Mannlicher and his rifles: they were the first
And now there are the last ones,
who will be the first
and there are the first
which will be the last.
Gospel of Luke 13:30
who will be the first
and there are the first
which will be the last.
Gospel of Luke 13:30
People and weapon. In the previous article - the first in a series of articles about von Mannlicher rifles, we talked about his biography. But our story today will be devoted to his rifles, the very first and little-known ones, primarily because they were not accepted for service and did not go into mass production. However, their design speaks of the remarkable intelligence of this designer and...
These were the steps along which he walked step by step towards his success.
Mannlicher's first rifle was the Model 1880, created by him in 1880 for the standard 11-mm (.433 caliber) Austrian army cartridge designed by Joseph Werndl. The cartridge was loaded with a charge of black smoky powder and a lead bullet. The initial bullet speed was 445 m/sec.
Rifle of Josef Werndl (1831–1889) and Karel Holub (1830–1903) model 1877 chambered for 11,15x58 mm R. Army Museum. Stockholm
At the time of the introduction of this first Mannlicher repeating rifle, the Austrian army officially had in service the Werndl Model 1867 single-shot bolt action rifle, but the successful use of repeating weapons in the American Civil War and the Russo-Turkish War demonstrated the need for repeating weapons for the army. Von Mannlicher also recognized the disadvantages of the weapon, which had to be reloaded after each shot.
And then everything turned out the way it often happens, according to the saying that doing something simple is very difficult, but doing something difficult is very simple. So he made a very complex and expensive rifle, the main advantage of which was the large magazine capacity. In addition, it was quite bulky, and had a too thick neck of the butt. However, it was this design that marked the beginning of his entire brilliant career.
The main feature of this rifle was its magazine, which consisted of three cartridge tubes with springs. By this time, the Hotchkiss rifle of the 1870 model had already been created with exactly the same tubular magazine for 6 rounds in the butt and a longitudinal sliding bolt. But Mannlicher installed not just one such tube on his rifle, but three at once.
11x42R Werndl welt cartridge for the Austrian M.67 and M.73 rifles. Contemporary photography
All these three tubes are connected to each other using a conical coupling, which rotates on a common longitudinal axis. And it rotates due to the fact that on its outer surface there are zigzag grooves connected into one common one. When the bolt is pulled back, the direct pull on the bolt causes the clutch to rotate, driven by a pin that fits into these grooves and is connected to the bolt.
Improved cartridge 11x42RG. Contemporary photography
Thus, each back and forth movement of the bolt rotates the magazine sleeve 60 degrees, so that when the bolt is open, one of the magazine tubes is always on top. Only the first cartridge from this tube, which is in the uppermost position, can be moved forward by the tubular spring. And when the bolt starts to move forward, it picks up this cartridge and pushes it into the chamber. The simultaneous feeding of two cartridges is eliminated due to the cut-off on the bolt.
Mannlicher rifle with three magazine tubes in the butt, model 1880. Drawing by A. Sheps
The presence of three tubes for cartridges at once allowed this rifle to have a magazine with a phenomenal capacity of 18 rounds, which were loaded into it one at a time, through a hole on the receiver in front of the trigger guard. Of course, this was not very convenient. After all, you also had to work the shutter in order to replace the tube, already filled with cartridges, with an empty one. The thick neck of the butt was awkward to grip. Well, of course, it was simply impossible to fight with such a rifle, striking with the butt.
Hotchkiss rifle with a magazine in the butt of the model 1877.
This Mannlicher rifle was tested in England at the Enfield Arsenal, but was rejected. The military also rejected its second sample, created for the Mauser cartridge of the 1871 model.
Rifle of American gunsmiths Chaffee and Reis 1882. The magazine is also in the butt, but the feed is no longer spring-loaded, but rack-and-pinion. Then they were afraid of accidental ignition of cartridge primers in the magazine due to concussion and impacts and came up with a solution in which the cartridges did not come into contact with each other. The rifle underwent year-long testing in the army along with the Remington-Lee and Winchester-Hotchkiss rifles and took last place in them. The complaints were as follows: it was complicated, the stock was not strong enough, the trigger was heavy, although the accuracy was considered excellent!
The failure with the repeating rifle did not stop Mannlicher, and a year later, in 1881, he proposed another example of a “magazine” with a middle, and removable, magazine of the Lee system. The cartridge was the same, but the action was greatly simplified and improved, and the truly notable feature of this design was the detachable box magazine, which allowed rapid loading with spare magazines inserted through a hole in the bottom of the receiver.
The single-row box magazine was made of sheet steel and had inclined walls. The supply of cartridges to the dispensing line was carried out by a pusher and a spiral spring, unusual for such designs, located in the rear of the box.
The side walls at the rear were slightly higher and curved to overlap the topmost cartridge. That is, they formed guide edges and prevented misfeeding of cartridges. In fact, it was a real modern magazine, identical to the modern loading system for standard pistol magazines.
This system, combined with an extractor located on the right side of the bolt, served to prevent "double loading" or jamming due to two cartridges moving at the same time. When the magazine was not in use, a spring-loaded bottom plate on the rifle covered the magazine opening to keep dirt out. Having inserted the magazine from below, the shooter pressed this plate, and it no longer interfered. It is difficult to say what reasons prevented its adoption, but, be that as it may, it did not end up in the army.
Mannlicher rifle with detachable magazine 1881. Drawing by A. Sheps
The third rifle, model 1882, which we will talk about today, was also a magazine rifle, but had an under-barrel magazine similar to the magazines of the Winchester rifles and the Lebel rifle of 1886. By the way, the adoption by the French of this rifle just shows that this direction was relevant in those years.
Mannlicher's store in this case was no different from similar stores. It consisted of a tube running into the forend under the barrel, which contained a coil spring with a pusher at its rear end. The cartridges were inserted through the breech and pushed into the tube to compress the spring. The point of each bullet after the first necessarily rested on the primer of the previous cartridge, but since the cartridges used were standard .433 caliber with a fairly round “nose”, the danger of an accidental discharge was minimized.
The bolt was a further simplified modification of Mannlicher's design; but the projections were still far behind the bolt body. A spoon-shaped feeder rotated in the receiver under the bolt. When the bolt was pulled back, a protrusion at the bottom of the bolt head pressed on the feed lever, and it raised the cartridge on it to the feed line.
Mannlicher rifle with under-barrel magazine, 1882. Drawing by A. Sheps
In this case, the supply of the next cartridge to the receiver was blocked. When the bolt moved forward, it fed a cartridge from the feeder into the chamber, which then dropped down, after which the magazine lock was removed, and the next cartridge entered the feeder.
In the best traditions of that time, the rifle was designed to turn off the supply of cartridges from the magazine in order to use the rifle as a single-shot rifle and save cartridges. The store in this case remained in reserve in case of emergency. In a modified form, this type of feed system was used in all later bolt-action rifles with a tubular magazine design.
It should be noted that although the design of the under-barrel tubular magazine itself affects the balancing of the weapon and requires certain skills from the shooter, it is very convenient in handling cartridges with rims, since it prevents the cartridges from adhering to each other.
Now the question is, why did you suddenly decide to place magazines in the butt?
It started with a Spencer carbine, and then it went on and on...
It is possible that placing the magazine in the butt was an attempt to rationally use its significant volume, while remaining within the dimensions of the stock. The same applies to long under-barrel magazines.
Apparently, the designers, due to the inertia of thinking, believed that the stock and butt should remain in the very forms that existed initially and reached maximum perfection. And nothing should have disturbed the purity of their contours, so they tried to hide their multi-charge magazines inside the tree...
To be continued ...
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