Machine gun "Skoda"
In 1888, Georg Ritter von Dormus and Archduke Carl Salvator patented a machine gun system with a semi-free bolt. His production took the factory «Skoda» (Skoda). The Škoda machine gun, adopted in 1893, was used as a serf and maritime, the 1902 model of the year (M / 02) was already equipped with a field tripod with a shield, although it also offered cavalry wheel carriages.Automatic machine gun worked through the movement of the semi-free shutter, which swings in the longitudinal plane. The bolt propped up the shaped spring-loaded connecting rod, and the position of the axes and the profile of the contacting surfaces of the connecting rod and bolt were chosen so that, when rotated, the friction significantly slowed the bolt's retreat under the influence of recoil. The first models of the Skoda machine gun had a pendulum openly positioned firing rate regulator (the adjustment was made in the range of 280 - 600 shots per minute) - when the center of gravity of the swinging mobile system was shifted, they were set to the duration of the automation cycle. The most unsuccessful in the machine gun was the power supply system - cartridges were fed from a permanent vertical magazine with their own weight.
The risk of clogging increased the open bottom box.
The main interest in the machine gun was due to its low weight. In 1906, Colonel Shulga, the chairman of the selection committee of Russia at the Weiss cartridge factory in Budapest (this was the time of the active work of industry in Austria-Hungary and Germany for orders from Russia) reported to the GAU about Odkolek and Skoda machine guns. But in Austria-Hungary, this machine gun was in small quantities. A number of Skoda machine guns were delivered to Japan.
The Skoda firm, after the Schwarzlose machine gun was adopted, attempted to maintain its position by creating modifications M / 09 and M / 13 with a belt feed, a device for "donating" cartridges for reliable extraction of spent cartridges, without a rate of fire regulator, on a low tripod machine. During the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian army used Skoda M / 09 and M / 13 machine guns in limited numbers and soon abandoned these machine guns, although there was still an attempt to use them as aviation.
Specifications machine gun M / 09 "Skoda":
Patron - 8X51R Mannicher;
The weight of the “body” of the machine gun is 15,5 kg (without cartridges and water), 23,3 kg (with water);
Machine gun weight on the machine - 34 kg;
Grooves - 4 right;
The length of the stroke rifling - 240 mm;
The rate of fire - 450-500 shots per minute;
Tape capacity - 250 cartridges;
Weight curb tape - 8,25 kg;
Type of machine - tripod;
Machine weight - kg 18,5;
The angle of vertical guidance is from -30 to + 30 degrees;
The angle of horizontal guidance - 30 degrees.
Based on: S. Fedoseev - Machine Guns in the First World War
Information