beaumont. Lt. ignition 20

c
(1768-1843) 20 action rifles 33,35
Frederick. R.E. Differential locking 118 Forsyth fowling piece 22 Henry repeating rifle
(1838-99)47 Dodge, William C. and Fosbery, Col. George V., 33,35
Beaumont-Adams Calibre, definition of 11 ejection system 49,50 VC, (1834-1907) and Henry, Alexander
revolver 40-41,47 Calibre conversion Dormus, Lt. Ritter automatic revolver 106 (d.1900) and Martini
Benet, Laurence V. tables 182 Georg von, machine rifle 37
(1863-1948) and Capone, Alphonso gun co-designer 84
Hotchkiss machine
gun 85
(1895-1947), submachine
gun user 122
Double-action lock 47,
141
G
Gabbet-Fairfax, Hugh,
Hickok, James B. ‘Wild
Bill’(1837-76) 46
Hime, Lt.-Col. Henry
Benet-Mercie machine Cartridge: Double rifle 170 and Mars pistol 101 W.I. (1840-1929) and
rifle 111, 114 invention by Pauly 28 Dreyse, Johannes Gal, Major Uziel, Uzi research into
Beretta Company designs 177,179 Nikolaus (1787-1867) submachine gun gunpowder 8
(/d.1680) 120.139 self-contained types 30 29-30 designer 158 Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Beretta M1918 Cei-Rigotti automatic Dreyse needle gun 28-29, Garand, JohnC. and assault rifles 150-51
submachine gun 120,120 rifle 126 29-30 (1888-1974) 129,131 Holek, Vaclav (1886-1954),
Beretta M1934 pistol Centre-fire cartridge 37 Duck’s foot pistol 42,42 Garand semi -automatic submachine gun
139,139 Chase, Anson, gunsmith Duelling pistols 12-13 rifle 129,130,131,7 31 designer 157
Bergmann, Theodor, 43 Dum-Dum bullet 177 Gardner, Captain Hotchkiss, Benjamin B.
Company: submachine Charger loading, Duplex multi-bullet William 64,65,67 (1826-85)67
gun 118-19.118,118-19, Mauser's system 69 cartridge 178 Gardner machine gun Hotchkiss Company
145.146 Chassepot, Antoine Dutch snaphance lock 18 64,65, 65,67 (/d.1875): aircraft 183
 GUNS AND HOW THEY WORK/Index
mounted machine gun Lissak, Lt. Col. Oliver M., Maxim machine gun
85
light machine gun
Lewis gun co-designer
112
80-84,82-83, 80-81,86
Maynard, Dr Edward
pP-38 pistol 141,142-43,144
Rimfire cartridge 30
Roth, Georg (d.1909),
gun and cartridge
110-11 Locked breech pistols (1813-91): Palmkranz, Heldge, designer 104
machine guns 85-86 defined 100 rifle 32 Nordenfelt machine Roth-Steyr pistol 104
revolving cannon 67 Long recoil mechanism: tape priming system gun designer 67 Royal machine pistol 160
Houllier, Bernard, and definition 101 22,23 Parabellum machine Royal Small Arms
rimfire cartridge 30 and diagram of 88,115 Mechanical repeating gun 83,115 Factory, Enfield
pinfire cartridge 31 Love, Nat, alias pistols 56 Parabellum Pistole '08 {fd. 1856)74,136,146
Howard, Edward, ‘Deadwood Dick’, Metford, William E. 93,94-95, 96, 96, 97,106, Rubin, Major Eduard,
discovers fulminate cowboy 35 (1824-99), rifling 118,141,144 develops jacketed
of mercury 20 Lowe, Ludwig (1837-86) designer 73,76 Passler, Franz 57 bullet 70,176
Hutier, General Oskar and company 92,93,96 MG08 machine gun 83 Passler and Seidl Russel, Lt. A.R., and
von (1857-1934) and Luger, Georg (1849-1923): MG30 machine gun 137 repeating pistol 57 charger-loading 72
submachine gun 115, ipiproves Borchardt MG34 machine gun 136, Paterson Colt revolver 44 Russo-Japanese War 86
118 pistol 93,95 137,140 Paulson, Richard and Russo-Turkish War 37
invents multiple MG42 machine gun automatic revolver 92 Ryan, Thomas, buys
i
Incendiary bullets 179
bullet 178
Luger pistol:
adopted by German
136-37,140
Millimete manuscript
8,10
Pauly, Samuel Johannes
(1766-c. 1820) and
cartridge 28
Thompson submachine
gun company 123
Infra-red sights 147,181
Iver Johnson Arms and
Cycle Works (/d.1883) 56
Army 96
dismantled 96
operation 97 ,
Minie, Captain
Claude-Etienne
(1814-79)23
Payne, Oscar W.,
Thompson submachine
gun co-designer 120,122
sSACM automatic pistol
Iver Johnson safety Artillery model 94-95, Minie bullet 23 Peabody, Henry 0.33 141
hammer 56 118 Miquelet lock 17,18 Peabody rifle 33, 36.87 SAFN automatic rifle 152
Mitrailleuse machine Pearson, John, gunsmith St. Etienne machine
j
James, Jesse W.
M
MacArthur, General
gun 61-62, 61
MKb 42 machine carbine
150
43
Pedersen. John D.
(d. 1951)128
gun 86
St. Etienne automatic
rifle 127
(1847-82)51 Douglas (1880-1964) 129 Modele 1892 revolver 141 Pedersen automatic Salvator, Archduke Karl
Janissaries 9 Machine gun, definition Modele 1935 pistol 141 rifle 128,128,129 (1839-92) 84
of 61 Mondragon, General Pepperbox revolver 42,43 Salvator and von

K
Kalashnikov, Mikhail
Machine pistols 160,162
McLean, Samuel N. and
Lewis gun 111, 112
Manuel 126
Mondragon automatic
rifle 126,126,127
Percussion cap 22.41
Percussion lock 20-23,
22, 23
Dormus (Skoda)
machine gun 84-85
Savage Arms Company
(5.1920) 151,154-55 Madsen light machine Montigny, Joseph, Percussion lock. (/d.1894) 106,123
Kalashnikov assault gun 86-87, 87,110 improves mitrailleuse Forsyth’s 20-21,22 Scent-bottle lock,
rifle (AK47) 151,154-55, Magnum pistols 165, 61 Petter, Charles, pistol Forsyth’s 21
154-55 165,166-67 MP18 submachine gun designer 141 Schmeisser, Hugo
Karabiner 98 Mauser Mainhardt, Gyrojet (Muskete) 119 Pieper. A.E. Company (d.1945?), submachine
rifle 75 pistol co-designer 162 MP38 submachine gun (fd. 1905), makes gun designer 118,145,
Keith, Elmer, cartridge Mannlicher, Ferdinand 144,144-45,157 Bergmann pistol 100 150
designer 165 • Ritter von (1848-1904): Multiple bullet cartridge Pinfire cartridge 31 Schmeisser, Louis
Kent-Lemon, Noel, bolt action 72-73 178 Polish Model 35 pistol 140 (1848-1917), gun
EM2 rifle designer 151 bullet 174 Musket IS, 20-21,24,24, Poudre ‘B' (smokeless designer 100
King, Charles A. and clip-loading system 72 173,182 powder) 70 Schmidt-Rubin rifle 74
ejection system 50 rifle 72 Muskete (Bergmann PPD-34 submachine gun Schoenauer, Otto
Korean War 130,152 Manton, Joseph MP18) submachine gun 145 (1844-1913) 75
Krag. Ole H.J. (1837-1912) (c.1766-1835) and 118-19,118,118-19,145, PPD-40 submachine gun Schoenauer rotary
74 percussion cap 22 146 145 magazine 75
Krag-Jorgensen Marengoni, Tullio Muzzle compensator PPSh-41 submachine Schofield, Lt. Col.
magazine system 75 (c. 1897-1962), Beretta (Cutts Compensator) gun 145 George W. (d.1882) and
Krag-Jorgensen rifle designer 120.139 121,121 Pratt, Francis revolver 51
74. 75,130 Mars pistol 101,101 (1827-1902) and Schonberger, Anton 92
Krnka. Karl (1858-1926),
automatic weapons
designer 57
Matchlock system 14-15,
15-16
Martini, Friederich von
N
NATO standard
Gardner machine gun
67
Prelat, Francois,
Schonberger automatic
pistol 92,100
Schulhof, Josef (1824-90),
(1832-97) 37 cartridge 152,167,175, gunsmith 21 repeating weapons
L
Lahti. Aimo J.,
Martini-Henry cartridge
175
Martini-Henry rifle 36,
178
Navy Colt revolver 46,47
Needle (Dreyse) gun
Puckle, James
(1667-1724) 60
Puckle’sgun60,60
designer 57
Schwarz, Berthold,
reputed inventor of
submachine gun 37,87 28-29,29 gunpowder 10
designer 121 Mauser, Peter Paul Night vision devices 147, Schwarzlose, Andreas
Lanchester submachine
gun 146
Laumann repeating
pistol 57,92
(1838-1914), Wilhelm
(1834-82)37
Mauser Company
(/d.1871):
180,181,181
Nobel, Alfred Bernhard
(1833-96) and explosives
Q
Quick-loading devices 71
William (1867-1936),
pistol and machine gun
designer 88
70 Schwarzlose machine
Lebel. Col. Nicolas
(1838-91)70
Lebel cartridge 175
adopts box magazines
on rifles 68-69,73
automatic pistol
Nordenfelt, Torsten
Wilhelm (1842-1920) 67
Nordenfelt machine gun
R
Reiger, Erwin 56
gun 87, 88
Semi-automatic or
self-loading rifles 126
Lebel rifle 70-71, 70-71 (‘Military') 96,98, 67,67 Reiger repeating pistol 56 Sharps, Christian
Lee. James P. (1831-1904) 99. 99.160 Norris, Samuel, and Remington Company (1811-74)32
71-72 bolt action 39,77 Mauser brothers 37-38 (/d.1816) 37,72,153,173 Sharps carbine 32
Lee box magazine charger loading 69
system 71-72
Lee-Enfield rifles 72-73.
74-77. 76-77,130,146.
151.152
first rifle
development
37
o
Observing bullet 179
Remington-Lee rifle 72
Remington M1863
musket 33
Revelli, Abiel Bethel
Shaw, Captain Joshua
(1776-1860),
percussion cap
inventor 22
machine guns 137 Odkolek, Captain Baron (1864-1930), machine Shepherd, Major R.
Lee-Metford rifle 73-74. 76 machine pistol 160 Adolph von (1854-1917) gun designer 119 Vernon, Sten gun
Lefaucheaux. Casimir, magazine rifle 70 and Hotchkiss machine Revolvers, comparison co-designer 146
invents cartridge 30 rifles adopted by gun design 85 with automatic pistols Short Magazine
Lewis. Col. Isaac N. German Army 38, Open chamber guns 163 140 Lee-Enfield (SMLE)
(1858-1931)111.112,114 38-39,75 Optical sights 180,181, Rheinmetall Company rifle 75,76-77, 76-77
Lewis machine gun Zig-Zag revolver 49, 49 181 (/d.1889) 124,137 Short recoil operation,
110-13. 110-11,112-13,136 Maxim, Sir Hiram Overhung bolt in Ribauldequins 10 diagram 115
Lillie. Sir James, Stevens (1840-1916) submachine guns Rifling of gun barrels Shotguns 168-69,170,
184 ‘Battery gun'60 80-84, 82-83 157 16,178 170-71
 Index/GUNS AND HOW THEY WORK
Shotgun and musket Sobrero, Ascanio action: 82-83,86,89 Werndl, Josef (1831-89),
bore dimensions 182 (1812-88), discovers Mannlicher 72 Vickers-Berthier magazine
Side-opening revolver nitro-glycerine 70 Schmidt-Rubin 74 machine gun 134 designer 75
developed 56 Somme. Battle of, and Streamlined bullet 176 Vielle, Paul (1854-1934) Wesson, Daniel B.
Sights 180-81,180,181 Vickers machine gun Sturmgewehr 44 assault invents ‘Poudre B* (1825-1906)31
Silenced weapons 146,147 89 rifle 150-51,151 (smokeless powder) 70 Wesson, Major Douglas
‘Six-Pak* Vulcan Spanish-American War Suomi submachine gun Vietnam War 148-49, B., Magnum pistol
machine gun 64, and rifles 130 121,124,145 153-54,154,167 designer 165
167,167 Spanish Civil War and Vilar Perosa submachine Wheel-lock 16,16
Skoda machine gun 85
Skorpion submachine
gun 160.160
submachine guns 144
Spencer, Christopher M.
(1833-1922)33
T
Tape priming (paper
gun 119,120
Volcanic cartridge and
rifle 31
Wheel-lock mechanism
diagram 17
White. Rollin (1817-92),
Skrzpinski. pistol Spencer carbine 33, 36 caps or amorces) 22,23 Vollmer, Heinrich, patentee 48
designer 140 Spitalshy, Antonin 74 Taper-bore rifles 178 submachine gun Whitney. Eli, makes
Slow match 15,15 Spitalsky rotating Telescopic sights 181 designer 144 Colt revolvers 45
Smith, Horace (1808-93)31 magazine 74 Thompson, Brigadier VP70 pistol 149,162 Whitneyville-Walker
Smith and Wesson Springfield Armory General John Vulcan machine gun 64, Colt revolver 44,45
Company (fd. 1857): (/d.1795): Taliaferro (1860-1940) 167,167 Wildcat cartridges 173
‘American' revolver ‘Trap-door* rifle 30,30 120-21,122-23,125 Wilniewczyc, pistol
48.50.50- 51,176
revolver patents 48
rimfire revolver design
M1903 magazine rifle
75,130
Stange, Louis, MG30
Thompson, Col.
Marcellus 122
Thompson submachine
w
Walther Company
designer 140
Winchester, Oliver F.
(1810-80)33,35
48 designer 137 gun 116-17,120-21, (fd. 1886): Winchester Company
•Russian* revolver Steyr Company (/cf.1853) 120-21, 122-23, 122-23, 143 machine carbine 150 (/d.1866):
48.50- 51,50 104,124 Thouvenin bullet 23 match air rifle 172 lever-action rifles 33,
Safety Hammerless Steyr M1912 pistol 104 Tilting block machine pistols 141,142-43,144, 35,37,70
revolver 53 Steyr-Solothurn gun mechanism 89 160,164,164 lever-action diagram
.357 Magnum revolver submachine gun 124-25 Tracer bullets 179 Webley, Joseph (1807-56) 34
165,165,166 Sten submachine gun Trilux sight 162,180,181 103 M1894 rifle 32
1857 ‘tip-up* revolver 146,147 ‘Tround* 163,163 Webley, Philip (1812-88) Ml895 rifle 32
48, 49 Stetchkin machine Turpin, Harold J.. Sten 103 WTinton. General Sir
Volcanic rifle 31 pistol 160 gun co-designer 146 Webley Company Francis de 84
Smokeless powder Solothurn AG Company (/d.1838):
development 70
Snaphance lock: Dutch
17-18,18 Spanish 18,18
124,137
Solothurn MG30 137
Stoner. Eugene, rifle
v
Vickers. Albert
automatic pistol 90-91,
102
revolvers 102-3,103
z
ZB-26 light machine gun
Snider, Jacob 30 designer 153 (1838-1919), partner of Webley-Fosbery 134,136
Snider breech conversion Storm Troops 115,118 Maxim 82. 84 automatic revolver Zbrojovka Brno
31 Straight-pull bolt Vickers machine gun 102,106-7.107 Company (fd. 1919) 134

PICTURE CREDITS 38 9T&B.40 1.43B.50, 162,181 112,113,114T, 122,147T ARTWORK CREDITS

Australian War 54,98,112 3,126 7. 126B, Kevin McDonnell: 84 Sarah Errington Camera Jim Bamber: 23. 30. 31,
Memorial: 135B 138 9,139,142 3,158 9, Masami Tokoi: 150 1 Press:154 36, 49B. 53. 57, 75T. 97,
Barnaby's Picture 173,174 5 Milbro Ltd: 172B Sonia Halliday 9 99,104T, 111, 115,121,
Library: 171 Hart Associates: 157,170 National Army Museum: Sotheby's: 25L 128B, 160 1,161B. 172
Christchurch, Oxford: 6/7 Ian Hogg: Title page. 25TR US Marine Corps JG Jim Marks: 52 3. 88,89,
Geoffrey Boothroyd: 168/9 49T&C, 61,62, 65,70 1, Novosti: 145B Moore Collection: 108 9 144 5.156 7
BSA Guns Ltd: 170/1 75, 75/6,85, 87,93T&B, Picturepoint: 78/9.90/1,102 USAF: 167 Tom McArthur: 17.18 9.
Camera Press: 42 96,100,101,105,118, MM Rathore: 182 Courtesy Wadsworth 28 9.30 1,34 5,62 3,72 3,
Cooper-Bridgeman 120TL&PR, 125,128/9, Remington Arms Co Ltd: Atheneum: 44/5 80 1.81L&R, 110 2,124 5
Library: 94 5,120 1, 129,130B, 131T&B, 130 JS Weeks: 147B Malcolm McGregor: 15B,
154/5 134/5T, 147C, 160,158/9, H Roger-Viollet: 82/3 Western Americana: 35, 20/1,21.24.33,76.77,114B.
DOE/Crown Copyright: 163T, 163B 185 Royal Artillery 45,55,116/7 130/1,136,153,158
14/5,16 Angelo Hornak: 64 '5, Institute: 67 Whitney/Western Nigel Osborne: 118 9
Galleria di Capodimonte: 106/7,132 3 Royal Military College Americana: 26 7 Osborne Marks: 178 9
8/9 Mansell Collection: 11,66 of Science: 176 Sarson Bryan:
Gunshots: 10, 22, 32T&B, MOD/Crown Copyright: Imperial War Museum: 122 3.180 185