Automatic Mannlicher rifles chambered for smokeless powder
Mannlicher automatic rifle 1891
... keep your voice from sobbing
and your eyes are full of tears,
for there is a reward for your labor,
says the Lord.
The book of the prophet Jeremiah, 31:16
and your eyes are full of tears,
for there is a reward for your labor,
says the Lord.
The book of the prophet Jeremiah, 31:16
stories about weapons. So, the automatic rifle created by Ferdinand Mannlicher in 1885 was not a success for him. And first of all, this happened because it was supposed to fire cartridges with black powder, and they are essentially not suitable for automatic weapons.
But he did not abandon his idea at all, he did not cry, but began to work on a new automatic rifle for the cartridges with smokeless powder that had already appeared. Thus was born his Model 1891 rifle with a moving barrel and traditional burst loading.
The rifle resembled a conventional rifle, which was very different from the awkward design of the Model 1885. When the bolt handle was pulled back, the bolt box remained open to load a pack into the magazine, that is, it used the familiar Mannlicher loading system. A lever at the end of the long trigger held the bolt in the retracted position. Pressure on the trigger lowered this lever, allowing the recoil spring to push the bolt forward to feed a round into the chamber. The trigger then had to be released before the shot could be fired.
The mechanism of a rifle from 1891. The shutter in the rear position is blocked by a sear. Return spring is compressed
Like the earlier model, this weapon was equipped with a barrel that rolled back in the barrel housing along with the bolt and was equipped with its own recoil spring, and also had a wedge locking. The bolt return spring was mounted directly behind it.
The bolt was disengaged from the barrel only after traveling a certain distance, after which the barrel returned to its previous position, and the bolt continued to move backward under the action of the accelerator, which in a slightly modified version was also borrowed from the previous model. The magazine at the bottom had a hole for the empty pack to fall out.
The mechanism of a rifle from 1891. The shutter is closed. The “cunning design” of the trigger is shown below
The cocking system was almost identical to the 1885 model. But due to changes in the design of the rifle, the trigger design was different. A special coil spring was provided, mounted on the upper end of the trigger, which acted as its return spring, while a long lever provided the hammer with contact with the sear. The distance that the barrel and bolt traveled after firing was much shorter than that of the 1885 rifle. When the rifle was loaded and ready to fire, the bolt and barrel were securely connected.
Of course, what was somewhat unusual was that you had to pull the trigger twice before the first shot - first to release the bolt and load the rifle, and only then to fire. But you could probably get used to it.
The rifle was simple, but the military did not like the lack of a bayonet, which interfered with the operation of the automation. Install on this Mannlicher rifle a horn magazine for 20-30 rounds, a trigger that allows automatic fire, and... you would get a real machine gun, and the first in the world.
However, this failure did not discourage the designer, and in 1893 he introduced a new automatic rifle with a fixed barrel and a rotating bolt.
Model 1893 rifle and bayonet
The new rifle was designed for the German M88 cartridge. The rifle's design foreshadowed the so-called "Blish system", later used in the Thompson semi-automatic rifle. In fact, it had a semi-free bolt - a longitudinally sliding bolt that was not engaged with a stationary barrel when fired.
In the standard bolt-action Mannlicher rifle design, the solid lugs on the front end of the bolt are guided into grooves as the bolt is pushed forward until they are against their locking sockets in the receiver. At this point, the bolt handle rotates all the way down, rotating the bolt and securely inserting the two locking tabs into their slots in the receiver itself directly behind the cartridge head. The rear surfaces of the lugs are supported by the walls of the receiver behind them. This is perhaps the most durable locking system ever created.
However, in the Model 93 semi-automatic rifle, although the bolt can be rotated up and back for manual operation just like a standard bolt-action rifle, it is designed somewhat differently.
The return spring is mounted behind the bolt and is compressed during rearward movement; she will push it forward to close it. Moreover, the locking lugs and grooves of the receiver are not cut out to completely secure the bolt to the barrel. That is, the pressure of gases on the bottom of the cartridge case and, accordingly, on the bolt, the latter begins to rotate and open, but with a noticeable slowdown, allowing the bullet to leave the barrel.
The mechanism of the Mannlicher rifle model 1893. Above: The bolt is open and the rifle is loaded. Below: the bolt is closed, the cartridge is in the chamber, and now all that remains is to pull the trigger to fire...
Theoretically, at the moment of firing, these "locking lugs" receive the necessary support in the receiver at the moment of the highest pressure in the bore.
As an additional factor in ensuring strong locking, a recoil spring mounted behind the bolt is coiled as it moves, helping to keep the bolt in the locked position.
The functioning of the trigger is complex. The rotating trigger operates through a very long trigger rod that is attached to a hook-shaped sear lever. This hook also serves to hold the bolt in the rear position when the bolt is opened manually for loading. When the bolt is rotated up and pulled back to load, a coil spring causes the sear hook to rise to engage the edge of the bolt head and hold it open. The return spring in the tube behind the bolt is compressed.
When you press the trigger, the bolt moves forward. This causes a rotating screw motion that forces the bolt lugs to move along the curved grooves of the receiver. In this case, the entire shutter rotates 90 degrees.
When the bolt moves back after firing, the recoil spring mounted in the tube at the rear of the bolt is compressed, the rear of the firing pin serving as a guide for this compression. As the bolt approaches the fully open position, the ejector, which passes through a slot in the bottom of the bolt head, strikes the bottom of the case and ejects it.
As the bolt moves forward, its lugs move along straight grooves and the cartridge is advanced into the chamber. The action is completed when the curved protrusions fall into the helical grooves and into their sockets. The cartridge is completely inserted into the chamber. All these operations occur at extreme speed, and the force with which empty cartridges are ejected is so great that they pose a significant danger to others.
Empty cartridges were sometimes observed to penetrate a quarter of an inch into trees or boards during testing on the range. Of course, no one liked this, although in general the mechanics of this rifle worked very well. But, obviously, it should have been very, very sensitive to clogging and sand and earth getting into its mechanism. But nothing prevented anyone from attaching any bayonet to this rifle and using it in the most traditional way for the military of that time!
By the way, a negative result is also a result, and it is important in terms of determining the most promising ways for the development of certain structures. Both the Mannlicher rifle with a semi-blowback and the later “Blish bolt”, originally used on the Thompson submachine gun, did not show any advantages over other systems, so other designers could no longer pay attention to such “devices”!
Schematic representation of the 1895 rifle (1,2) and its mechanism in section (3)
Mannlicher's next development followed in 1895. Moreover, it was a truly wonderful rifle. Many of its basic principles were embodied in the Ml Garand rifle and the Ml Winchester carbine.
This rifle, like many of Mannlicher's designs, was ahead of its time by almost half a century and was similarly underestimated. The bolt handle on it was part of a curved rod that moves in the side of the receiver on the left. The front of the rod was hollow to accommodate the spring. The head of the rod served as a gas piston. There was a hole in the barrel for the release of gases that ensured the operation of the automation. The magazine was open on the sides so that the shooter could immediately see if he had cartridges ready to fire.
During loading, the bolt handle on the right side was pulled back. In this case, the working spring inside the hollow rod was compressed. When the handle was pulled back, grooves on the surface of the rod caused the bolt to rotate to the left. This is how the barrel bore was unlocked.
When the handle is pulled back all the way, the firing pin is cocked at the rear of the bolt and held in this position by the sear along with the bolt. Then the pack of cartridges was inserted into the guides and pushed into the magazine. When the trigger was pressed, the working spring pulled the rod with the handle forward. The cartridge was fed into the chamber. Now the bolt head turned accordingly to the right, its protrusions were fixed in the cutouts of the receiver and fit snugly to the bottom of the cartridge.
The weapon was ready to fire. When he pressed the trigger, he released the trigger, it hit the firing pin, and a shot was fired. When the bullet passed over the gas hole, the gas came down into the gas cylinder, where it pressed on the piston head, that is, everything happened exactly the same as in modern gas-powered rifles.
One of the advantages of this rifle design was that in the event of failure of the automatic mechanism, for example due to reasons such as a clogged or corroded gas port, the gas piston lever could be manipulated manually like a standard bolt-action rifle.
In addition, it was possible to close the hole in the gas cylinder using a screw, thereby turning the self-loading rifle into a regular rifle with a sliding bolt and manual control.
In general, only the short-sighted policy of the Austrian army leaders prevented the adoption of this rifle for service.
Mannlicher rifle model 1900: 1 – right view, 2 – top view, 3 – cartridge clip, 4 – right view
Finally, in 1900, the last example of a Mannlicher self-loading rifle appeared. It also had a gas engine, with a small hole in the barrel less than five inches (127 mm) from the breech.
The piston in the gas chamber had a very short stroke, which only transmitted the shock to the rotating bolt. The impact of the piston forced the bolt to disengage and begin to move backward. Please note that in this design the piston did not accompany the bolt mechanism throughout its entire stroke, but only transmitted to it the recoil impulse necessary for the operation of all automation.
Internal structure of a 1900 rifle
Another feature of this design was the use of a Schönauer drum magazine, which provided full cartridge protection and ensured excellent feeding of flangeless cartridges. He also completely eliminated double feeding of the cartridge. The magazine was loaded from a clip, since the pack did not fit the drum magazine.
This rifle was also ahead of its time and was not produced in large quantities. But this was another important step towards creating modern automatic weapons.
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