Collecting 20th Century US Rifles (56K beware)

[Inigoes]

Collecting US Main Battle Rifles (56K beware)

Since the weather is a bit warm, thought I would share some compiled data on 20th century battle rifles.

Rifle, Cal. .30-06, M1903 Series
During the Spanish-American War of 1898, it was recognized that the Spanish Mauser, Model of 1893, exhibited characteristics superior to the "trapdoor" Springfield and Krag rifles carried by the United States troops. The Mauser was superior from the standpoint of rapidity of loading and the ammunition it fired.

On August 15, 1900, Springfield Armory completed an experimental magazine rifle which they believed to be an improvement over the Krag. They fashioned a clip loading magazine rifle in which the cartridges were contained within the stock, preventing damage to an otherwise exposed magazine. The M1903 Springfield was the first US Army rifle to use stripper clips, which held five rounds together for easy loading. The full story on the .30-06 cartridge, developed for the Springfield but which became the Army's standard round for many firearms, is on the linked Olive-Drab.com page.

Rifle production was suspended in January 1905, after the Secretary of War received a letter from President Theodore Roosevelt criticizing the rod bayonet as being too delicate for combat. Subsequently the rod bayonet was abandoned in favor of the "Model 1905 Knife Bayonet."

By the time the United States entered World War I, approximately 843,239 standard service Model 1903 rifles had been manufactured. However this was insufficient to arm U.S.troops for an undertaking of the magnitude of World War I. During WW I, Springfield Armory produced over 265,620 Model 1903 rifles but the primary rifle of that war was the M1917 Enfield. During World War II, Remington Arms and Smith-Corona produced M1903 rifles. Production improvements for the war were recognized by a change in the rifle designation to M1903A3. Many milled parts were replaced by stampings and a less expensive stock was substituted. The rear sight was moved from the barrel to the receiver and changed to a peep sight (see photo above).

There are two models of the M1903 Springfield that were specially developed for use by combat snipers, each with its own Olive-Drab page:
• USMC Model 1941 Sniper Rifle
• M1903A4 Springfield

Replacement of the M1903 Springfield Rifle

Officially, the M1903 was rendered obsolete upon adoption of the M1 Garand in 1936. However, US Army expansion for World War II outstripped production so the Springfield remained in service. In the Pacific Theater, it was used to equip the Marine Corps as they waited for M1's. In the Army, one per Rifle Squad was standard for antitank grenade use. The sniper version of the Springfield performed extremely well and consequently had long service, used even in Vietnam. Other Springfields remained in other roles including, up to the present, as a ceremonial rifle.

http://www.olive-drab.com/od_other_firearms_rifle_m1903.php3
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m1903.htm

 

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Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), Cal. .30-06, M1918 Series
The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was a family of weapons used by the United States and a large number of other countries during the 20th Century. The primary version was the M1918 and its variants, chambered for the .30-06 rifle cartridge and designed by John M Browning in 1917 as a replacement for the US Army's French-designed Chauchat and M1909 Benet-Mercie machineguns. Originally designed to be an automatic rifle, carried by a sling over the shoulder and fired from the hip – a concept called 'walking fire'. Over time however, the weapon gradually became to be used in a light machinegun role, especially when later variants came equipped with a bipod, although having a 20-round box was a major limitation. The M1918 is a selective fire, air-cooled, gas-operated automatic rifle, being cycled by propellant gases that are bled off through a vent in the barrel. The bolt is locked by a rising bolt lock and the gun fires from an open bolt. The bolt contains the extractor which is spring-powered while there is a fixed ejector in the trigger group. The weapon's barrel is screwed into the receiver and not easily detachable. The weapon feeds via a double-column 20-round magazine, although 40-round magazines were available when in the anti-aircraft role (up until 1927). It has a cylindrical flash suppressor fixed to the end of the barrel, a fixed wooden butt stock and closed-type iron sights, consisting of a forward post and rear leaf sight, adjustable to between 100 and 1,500 yards.

The United States entered the First World War with an assortment of foreign and domestically designed machineguns, due primarily to bureaucratic indecision and a lack of any sort of coherent doctrine as to how they were to be employed. With the declaration of war on Imperial Germany on 6 April 1917 the General Staff were told that to fight this machinegun dominated war, the US Army had a mere 670 M1909 Benet-Mercies, 282 M1904 Maxim and 158 M1895 Colt machineguns. It was eventually agreed to start a large-scale rearmament programme using domestic designs but until they were ready, the United States would use whatever the UK and France had to offer. The weapons donated by the French were often second-rate, surplus or obsolescent and generally chambered in 8mm Lebel, complicating logistics and meaning that the infantry and the machine gunners were issued with different calibres.

In early 1917, before the US had entered the war, Browning had travelled to Washington DC to demonstrate two automatic weapons. The first was a water-cooled heavy machinegun and a shoulder-fired automatic rifle, then known as the Browning Machine Rifle or BMR. Both fired the .30-06 cartridge. On 27 February 1917, Browning conducted a live-fire exercise at a location outside Washington C known as 'Congress Heights', in front members of Congress, the Public, the Press and high-ranking military dignitaries. The gathered crowd was so impressed by the demonstration that he was immediately awarded a contract for the weapons, although the water-cooled machinegun underwent further testing. Additional tests were conducted by the US Army Ordnance Department in May 1917 when both weapons were accepted for service. To avoid confusion, the belt-fed, water-cooled machine gun was designated the Machine Gun, Caliber .30, M1917 while the automatic rifle was designated the Rifle, Automatic, Caliber .30, M1918. The Army placed an order for 12,000 BARs with Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company who had secured exclusive rights to manufacture the BAR under Browning's patents (Patent No. 1,293,022). However, Colt was already at full capacity producing various arms, including the Vickers Machinegun for the British Army, and requested a delay so they could expand their production facilities, with a new plant at Meriden, Connecticut. Due to the urgent nature of the requirement, the request was denied and Winchester Repeating Arms Company (WRAC) was designated the prime contractor. Winchester gave invaluable assistance in refining the final design for the BAR and correcting the drawings for mass production – one example being the change from upward ejection to right-hand side ejection.

Since work on the gun did not begin until February 1918, the schedule at Winchester was so hurried that the first 1,800 guns were delivered off-spec. Many components did not interchange between guns and so production was temporarily halted to upgrade the manufacturing procedures to bring the weapon up to spec. The original contract was for 25,000 guns and production was in full swing by June 1918 where they delivered 4,000 units, with 9,000 being produced in July. As it happens, both Colt and the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation began production fairly soon afterwards and while Marlin-Rockwell was fully involved with supplying the contract to make rifles for the Belgian Government, it acquired the Mayo Radiator Company's factory to produce BARs. The first unit was delivered on 11 June and at peak output it was producing 200 weapons a day. Colt only managed to produce around 9,000 weapons by the time of the armistice due to the demands of other contracts, but the three companies had had a daily output of 706 weapons and by the end of the war had produced about 52,000 weapons. Between 1918 and 1919, some 102,125 BARs were produced by Colt (16,000), Marlin-Rockwell (39,002) and Winchester (47,123). The first weapons arrived in France in July 1918 and the first unit to receive them was the 79th Infantry Division, seeing action for the first time on 13 September 1918. It was personally demonstrated by 2nd Lt Val Allen Browning, the inventor's son. It was used extensively during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and despite being introduced very late in the war had a significant impact on the other Allies, with France ordering 15,000 to replace their Chauchat light machineguns.

During the inter-war period, a number of variants appeared. The first was the M1922 light machinegun, adopted by the US Cavalry in 1922. The main differences were the use of a heavy, ribbed barrel, an adjustable spiked bipod and a rear stock-mounted monopod, a new rear endplate fixed to the stock retaining sleeve and in 1926, the sights were changed to accommodate the new M1 .30-06 round, with a heavier 172-grain head, then coming into service for machineguns. In 1937, the M1918A1 was introduced into service. This variant included a lightweight spiked bipod attached to the gas cylinder that also had a leg-height adjustment feature and a new hinged butt plate. In late 1938, work started on another variant, this time the M1918A2, which was accepted into service in 1940. The main difference was the removal of the semi-automatic fire mode and the use of a rate of fire reducing buffer mechanism, activated by engaging the 'F' position on the selector toggle. In addition, a new bipod, with skids as feet, was added to the end of the barrel attached to the flash suppressor (which blocked the flash from the vision of the shooter), a magazine guide was added to the front of the trigger guard, the handguard was shortened, a heat shield was added to help the weapon cool and a small monopod was hinged to and could be folded into, the butt. Added to this, the rear leaf sight's scales were changed to accommodate the new M2 ball ammunition with a lighter flat-based bullet of 150-grains and had gradations ranging from 100 to 1,600 yards with a notch battle sight enabling fire up to 300 yards. In 1942, a new fibreglass butt stock replaced the wooden one and later still, a barrel-mounted carrying handle was added. Initially, M1918A2s were produced by converting older models but in later during the Second World War, production of newly-built M1918A2s was undertaken at the New England Small Arms Corporation and the International Business Machines Corporation (also known as IBM) with a total of 168,000 new weapons being produced. Production was again re-launched during the Korean War with the Royal McBee Typewriter Corporation producing another 61,000 units – many of these had a new slotted flash suppressor fitted. The new M1918A2 was broadly similar to the older versions but could only be fired on full automatic but with a variable rate of fire.

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_browning_automatic_rifle.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1918_Browning_Automatic_Rifle

Unfortunately, the M1918A3 is the only model offered in Semi Auto. There is a good chance my grandfather carried either of these in France in WW I. My grandfather never talked much about the war to my parents generation, so when you have a chance to listen to a veteran, take the time to remember the story, so that it will not be lost to history.

 

[Inigoes]

US Rifle, Cal. .30-06, M1, Garand
The M1, designed by John C. Garand, was the standard issue military rifle used by the U.S. Army from 1936 to 1957, when it was replaced by the lighter M14 rifle. The M1 was one of the first semi-automatic rifles to see action in combat. It offered a great improvement in fire power over the bolt-action M1903 series rifle it replaced. It was rugged, reliable, and tolerant to the abuses of use in the field.

The Ordnance Corps began developing a semiautomatic rifle in 1901, but was interrupted by World War I. Work began again in 1919 when John C. Garand was recruited by Springfield Armory, MA to develop such a rifle. Civil Service employee John C. Garand was in a class all by himself, much like the weapons he created. Garand was Chief Civilian Engineer at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. Garand invented a semiautomatic .30 caliber rifle, known as the M1 or "the Garand."

Three rifles underwent testing as replacement for the World War I infantry rifle. After extensive efforts the Army adopted the M1 Garand as the standard infantry weapon in 1936. The M1 replaced the bolt action model 1903 Springfield rifle that had been in service since 1903. The US Rifle, M1 (Garand) had shown itself to be superior to the M1903 (Springfield), with which many marines had been armed.

It was gas-operated and weighed under 10 pounds. The M1 was one of the first semi-automatic rifles to see action in combat. It offered a great improvement in fire power over the bolt-action M1903 series rifle it replaced. It was rugged, reliable, and tolerant to the abuses of use in the field. The rifle used .30-06 cal. cartridges in eight-round clips. It fired more than twice as fast as the Army's previous standard-issue rifle and was praised by Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., as "a magnificent weapon" and "the most deadly rifle in the world."

For the M-1, knicknamed the Greatest Battle Implement, and numerous other technical innovations related to weaponry, Garand received no monetory award other than his modest Civil Service salary. A bill introduced in Congress to grant him $100,000 did not pass. He was, however, awarded a Medal for Meritorious Service in 1941 and a US Government Medal for Merit in 1944.
During World War II the basic composition of the triangular division was three infantry regiments and a variety of combat and combat support troops. The standard infantry regiment, the next major command below division level, consisted of three infantry battalions, along with various combat and combat support troops. The next lower organization was the infantry battalion. Three rifle companies, a heavy weapons company, and a headquarters company comprised an 871-man battalion. The rifle company consisted of 3 rifle platoons, a weapons platoon, and a small headquarters section. Three infantry squads comprised a rifle platoon. Each rifle squad consisted of twelve men armed with ten M1 Garand rifles, one Browning automatic rifle, and one M1903 bolt-action Springfield rifle. Despite the awesome, aggregate firepower of the weapons within a triangular division, the lifeblood of the infantry division was the 5,211 officers and combat infantrymen who manned its 27 rifle companies.

After Guadalcanal, the 1st Marine Division gave up its venerable Springfield '03s and rearmed with M1 Garands for Cape Gloucester and later campaigns. By the end of 1943 the M-1 had completely replaced the 03 Springfield. All units of the 2d Marine Division were armed with the M1.
By VJ Day, August 14, 1945, over four million M1 rifles had been produced and were in the hands of U.S. service men fighting around the world. By the time production of the rifles had ceased in 1957, more than six million M1 Garand’s had been produced. Although no longer used in the active Army, the M1 Garand still holds a special place in the hearts of many World War II veterans.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m1garand.htm

M1 Carbine
The M1 Carbine was developed to provide better protection to service troops than standard issue pistols, when caught under surprise attack during envelopment movements by enemy forces. The Carbine filled a need for a weapon heavier than a pistol, but lighter than a rifle for issue to company-grade officers and NCOs.

A lightweight shoulder weapon, the M1 carbine, replaced the .45 caliber M1911 pistol carried by weapons crews and company grade officers. By the end of the war a fully automatic version was issued as the M2 carbine. Despite its convenience, Marines never liked the carbine.

The Carbine proved to be such an effective light weight weapon that it was also carried for protection by heavy and light weapons teams. All models used a .30 cal. Carbine cartridge in 15-round and 30-round magazines.
The M1 could be fired only as a semi-automatic. M1A1 was also a semi-automatic, but featured a folding metal buttstock, an excellent light weight weapon for use by paratroops. The M2 was selectible for either semi- or fully-automatic fire. The M3 had a specially modified grooved receiver for mounting an infrared 4X "Snooper Scope" sniperscope.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m1garand.htm

The drama between Carbine Williams and Winchester is interesting.

Winchester at first did not submit a design, as it was occupied in developing the .30-06 Winchester M2 Military Rifle. The rifle originated as a design by Jonathan "Ed" Browning, brother of the famous firearm designer John Browning. A couple of months after Ed Browning's death in May 1939, Winchester hired ex-convict David M. "Carbine" Williams, a convicted murderer and former bootlegger who had begun work on a short-stroke gas piston design while serving a prison sentence. (This unlikely story was the loose basis of the 1952 movie Carbine Williams starring James Stewart.) Winchester hoped Williams would be able to complete various designs left unfinished by Ed Browning. Williams insisted on the incorporation of his short-stroke piston in the existing design. After the Marine Corps semi-automatic rifle trials in 1940, Browning's rear-locking tilting bolt design proved unreliable in sandy conditions. As a result, the rifle was redesigned to incorporate a Garand-style rotating bolt and operating rod. By May 1941, the M2 rifle prototype had been shaved from about 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) to a mere 7.5 lb (3.4 kg).
Winchester contacted the Ordnance Department to examine their rifle design. Ordnance believed the design could be scaled down to a carbine which weighed 4.5 to 4.75 lb (2.0–2.2 kg). In response, Major René Studler demanded a carbine prototype as soon as possible. The first model was developed at Winchester in 13 days by William C. Roemer, Fred Humeston and three other Winchester engineers under supervision of Edwin Pugsley, essentially Williams' last version of the .30-06 M2 scaled down to the .30 SL cartridge.[4] This patchwork prototype was cobbled together using the trigger housing and lockwork of a Winchester M1905 rifle and a modified Garand operating rod. The prototype was an immediate hit with Army observers.[5]
After the initial Army testing in August 1941, the Winchester design team set out to develop a more refined version. Williams participated in the finishing of this test prototype. The second prototype competed successfully against other carbine candidates in September 1941, and Winchester was notified of their victory the very next month. Standardization as the M1 Carbine was approved in October 22, 1941. Contrary to popular myth, Williams had little to do with the carbine's development, with the exception of his short-stroke gas piston design. As a matter of fact, Williams went about creating his own design apart from the other Winchester staff. Williams' final carbine design was not ready for testing until December 1941, two months after the Winchester M1 Carbine had been adopted and type-classified. None of William's additional design features were incorporated into later M1 production. The supervisor of the carbine project at Winchester, Edwin Pugsley, conceded that Williams' final design was "an advance on the one that was accepted", but noted that Williams' decision to go it alone was a distinct impediment to the project.[4] Further, in a memo in response to a possible lawsuit by Williams, in 1951 Winchester noted his patent for the short-stroke piston had been improperly granted as a previous patent covering the same principle of operation was overlooked at the patent office.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_carbine

 

[Inigoes]

M14 7.62mm Rifle
Seeking a lightweight replacement for the M1 Garand and the M1918A2 BAR, The Army selected the M14 rifle in 1957. Production of the M14 rifle was halted in 1964, by which time 1,380,874 had been manufactured. The M14 7.62 mm rifle is a magazine-fed, gas operated shoulder weapon, designed primarily for semi-automatic fire. It was the standard service rifle until it was replaced in the late-1960s by the 5.56mm M16A1 rifle.

At one time the standard issued rifle for soldiers and marines, the M14 is now used primarily in the Competition in Arms program, or for drill and ceremonial purposes. The M16 replaced the M14 as the Table of Organization rifle for the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. The number of nations adopting the M14 never got beyond a sum that could be calculated by counting on both hands. Also, the M14 has the ignominious claim of having been the shortest lived standard infantry rifle in American history.

M14, basically a product improved M1 Garand, performed well as a infantry rifle. The M14 had an effective range of 500 yards (460m). The M14 used a standard NATO 7.62mm cartridge in a 20-round magazine. The M14 was the standard Army infantry rifle, until replaced by the mass fielding of the M16 5.56mm rifle in 1966-1967. Some M14s were equipped with a bipod for use as a squad automatic weapons. However, the M14 displayed an erratic dispersion pattern, excessive recoil, and muzzle climb when fired as an automatic rifle.

M14A1. The Army designed the model M14A1 to overcome these problems, but it was too light to become a truly successful replacement for the M1918 series BAR, and production was halted in 1963. The M14A1 featured a full pistol grip and a folding forward hand grip.
M14 National Match (1959) was used in the semi-automatic mode only. The M14NM had special sight parts and barrels selected especially for accuracy.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m14.htm

 

[Inigoes]

M16 5.56mm Semiautomatic Rifle
M4 5.56mm Carbine

The AR-15 was first adopted in 1962 by the United States Air Force, ultimately receiving the designation M16. The U.S. Army began to field the XM16E1 en masse in 1965 with most of them going to the Republic of South Vietnam, and the newly organized & experimental Airmobile Divisions, the 1st Air Cavalry Division in particular. The U.S. Marine Corps in South Vietnam also experimented with the M16 rifle in combat during this period. The XM16E1 was standardized as the M16A1 in 1967. This version remained the primary infantry rifle of U.S. forces in South Vietnam until the end of the war in 1975, and remained with all U.S. military ground forces after it had replaced the M14 service rifle in 1970 in CONUS, Europe (Germany), and South Korea; when it was supplemented by the M16A2. During the early 1980s a roughly standardized load for this ammunition was adopted throughout NATO (see: 5.56x45mm NATO).

The M16A3 is a fully-automatic variant of the M16A2, issued within the United States Navy. The M16A2 is currently being supplemented by the M16A4, which incorporates the flattop receiver unit developed for the M4 carbine, and Picatinny rail system. M16A2s are still in stock with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, but are used primarily by reserve and National Guard units as well as by the U.S. Air Force.[citation needed]

The M16 rifle design, including variant or modified version of it such as the Armalite/Colt AR-15 series, AAI M15 rifle; AP74; EAC J-15; SGW XM15A; any 22-caliber rimfire variant, including the Mitchell M16A-1/22, Mitchell M16/22, Mitchell CAR-15/22, and AP74 Auto Rifle, is a prohibited and restricted weapon.[15]

Project SALVO

In 1948, the Army organized the civilian Operations Research Office, mirroring similar operations research organizations in the United Kingdom. One of their first efforts, Project ALCLAD, studied body armor and the conclusion was that they would need to know more about battlefield injuries in order to make reasonable suggestions.[16] Over 3 million battlefield reports from World War I and World War II were analyzed and over the next few years they released a series of reports on their findings.[16]

The conclusion was that most combat takes place at short range. In a highly mobile war, combat teams ran into each other largely by surprise; and the team with the higher firepower tended to win. They also found that the chance of being hit in combat was essentially random; accurate "aiming" made little difference because the targets no longer sat still. The number one predictor of casualties was the total number of bullets fired.[16] Other studies of behavior in battle revealed that many U.S. infantrymen (as many as 2/3) never actually fired their rifles in combat. By contrast, soldiers armed with rapid fire weapons were much more likely to have fired their weapons in battle.[17] These conclusions suggested that infantry should be equipped with a fully-automatic rifle of some sort in order to increase the actual firepower of regular soldiers. It was also clear, however, that such weapons dramatically increased ammunition use and in order for a rifleman to be able to carry enough ammunition for a firefight they would have to carry something much lighter.

Existing rifles were poorly suited to real-world combat for both of these reasons. Although it appeared the new 7.62 mm T44 (precursor to the M14) would increase the rate of fire, its heavy 7.62 mm NATO cartridge made carrying significant quantities of ammunition difficult. Moreover, the length and weight of the weapon made it unsuitable for short range combat situations often found in jungle and urban combat or mechanized warfare, where a smaller and lighter weapon could be brought to bear faster.
These efforts were noticed by Colonel René Studler, U.S. Army Ordnance's Chief of Small Arms Research and Development. Col. Studler asked the Aberdeen Proving Ground to submit a report on the smaller caliber weapons. A team led by Donald Hall, director of program development at Aberdeen, reported that a .22 inch (5.56 mm) round fired at a higher velocity would have performance equal to larger rounds in most combat.[18] With the higher rate of fire possible due to lower recoil it was likely such a weapon would inflict more casualties on the enemy. His team members, notably William C. Davis, Jr. and Gerald A. Gustafson, started development of a series of experimental .22 (5.56 mm) cartridges. In 1955, their request for further funding was denied.

A new study, Project SALVO, was set up to try to find a weapon design suited to real-world combat. Running between 1953 and 1957 in two phases, SALVO eventually suggested that a weapon firing four rounds into a 20-inch (508 mm) area would double the hit probability of existing semi-automatic weapons.

In the second phase, SALVO II, several experimental weapons concepts were tested. Irwin Barr of AAI Corporation introduced a series of flechette weapons, starting with a shotgun shell containing 32 darts and ending with single-round flechette "rifles". Winchester and Springfield Armory offered multi-barrel weapons, while ORO's own design used two .22, .25 or .27 caliber bullets loaded into a single .308 Winchester or .30-06 cartridge.
A U.S. soldier with M16A2 at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The United States Army did not place a large order for the A2 model until 1986.

Meanwhile testing of the 7.62 mm T44 continued, and Fabrique Nationale also submitted their new FN FAL via the American firm Harrington & Richardson as the T48. The T44 was selected as the new battle rifle for the U.S. Army (rechristened the M14) despite a strong showing by the T48.[citation needed]
In 1954, Eugene Stoner of the newly-formed ArmaLite helped develop the 7.62 mm AR-10. Springfield's T44 and similar entries were conventional rifles using wood for the "furniture" and otherwise built entirely of steel using mostly forged and machined parts. ArmaLite was founded specifically to bring the latest in designs and alloys to firearms design, and Stoner felt he could easily beat the other offerings.

The AR-10's receiver was made of forged and milled aluminium alloy instead of steel. The barrel was mated to the receiver by a separate hardened steel extension to which the bolt locked. This allowed a lightweight aluminum receiver to be used while still maintaining a steel-on-steel lockup. The bolt was operated by high-pressure combustion gases taken from a hole in the middle of the barrel directly through a tube above the barrel to a cylinder created in the bolt carrier with the bolt carrier itself acting as a piston. Traditional rifles located this cylinder and piston close to the gas vent. The stock and grips were made of a glass-reinforced plastic shell over a rigid foam plastic core. The muzzle brake was fabricated from titanium. Over Stoner's objections, various experimental composite and 'Sullaloy' aluminum barrels were fitted to some AR-10 prototypes by ArmaLite's president, George Sullivan. The Sullaloy barrel was made entirely of heat-treated aluminum, while the composite barrels used aluminum extruded over a thin stainless steel liner.

Meanwhile the layout of the weapon itself was also somewhat different. Previous designs generally placed the sights directly on the barrel, using a bend in the stock to align the sights at eye level while transferring the recoil down to the shoulder. This meant that the weapon tended to rise when fired making it very difficult to control during fully-automatic fire. The ArmaLite team used a solution previously used on weapons such as the German FG 42 and Johnson light machine gun; they located the barrel in line with the stock, well below eye level, and raised the sights to eye level. The rear sight was built into a carrying handle over the receiver.

Despite being over 2 lb (0.9 kg) lighter than the competition, the AR-10 offered significantly greater accuracy and recoil control. Two prototype rifles were delivered to the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory for testing late in 1956. At this time, the U.S. armed forces were already two years into a service rifle evaluation program, and the AR-10 was a newcomer with respect to older, more fully-developed designs. Over Stoner's continued objections, George Sullivan had insisted that both prototypes be fitted with composite aluminum/steel barrels. Shortly after a composite barrel burst on one prototype in 1957, the AR-10 was rejected. The AR-10 was later produced by a Dutch firm, Artillerie Inrichtingen, and saw limited but successful military service with several foreign nations such as Sudan, Guatemala, and Portugal. Portugal deployed a number of AR-10s for use by its airborne (Caçadores Pára-quedista) battalions, and the rifle saw considerable combat service in Portugal's counter-insurgency campaigns in Angola and Mozambique.[19] Some AR-10 rifles were still in service with airborne forces serving during the withdrawal from Portuguese Timor in 1975.

CONARC

In 1957, a copy of Gustafson's funding request from 1955 found its way into the hands of General Willard G. Wyman, commander of the U.S. Continental Army Command. He immediately put together a team to develop a .22 caliber (5.56 mm) weapon for testing. Their finalized request called for a select-fire weapon of 6 pounds (2.7 kg) when loaded with 20 rounds of ammunition. The bullet had to penetrate a standard U.S. steel helmet, body armor, or a 0.135 inch (3.4 mm) steel plate and retain a velocity in excess of the speed of sound at 500 yards (460 m), while equaling or exceeding the "wounding" ability of the .30 Carbine.[16][20]

Wyman had seen the AR-10 in an earlier demonstration, and impressed by its performance he personally suggested that ArmaLite enter a weapon for testing using a 5.56 mm cartridge designed by Winchester.[16] Their first design, using conventional layout and wooden furniture, proved to be too light. When combined with a conventional stock, recoil was excessive in fully automatic fire. Their second design was simply a scaled-down AR-10, and immediately proved much more controllable. Winchester entered a design based loosely on their M1 carbine, and Earle Harvey of Springfield attempted to enter a design, but was overruled by his superiors at Springfield, who refused to divert resources from the T44.

In the end, ArmaLite's AR-15 had no competition. The lighter round allowed the rifle to be scaled down, and was smaller and lighter than the previous AR-10. The AR-15 weighed only around 5.5 lb (2.5 kg) empty, 6 lb (2.7 kg) loaded (with a 20 round magazine).

During testing in March 1958, rainwater caused the barrels of both the ArmaLite and Winchester rifles to burst, causing the Army to once again press for a larger round, this time at .258 in (6.6 mm). Nevertheless, they suggested continued testing for cold-weather suitability in Alaska. Stoner was later asked to fly in to replace several parts, and when he arrived he found the rifles had been improperly reassembled. When he returned he was surprised to learn that they too had rejected the design even before he had arrived; their report also endorsed the .258 in (6.6 mm) round. After reading these reports, General Maxwell Taylor became dead-set against the design, and pressed for continued production of the M14.

Not all the reports were negative. In a series of mock-combat situations testing the AR-15, M14 and AK-47, the Army found that the AR-15's small size and light weight allowed it to be brought to bear much more quickly, just as CONARC had suggested. Their final conclusion was that an 8-man team equipped with the AR-15 would have the same firepower as a current 11-man team armed with the M14. They also found that the AR-15, as tested, was more reliable than the M14, suffering fewer stoppages and jams in tests where thousands of rounds were fired.

At this point, Fairchild had spent $1.45 million in development expenses, and wished to divest itself of its small-arms business. Fairchild sold production rights for the AR-15 to Colt Firearms in December 1959, for only $75,000 cash and a 4.5% royalty on subsequent sales. In 1960, ArmaLite was reorganized, and Stoner left the company.

M16 adoption

Curtis LeMay viewed a demonstration of the AR-15 in July 1960. In the summer of 1961, General LeMay had been promoted to the position of USAF Chief of Staff, and requested an order of 80,000 AR-15s for the U.S. Air Force.[21] However under the recommendation of General Maxwell D. Taylor, who advised the Commander in Chief that having two different calibers within the military system at the same time would be problematic, President Kennedy turned down the request.[21] However, Advanced Research Projects Agency, which had been created in 1958 in response to the Soviet Sputnik program, embarked on project AGILE in the spring of 1961. AGILE's priority mission was to devise inventive fixes to the communist problem in South Vietnam.[22] In October 1961, William Godel, a senior man at ARPA, sent 10 AR-15s to South Vietnam to let the allies test them. The reception was enthusiastic, and in 1962 another 1,000 AR-15s were sent to South Vietnam.[23] Special Operations units and advisers working with the South Vietnamese troops filed battlefield reports lavishly praising the AR-15 and the stopping effectiveness of the 5.56 mm cartridge, and pressed for its adoption. However, what no one knew, except the men directly using the AR-15s in Vietnam, were the devastating kills[24] made by the new rifle, photographs of which, showing enemy casualties made by the .223 (5.56 mm) bullet remained classified into the 1980s.[24]

The damage caused by the .223 (5.56mm) "varmint"[24] bullet was easily accounted for. Standard U.S. rifles generally had 12 inch rifling twists inside their barrels (one complete bullet rotation within 12 inches), whereas the AR-15, as designed by Stoner, was to have a 1 in 14 inch rifling twist, as rapid spraying of projectiles at close range would be the norm rather than long range accuracy. However Colt, with its antiquated equipment, had made some of the AR-15s with up to 18 inches per total bullet rotation,[25] thus creating a bullet's flight to wobble while en route to target. The impact of these projectiles on human flesh created horrible wounds; as well as very few prisoners of war.[26]

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara now had two conflicting views: the ARPA report favoring the AR-15 and the Pentagon's position on the M14. Even President John F. Kennedy expressed concern, so McNamara ordered Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance to test the M14, the AR-15 and the AK-47. The Army's test report stated only the M14 was suitable for Army use, but Vance wondered about the impartiality of those conducting the tests. He ordered the Army Inspector General to investigate the testing methods used, who reported that the testers showed favor to the M14.

Secretary Robert McNamara ordered a halt to M14 production in January 1963, after receiving reports that M14 production was insufficient to meet the needs of the armed forces. Secretary McNamara had long been a proponent of weapons program consolidation among the armed services. At the time, the AR-15 was the only rifle that could fulfill a requirement of a "universal" infantry weapon for issue to all services. McNamara ordered the weapon be adopted unmodified, in its current configuration, for immediate issue to all services, despite receiving reports noting several deficiencies with the M16 as a service rifle, including the lack of a chrome-lined bore and chamber, the 5.56 mm projectile's instability under arctic conditions,[citation needed] and the fact that large quantities of 5.56 mm ammunition required for immediate service were not available.[citation needed] In addition, the Army insisted on the inclusion of a forward assist to help push the bolt into battery in the event that a cartridge failed to seat in the chamber through fouling or corrosion. Colt had argued the rifle was a self-cleaning design, requiring little or no maintenance. Colt, Eugene Stoner, and the U.S. Air Force believed that a forward assist needlessly complicated the rifle, adding about $4.50 to its procurement cost with no real benefit. As a result, the design was split into two variants: the Air Force's M16 without the forward assist, and for the other service branches, the XM16E1 with the forward assist.

In November 1963, McNamara approved the Army's order of 85,000 XM16E1s for jungle warfare operations;[27] and to appease General LeMay, the Air Force was granted an order for another 19,000 M16s.[16][28] Meanwhile, the Army carried out another project, the Small Arms Weapons Systems, on general infantry firearm needs in the immediate future. They recommended the immediate adoption of the weapon. Later that year the Air Force officially accepted their first batch as the United States Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16.
The Army immediately began to issue the XM16E1 (re-named M16A1 on its adoption) to infantry units but the rifle was initially delivered without adequate cleaning supplies or instructions. When the M16 reached Vietnam with U.S. troops in March 1965, reports of jamming and malfunctions in combat began to surface. Although the M14 featured a chrome-lined barrel and chamber to resist corrosion in combat conditions, neither the bore nor the chamber of the M16/XM16E1 was chrome-lined. Several documented accounts of troops killed by enemy fire with jammed rifles broken-down for cleaning eventually brought a Congressional investigation.[29]

“We left with 72 men in our platoon and came back with 19, Believe it or not, you know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. Practically every one of our dead was found with his [M16] torn down next to him where he had been trying to fix it.”

The root cause of the jamming issues turned out to be a problem with the powder for the ammunition. In 1964 when the Army was informed that DuPont could not mass-produce the nitrocellulose-based powder to the specifications demanded by the M16, the Olin Mathieson Company provided a high-performance ball propellant of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin. While the Olin WC 846 powder was capable of firing an M16 5.56 mm round at the desired 3,300 ft. per second, it had the unintended consequence of increasing the automatic rate of fire from 850 to 1000 rounds per minute. This would leave behind dirty residue and making the M16 more likely to jam. The problem was resolved by fitting the M16 with a buffer system, slowing the rate of fire back down to 650 to 850 rounds per minute and outfitting all newly produced M16's with a chrome-plated chamber.[30]

On February 28, 1967, the XM16E1 was standardized as the M16A1. Major revisions to the design followed. The rifle was given a chrome-lined chamber (and later, the entire bore) to eliminate corrosion and stuck cartridges, and the rifle's recoil mechanism was re-designed to accommodate Army-issued 5.56 mm ammunition. Rifle cleaning tools and powder solvents/lubricants were issued. Intensive training programs in weapons cleaning were instituted, and a comic book style manual was circulated among the troops to demonstrate proper maintenance.[16] The reliability problems of the M16 diminished quickly, although the rifle's reputation continued to suffer.[16]

According to a February 1968 Department of Defense report the M16 rifle achieved widespread acceptance by U.S. troops in Vietnam. Only 38 of 2100 individuals queried wanted to replace the M16 with another weapon. Of those 38, 35 wanted the CAR-15 (a shorter version of the M16) instead.[31]
In March 1970, the U.S. stated that all NATO forces would eventually adopt the 5.56x45mm cartridge. This shift represented a change in the philosophy of the military's long-held position about caliber size. It was particularly unsettling to the British, whose military had adopted the larger 7.62mm NATO cartridge over their own .280 caliber (7.1 mm) nearly 20 years earlier. From the British point of view, the realization by the U.S. of the effectiveness of a smaller caliber was a belated one.

By the middle of the 1970s, other armies were also looking at an M16-style weapon. A NATO standardization effort soon started, and tests of various rounds were carried out starting in 1977. The U.S. offered their original design, the M193, with no modifications, but there were concerns about its penetration in the face of the wider introduction of body armor. The British offered a modified 5.56 mm round, using a longer and thinner bullet of 4.85 mm. The round had somewhat better ballistics and considerably better penetration, able to reach 600 m and meet their requirements for a squad automatic weapon (light machine gun). The Germans proposed a new 4.7 mm caseless round, which was considerably lighter while offering similar ballistics to the original U.S. design. However, there was distrust in the caseless system due to the possibility of cook off. A final design was offered by the Belgians. Their SS109 round was based on the U.S. cartridge but included a new bullet design, with the same 5.56 mm caliber, but with a small steel tip added to improve penetration.

Testing soon showed that the British and Belgian designs were roughly equal, both outperforming the original U.S. design. In order to get full performance from tracer versions of the SS109, however, barrels would have to use different rifling. Existing 1:12 inch (or 1:300mm) twist barrels reduced the effective range of the SS109 to 90 meters due to lack of stability. While the ideal twist rate for the SS109 projectile is 1:9 inch/1:229mm, a 1:7 inch/1:180mm twist rate was chosen to stabilize the much longer L110 tracer. This tracer was designed to complement the SS109's ballistic performance. The M196 tracer (complement to the M193 ball round) had a burn-out range of 450 meters where the L110 tracer was bright to 800 meters. In the end the Belgian round was chosen. The U.S. Marine Corps was first to adopt the round with the M16A2, introduced in 1982. This was to become the standard U.S. military rifle. The NATO 5.56x45mm standard ammunition produced for U.S. forces is designated M855 for the ball round using an SS109 type projectile and M856 for the tracer using the L110 type projectile.
The M16 series has four main versions: M16A1, M16A2, M16A3, and M16A4. Total worldwide production of M16-style weapons since the design's inception has been approximately 8 million.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m16.htm

 

[Dan44]

I have or had
1903
1917
1903A3
M1 Garand
M16 (AR15 Colt SP1)
M4 (Rock River copy)

Never had a M1 Carbine or M1A1 (M14)

 

[K31]

The M1903 Springfield was the first US Army rifle to use stripper clips, which held five rounds together for easy loading.

Not 100% accurate since some Krag Jorgensons were equipped with a clip loading device.

 

[bbrown]

Not 100% accurate since some Krag Jorgensons were equipped with a clip loading device.

You mean that box on the right side of the receiver? All you need to do is tumble some in there, nose to muzzle, and they pretty much feed themselves.

Bryan

 

[QuebecoisWolf]

Just yesterday, I was thinking about how cool it would be to build an "evolution of US small arms" display in my living room. Of course, I'd have to go out and buy one of those beautiful James River NM-14's to do that, wouldn't I? Yep, can't help myself, I absolutely must have a new gun!

 

[K31]

You mean that box on the right side of the receiver? All you need to do is tumble some in there, nose to muzzle, and they pretty much feed themselves.

Bryan

No, the box is the magazine. There was an add-on device for clip-loading and clips developed.

 

[Inigoes]

Not 100% accurate since some Krag Jorgensons were equipped with a clip loading device.

Russian-contract Winchester M1895 rifle, chambered for 7.62x54R Russian ammunition and fitted with bayonet lug and clip guides


http://world.guns.ru/rifle/rfl25-e.htm

 

[fivepointstar]

Sir..you have a great collection!

 

[Threeband]

Nice!


All you need is a '17 and a Johnson.




Never mind. We don't want to see pictures of your Johnson.

 

[TBAGRR]

very nice collection, i would like to have one of all of those one day!!!

 

[Gaius Baltar]

i really hate this guy....

thanks for the write up, and a very nice collection of american history.

 

[VWTurbo]

great evolution and great history there. Thanks for sharing

 

[armedsks]

Nice collection!!! IM down to my lonely Krag left as far as US arms i have. Cant seem to let my Krag go. They have the slickest action ever and shoot even better.

 

[Inigoes]

DEVELOPMENT:
The Thompson Submachine Gun was developed by General John T. Thompson who originally envisioned an auto rifle (semi-automatic rifle) to replace the bolt action service rifles then in use. While searching for a way to allow such a weapon to operate safely without the complexity of a recoil or gas operated mechanism, Thompson came across a patent issued to John Bell Blish in 1915 based on adhesion of inclined metal surfaces under pressure. Thompson found a financial backer, Thomas F. Ryan, and started the Auto-Ordnance Company in 1916 for the purpose of developing his auto rifle. The principal designers were Theodore H. Eickhoff, Oscar V. Payne, and George E. Goll. By late 1917, the limits of the Blish Principle were discovered: rather than working as a locked breech, it functioned as a friction-delayed blowback action. It was found that the only cartridge currently in U.S. service suitable for use with the lock was the .45 ACP round. Thompson then envisioned a "one-man, hand-held machine gun" in .45 ACP as a "trench broom" for use in the on-going trench warfare of World War I. Payne designed the gun itself and its stick and drum magazines. The project was then titled "Annihilator I", and by 1918, most of the design issues had been resolved. However, the war ended before prototypes could be shipped to Europe.


A Marine fires on a Japanese position using an M1 Thompson submachine gun during an advance on Okinawa in 1945.At an Auto-Ordnance board meeting in 1919 to discuss the marketing of the "Annihilator", with the war over, the weapon was officially renamed the "Thompson Submachine Gun". While other weapons had been developed shortly prior with similar objectives in mind, the Thompson was the first weapon to be labeled and marketed as a "submachine gun". Thompson intended the weapon as an automatic 'trench-broom' to sweep enemy troops from the trenches, filling a role for which the BAR had been proven ill-suited. Contemporaneously, this concept was developed by German troops using their own Bergmann MP18 submachine guns in concert with sturmtruppen tactics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_submachine_gun

 

[K31]

The Krag also competed against clip-fed rifles, including the Mauser model of the time. There was not a requirement for clip feeding, there was a requirement however for a magazine cut off which the Krag had.

 

[Inigoes]

The Krag also competed against clip-fed rifles, including the Mauser model of the time.

I'm saving the oldest for last after next week.