From Arms and The Man, December 15, 1921

In spite of the excellent performance of the Springfield Rifle in establishing new records at the recent National Matches, the history of firearms plainly indicates that this arm which we now think so perfect must in a few years bow to the mark of progress and be superseded by a weapon of even greater effectiveness. Many military experts believe that the next advance will be the adoption of a semi-automatic, or self-loading, shoulder rifle. The advocates of this view state in support of it that in the past few years several successful semi-automatic hunting rifles have been produced; that self-loading shotguns have become popular; that the revolver has gradually given way to the automatic pistol; and finally, that, after exhaustive tests and mature consideration, the Government has adopted the automatic as the service sidearm and confirmed its choice by the test of battle.

The critics of the self-loading rifle state that with our present Springfields we can get enough rapidity of fire to heat up the gun and to quickly use up the ammunition, and that greater rapidity is unnecessary. In reply, the advocates of the semi-automatic say that battle accuracy, and not rapidity of fire, is the main advantage of the proposed weapon. The big difference between the bolt action gun and the self-loader is that when you fire the bolt gun you must then lift up the handle, draw back the bolt, push the bolt forward, and turn down the handle, before the arm is again ready to fire; while with the self-loader all you have to do after firing one shot is to pull the trigger to fire again, as the arm has reloaded itself in the meantime. To visualize the advantages of such a weapon, suppose yourself in a war, occupying an advanced post. Over the top of the enemy's trenches, 400 yards away, a gray helmet is dimly visible. You take careful aim, and then fire. To your disgust the shot strikes low. Hoping that your intended victim has not noticed your attentions, you quickly pump the bolt of your Springfield, thinking to get in another shot. Of course if you are one of the fortunate few who have benefited by Camp Perry's grind of rapid fire, you will perform this operation smoothly and quickly, but if you are of the mass of untrained citizens who make up the bulk of our national defense, you will yank wildly at the bolt of your rifle, at the same time taking your eye from your objective and making a movement that may well betray your presence. Then you look back for your target. He has seen your motion and has gone; or, perhaps, he quickly makes you his target. With a self-loading rifle this is quite a different story. You aim at the enemy and fire; the shot strikes low; without taking your eye from your sights, or your sights from your target, you alter your aim and again press the trigger, with every probability of success.

That our own high officials attach great importance to the future of such a weapon is shown by the fact that the War Department has officially invited the inventors of the country to submit guns of this type. The Government circular states in part: "The rifle must be of a self-loading type, adapted to function with cartridges not less than .25 caliber or greater than .30 caliber, of good military characteristics and preferably to fire the U.S. cartridge, caliber .30, model 1906. It must be simple and rugged in construction, and easy of manufacture. It should require but little more attention than the regular service rifle when placed in the hands of the average soldier."

A test of rifles submitted in response to the circular has just been completed by a board of officers which met at Springfield Armory on November 28th.

For many years the attempt to design a self-loading military rifle has received a large amount of attention from European gun designers.  Both Mauser and Von Mannlicher worked for years on this problem. Many experimental models were produced and tested, but most of them were either too heavy and clumsy, or too delicate and complicated. In the earlier models, the power to operate the bolt action was obtained either by allowing the barrel to recoil relative to the rest of the mechanism, or by drilling a hole in the barrel and allowing part of the powder gas from each shot to escape through this hole and act on a piston, which in turn operates the gun. Both of these systems have the disadvantage of adding parts which increase the weight of the already heavy military rifle.

In order to bring the weight back to normal, many designers reduce the barrel to a very small size, which is a serious mistake, because a small barrel is not only inaccurate on account of excessive vibration, but is also extremely susceptible to overheating, a fault which the self-loading rifle, with its high rate of fire, should especially guard against. A further disadvantage of the recoiling barrel system is the danger of getting a construction in which the motion of the barrel will interfere with the accuracy, while against the gas operated system we must record the difficulty of cleaning the gas cylinder and the gas port in the barrel.

However, in spite of these troubles, there are several guns of both types in successful use at the present time. Prominent among the representatives of the recoil operated group is the Remington auto-loading rifle. This gun, which was invented by John Browning, has been popular for over a decade. In spite of the recoiling barrel, the construction is such as to give excellent accuracy. However, the weight of the barrel is not great enough to allow sustained fire without heating. This does not impair its usefulness as a hunting rifle, but would cause trouble in military service. The Remington and Winchester shotguns are also examples of highly successful recoil operated guns.

The Mondragon rifle, of which a limited number were used by the Germans in the late war, and the French St. Etienne model, are examples of gas operated guns which have at least passed the experimental stage far enough to have been used to a certain extent in warfare.

Another system of operating automatic guns which was the merit of simplicity, is the blow-back, or inertia system, in which a heavy breech-block is used, which is not locked against the explosion at all, but is merely held in place by a spring. When the gun is fired, the bullet starts forward and the breech-block starts backward at the same time, but as the breech-block weighs so much more than the bullet, it moves correspondingly slower, and gives the bullet time to be out of the gun before the breech opens. Most automatic pistols are built on this system, as well as the .22 caliber automatic rifles. The trouble is, that with high-powered cartridges the breech-block must be very heavy to make the gun safe and to prevent ruptured cartridges. With the .30 caliber Government cartridge, the breech-block of about 25 pounds weight is necessary. The Winchester self-loading rifles are of this type. The weight which adds the necessary inertia to the breech-block is carried to the forearm of the gun. The cartridges for this gun are of a special type with a straight case and a quick burning powder.

From the foregoing remarks the reader will not be surprised to learn that the recent developments in the field of automatic weapons have been towards the production of new methods of obtaining power which will not involve the difficulties mentioned above. Only one of the rifles just tested followed the previously accepted principles of operation. This was the Berthier rifle, submitted by the U.S. Machine Gun Co. This gun is a very clever gas-operated weapon following the principles of the Berthier Machine Rifle, which passed a successful test at Springfield in 1917. This gun went through both this year's test and the test of 1920, and appears to function well. Its main disadvantage seems to be its rather awkward shape.