Automatic rifles of the late 19th – early 20th centuries: a fully functional Madsen-Rasmussen
The Madsen-Rasmussen M1888 rifle with bayonet. It should be noted that it had a very small bayonet, typical of recoil-operated rifles, where a too-heavy bayonet would cause malfunctions in the rifle's automatics due to the increased weight of the reciprocating barrel assembly (the Johnson M1941 rifle also had a recoil barrel and used a similar type of bayonet). Note the lever under the buttstock. It was this lever that controlled the up-and-down bolt of this rifle, like the Martini-Henry rifle. Feed was from a horizontal clip located on top. Photo: Arma Dania
Behold, I do a new thing;
now it will appear;
don't you want to know that too?
Isaiah 43:19
now it will appear;
don't you want to know that too?
Isaiah 43:19
stories about weapons. It is often said that the Mondragon Model 1907 rifle was the first self-loading rifle officially adopted by the army, but in reality this is not entirely true.
In fact, the Madsen-Rasmussen rifle of 1896 was produced and adopted for service more than 10 years earlier (although it was produced in small quantities). True, Mondragon began working on his rifle in 1882, and this rifle was developed in 1883. So he was ahead of the two Danes Madsen and Rasmussen by only a year, and whether this is true, in general, no one knows.
In any case, in 1883 Madsen developed the idea and Rasmussen made the metal parts of the rifle. The project was hampered by the black powder cartridges (black powder quickly fouled the complex mechanics and also created a relatively weak recoil impulse compared to later smokeless powders), but by 1887 they had finally managed to make a working prototype of their weapon.
This rifle, designated M1888 Forsøgsrekylgevær (Experimental Recoil-Operated Rifle), was submitted to the Danish military for testing, and it eventually came to the point that 50 of these rifles were produced for field testing.
The conclusion of the tests was that the design was not good enough for infantry use (although it was considered for use in fortresses, which were supposedly "a cleaner environment than that in which field infantry units operated"). So the Krag-Jorgensen rifle was adopted instead.
The internal structure of the Madsen-Rasmussen M1888 rifle. The side of the receiver could be opened to access the working parts, and what a person saw inside was quite a frightening sight. Photo: Arma Dania
As they say: what is difficult to do is very simple, and this is the path that both designers took. Their design turned out to be as complicated as possible, and yet it worked, and quite well.
Two phases of the action of the Madsen-Rasmussen M1888 rifle. Illustration: Forgotten Weapons
The bolt - in the figure below (Fig. 6) it is numbered 10 - swings up and down in a vertical plane and has nothing to do with the extraction of the spent cartridge. Inside it is a spring-loaded striker, which is struck by an L-shaped hammer, not shown in this diagram. The hammer axis is 14.
The protrusions on the frame of the bolt, connected to the barrel and shaped like a tuning fork, when the barrel moves forward (and it moves forward due to the return spring located under the barrel) lower the bolt, and it rests with its cut against the bottom of the cartridge case. The barrel locks. The hammer hits the firing pin. A shot is fired.
After the shot, the barrel and the bolt move back together with the frame, but inside the receiver. The bolt disengages from the barrel and rises up. But here the flat spring of the trigger - 16 presses on it, and does not let it go higher. The extractor - 17 - hooks the cartridge case onto the rim, extracts it from the chamber, after which it slides along the inner surface of the bolt and falls out through a special hole in the receiver near the trigger guard back (Fig. 7).
But now the barrel is in the extreme rear position. Now the bolt goes down, and a new cartridge is fed to its upper surface from the side, which the cunningly curved lever pushes into the chamber as the barrel moves forward. Here the barrel rises up and rests against the bottom of the cartridge case. The trigger strikes and a shot is fired!
In general, the entire operation of the automation of this tricky rifle can be divided into three phases.
Three phases of the Madsen-Rasmussen M1888 rifle's automatic operation: 1 (Fig. 7) - the shot is fired, the barrel moves back, the bolt rises up, the lever-pusher, similar to a wrench, is in a neutral position; 2 (Fig. 14) - a cartridge is in the chamber, the barrel is locked, the bolt rests against the bottom of the cartridge case: 3 (Fig. 13) - the shot is fired, the spent cartridge case is extracted, the next cartridge is fed from the magazine, the bolt goes down, and the feeder lever pushes the cartridge into the chamber. As soon as it goes into it completely, the bolt rises, and the rifle is ready to fire.
Madsen-Rasmussen rifle M1896 Flaadens Rekylgevær. This model of the rifle was conceptually identical to the final design of the light machine gun, into which it was later transformed. A copper tip was put on the end of the barrel, protecting the barrel from contamination. The magazine on the rifle was vertical, and was inserted from the left into a special slot in the receiver. The cartridges fell down from it due to gravity, and with a special lever, firstly, were fed to the right to the feed line into the chamber, and secondly, with another lever, they were pushed into the chamber. There was no spring in it! Photo: Arma Dania
After the 1888 trials, Madsen and Rasmussen continued to improve their rifle. They reduced the overall length and weight, and incorporated a more modern closed magazine (though, as far as can be determined, it was still gravity fed, without a spring or pusher).
The mechanism has been improved and the Martini-style rear loading lever has been replaced by a more modern rotary handle on the right side of the receiver. However, the basic mechanism remains the same.
The rifle also received a bipod attached under the fore-end – another step towards its future transformation into a light machine gun.
Magazines of the Madsen-Rasmussen M1896 rifle, top view. Photo: Arma Dania
This 1896 rifle was also reviewed by the Danish military and found to be reliable enough for limited use.
In total, 60 rifles of this year's model were manufactured and they entered service with the Danish fleet to the garrisons of coastal fortresses. They were never used in combat, but remained in service until 1932.
After the successful sale of the 1896 model to the Danish navy, the designers decided that they could begin selling the rifle internationally.
In 1898, a company was formed that would soon become known as the Danish Recoil Rifle Syndicate, and Madsen and Rasmussen sold their patent rights to it in exchange for royalties on future production. By 1899, Lieutenant Jens Schubo had become the company's manager, and it is his name that appears on subsequent patents for the Madsen light machine gun. For this reason, the Madsen rifle is sometimes called the "Schubo rifle".
In 1903, the U.S. Army tested one of the Model 1896 rifles chambered for the new American .30-03 cartridge. The bolt handle was found to be insufficiently strong and durable, and the report concluded:
"There was no device to indicate whether the rifle was loaded or not; no automatic indicator showing the number of rounds in the magazine; tools were needed for disassembly and assembly; shooting was inaccurate due to strong barrel recoil; the rate of fire of 45 rounds per minute was clearly insufficient; shooter's safety was unsatisfactory; the magazine held only five rounds (?)".
Additional tests of the weapon were conducted in 1905, 1906, 1909 and 1911. Moreover, the final report of 1911 noted that: “in terms of accuracy and ease of use, the rifle is getting better and better year after year, which clearly indicates the positive results of the accumulated experience.”
Light machine gun "Madsen". Photo: Arma Dania
Well, the result of all this long and painstaking work was the Madsen light machine gun. But that's a completely different story. story...
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