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134-617: The M1903 Springfield , officially the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1903 , is an American five-round magazine -fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle , used primarily during the first half of the 20th century. The M1903 was first used in combat during the Philippine–American War , and it was officially adopted by the United States as the standard infantry rifle on 19 June 1903, where it saw service in World War I , and

268-493: A speedloader ; or the en bloc clip for M1 Garand rifles, among others. Use of the term "clip" to refer to detachable magazines is a point of strong disagreement. The earliest firearms were loaded with loose powder and a lead ball, and to fire more than a single shot without reloading required multiple barrels , such as in pepper-box guns, double-barreled rifles , double-barreled shotguns , or multiple chambers , such as in revolvers . The main problem with these solutions

402-589: A stripper-clip or charger loading modification to the Krag was designed, it was clear to Army authorities that a new rifle was required. After the U.S. military's experience with the Mauser rifle in the 1898 Spanish–American War , authorities decided to adopt a stronger Mauser-derived bolt-action design equipped with a charger- or stripper clip-loaded box magazine. In 1882, the bolt action Remington Lee rifle design of 1879, with its newly invented detachable box magazine,

536-621: A "quad-column", can hold a large amount of ammunition. It is wider than a standard box magazine, but retains the same length. Casket magazines can be found on the Suomi KP/-31 , Hafdasa C-4 , Spectre M4 , QCW-05 and on 5.45×39mm AK rifle derivatives, and now the Kel-Tec CP33 as well. Magpul has been granted a patent for a STANAG -compatible casket magazine, and such a magazine was also debuted by SureFire in December 2010, and

670-455: A 150-grain (9.7 g) pointed bullet fired at 2,800 ft/s (850 m/s); the case neck was a fraction of an inch shorter as well. The new American cartridge was designated Cartridge, Ball, Caliber .30, Model of 1906 . The M1906 cartridge is better known as the .30-06 Springfield round, used in many rifles and machine guns, and is still a popular civilian cartridge to the present day. The rifle's sights were again re-tooled to compensate for

804-708: A civilian firearm, historical collector's piece, a competitive shooting rifle, and as a military drill rifle. During the 1898 war with Spain , the Mauser M1893 used by the Spanish Army gained a deadly reputation, particularly from the Battle of San Juan Hill , where 750 Spanish regulars significantly delayed the advance of 15,000 US troops armed with outclassed Springfield Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifles and older single-shot Springfield model 1873 trapdoor rifles. The Spanish soldiers inflicted 1,400 casualties on

938-600: A conventional detachable box, but it was non-detachable and only reloaded by using 20 round stripper clips . Box magazines may come in straight, angled, or curved forms depending if the cartridges are tapered rimmed/rimless or bottlenecked. Straight or slightly curved magazines work well with straight-sided rimless cartridges, angled magazines work well with straight-sided rimmed/rimless cartridges and curved magazines work well with rimmed/rimless tapered cartridges. Pistol magazines are often single- or double-stack with single-feed, which may be due to this design being slimmer at

1072-490: A crucial safety feature for hunting dangerous game: when empty the follower stops the bolt from engaging the chamber, informing the operator that the gun is empty before any attempt to fire. The first successful semi-automatic pistol was the Borchardt C-93 (1893) and incorporated detachable box magazines. Nearly all subsequent semiautomatic pistol designs adopted detachable box magazines. The Swiss Army evaluated

1206-524: A cue from the Mauser Gewehr 98 , a large safety lug was added to the side of the bolt behind the extractor, which engaged the receiver bridge and prevented the bolt from moving rearwards. The bolt handle was also bent downwards, to make it faster to operate. The Model 1901 almost entered production. Springfield was sure enough that the Model 1901 prototype would be accepted that they began making some of

1340-578: A drum magazine's extra capacity is its added weight that, combined with the gun, can affect handling and prolonged use. Drum magazines can be more difficult to incorporate into combat gear compared to more regular, rectangular box magazines. Many drum-fed firearms can also load from conventional box magazines, such as the Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun, RPK light machine gun, and the American Thompson submachine gun . The term "drum"

1474-435: A letter to the secretary of war , he said: I must say that I think that ramrod bayonet is about as poor an invention as I ever saw. As you observed, it broke short off as soon as hit with even moderate violence. It would have no moral effect and mighty little physical effect. All the rifles to that point consequently had to be re-tooled for a blade-type bayonet, called the " M1905 ". The sights were also an area of concern, so

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1608-707: A new design combining features of the M1898 Krag rifle and the Spanish Mauser M1893 was developed. Springfield began work on creating a rifle that could handle higher loads around the turn of the 20th century. The Springfield Model 1901 prototype combined the Krag–Jørgensen 's cock-on-opening bolt, 30-inch barrel, magazine cutoff, stock and sights with the Mauser M1893's dual locking lugs, external claw extractor, and staggered-column magazine. Taking

1742-476: A printed notation stating that the reduction in rifling grooves did not affect accuracy. As the war progressed, various machining and finishing operations were eliminated on the M1903A3 in order to increase production levels. Original production rifles at Remington and Smith-Corona had a dark gray-black finish similar to the bluing of late World War I. Beginning in late 1943 a lighter gray-green parkerizing finish

1876-511: A ramp-type rear aperture sight adjustable both for elevation and windage. It can be adjusted from 100 to 800 yd (91 to 732 m). This new sightline also lengthened the sight radius. A feature inherent to the M1903 and not found on the Mauser M98 is the cocking piece, a conspicuous knob at the rear of the bolt, allowing the rifle's striker to be released without dry firing, or to cock

2010-481: A replacement for their previously issued M1 Garand and M14 rifles, which were then returned to Army custody due to concerns about potential break-ins at high school JROTC armories. For safety reasons, the JROTC M1903s are made permanently unable to fire by plugging the barrel with a steel rod, or having it filled with lead, soldering the bolt and welding the magazine cutoff switch in the "on" position. To plug

2144-415: A single round of ammunition without manual reloading require some form of magazine designed to store and feed cartridges into the firearm's action. Magazines come in many shapes and sizes, with the most common type in modern firearms being the detachable box type. Most magazines designed for use with a reciprocating bolt firearm (tube fed firearms being the exception) make use of a set of feed lips which stop

2278-486: A single-feed design the top cartridge touches both lips and is commonly used in single-column box magazines, while a staggered feed magazine (sometimes called "double-feed" magazine, not to be confused with the firearm malfunction ) consists of a wider set of lips so that the second cartridge in line forces the top cartridge against one of the lips. The staggered-feed design has proven more resistant to jamming in use with double-column magazines than single-feed variants, since

2412-420: A special feed cover. The 75 rounds of ammunition were evenly distributed in each side of the magazine with a central feed "tower" where the ammunition is fed to the bolt. The ammunition was fed by a spring force, with rounds alternating from each side of the double drum so that the gun would not become unbalanced. Pan magazines differ from other circular magazines in that the cartridges are stored perpendicular to

2546-446: A total of 1,200 rounds. The full box weighs 100 lb (45 kg). The bore of the rifle is 0.30 inches (7.62 mm) in diameter. It was then rifled 0.004 in (0.1 mm) deep, making the diameter from the bottom of one groove to the bottom of the opposite groove 0.30787 in (7.82 mm) of the barrel. The M1903 rifle included a rear sight leaf that can be used to adjust for elevation and windage. This type of rear sight

2680-517: A wide range of national militaries. In 1890 the French adopted the 8mm Lebel Berthier rifles with 3-round internal magazines, fed from en bloc clips; the empty clips were pushed from the bottom of the action by the insertion of a loaded clip from the top. In the late 19th century, there were many short-lived designs, such as the M1895 Lee Navy and Gewehr 1888 , eventually replaced by

2814-473: Is 1.305 in (33.15 mm), slightly over the 33 mm (1.30 in) ring diameter of the older "small ring" Mauser models and less than the "large ring" 35.8 mm (1.41 in) Gewehr 98s. The US military licensed many of the Mauser Company's and other German patents, including the spitzer bullet, later modified into the .30-06 Springfield. The M1903 not only replaced the various versions of

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2948-531: Is a type of box magazine with another magazine placed in front. When firing, the bolt travels further back past the front section magazine until the rear section is empty, then uses the front section. Firearms using tandem magazines are the Special Purpose Individual Weapon (SPIW) and Gerasimenko VAG-73. The rotary (or spool) magazine consists of a cylindrical sprocket actuated by a torsion spring , with cartridges fitting between

3082-458: Is also likely that battlefield experience had proven the futility of this philosophy. One of the last new clip-fed, fixed-magazine rifles widely adopted that was not a modification of an earlier rifle was the M1 Garand . The M1 Garand was the first gas-operated semi-automatic rifle adopted and issued in large numbers as the standard service rifle of any military in the world. The M1 Garand

3216-424: Is much more common because of its ability to store more rounds), since a staggered column is actually two single side-by-side vertical columns offset by half of the diameter of a round. As the firearm cycles, cartridges are moved to the top of the magazine by a follower driven by spring compression to either a single-feed (center-feed) position or side-by-side (staggered-feed) positions. Box magazines may be integral to

3350-621: Is now sold as the MAG5-60 and MAG5-100 high capacity magazine (HCM) in 60 and 100 round capacities, respectively, in 5.56mm for AR-15 compatible with M4/M16/AR-15 variants and other firearms that accept STANAG 4179 magazines. Izhmash has also developed a casket magazine for the AK-12 . Desert Tech have also released the QMAG-53 compatible Quattro-15 lower receiver for the AR-15. A tandem magazine

3484-622: Is raised its range slider can be adjusted to a maximum range of 2,850 yd (2,606 m). The .30-06 Springfield M1906 service ammunition long-range performance was originally overstated. When the M1906 cartridge was developed, the range tests had been done to only 1,800 yd (1,646 m); distances beyond that were estimated, but the estimate for extreme range was wrong by almost 40 percent. The external ballistic discrepancy at long-ranges became evident during World War I. The M1905 rear sight can also be adjusted for windage. The M1903A3 introduced

3618-411: Is removed from the rifle. It operates reliably with cartridges of different lengths. It is insertable and removable at any time with any number of cartridges. These features allow the operator to reload the gun infrequently, carry magazines rather than loose cartridges, and to easily change the types of cartridges in the field. The magazine is assembled from inexpensive stamped sheet metal. It also includes

3752-476: Is sometimes applied to a belt box for a belt-fed machine gun, though this is just a case that houses a length of ammunition belt, not a drum magazine. [REDACTED] Media related to Drum magazines at Wikimedia Commons Before WWII the Germans developed 75-round saddle-drum magazines for use in their MG 13 and MG 15 machine guns. The MG 34 machine guns could also use saddle-drum magazine when fitted with

3886-560: Is that they increase the bulk and/or weight of a firearm, over a firearm with a single barrel and/or single chamber. However, many attempts were made to get multiple shots from loading a single barrel through the use of superposed loads . While some early repeaters such as the Kalthoff repeater managed to operate using complex systems with multiple feed sources for ball, powder, and primer, easily mass-produced repeating mechanisms did not appear until self-contained cartridges were developed in

4020-695: Is the standard parade rifle of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets , which has over six hundred M1903s, a very small percentage of which are still fireable. The Summerall Guards of The Citadel also use the M1903 Springfield for their silent drill performances. U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps color guard rifles bear many similarities to the Springfield. In 1977, the U.S. Army located a rather large cache of unissued M1903A3 rifles which were demilitarized and then issued to JROTC units as

4154-450: Is wrapped around the bolt-action to save vertical space and ease loading from the side. The Krag-Jorgensen bolt-action rifle is the only firearm to use this type of magazine and it was adopted by the militaries of Denmark, Norway, and the United States in the late 19th century. Drum magazines are used primarily for light machine guns . In one type, a moving partition within a cylindrical chamber forces loose rounds into an exit slot, with

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4288-538: The 7.92×57mm Mauser . Evidence also seems to suggest that improperly forged brass cartridge cases could have further exacerbated receiver failure. Pyrometers were installed in December 1917 to accurately measure temperatures during the forging process. The change was made at approximately serial number 800,000 for rifles made at Springfield Armory and at serial number 285,507 at Rock Island Arsenal. Lower serial numbers are known as "low-number" M1903 rifles. Higher serial numbers are said to be "double-heat-treated". Toward

4422-547: The American Civil War . The Spencer used a tubular magazine located in the butt of the gun instead of under the barrel and it used new rimfire metallic cartridges. The Spencer was successful, but the rimfire ammunition did occasionally ignite in the magazine tube and destroy the magazine. It could also injure the user. The new bolt-action rifles began to gain favor with militaries in the mid-1880s and were often equipped with tubular magazines. The Mauser Model 1871

4556-558: The Battle of the Little Bighorn , and being the basis for the iconic Winchester lever-action repeating rifle , which is still in production to the present day. The Henry and Winchester rifles would go on to see service with a number of militaries including Turkey. Switzerland and Italy adopted similar designs. The second magazine-fed firearm to achieve widespread success was the Spencer repeating rifle , which saw service in

4690-602: The Coto War and some rifles were captured by the opposing Panamanians. The Cuban Springfields were used by Batista forces after WW2 and later by the Revolutionary Armed Forces , for instance during the Bay of Pigs Invasion . The Federal Bureau of Investigation acquired some M1903 rifles configured like National Rifle Association sporter models in response to the 1933 Kansas City Massacre . In service,

4824-704: The Luger pistol using a detachable box magazine in 7.65×21mm Parabellum and adopted it in 1900 as its standard sidearm. The Luger pistol was accepted by the Imperial German Navy in 1904. This version is known as Pistole 04 (or P.04). In 1908 the German Army adopted the Luger to replace the Reichsrevolver in front-line service. The Pistole 08 (or P.08) was chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum . The P.08

4958-538: The M1903 Springfield rifle and Gewehr 98 respectively. The Russian Mosin–Nagant , adopted in 1891, was an exception. It was not revolutionary; it was a bolt-action rifle, used a small-bore smokeless powder cartridge, and a fixed box magazine loaded from the top with stripper clips , all of which were features that were used in earlier military rifles. What made the Nagant stand out was that it combined all

5092-628: The M1903A4 ), grenadiers (using a spigot type rifle 22 mm with the M1 grenade launcher until the M7 grenade launcher was available for the M1 rifle in late 1943), and Marine scout sniper units. The M1903A4 was the U.S. Army's sniper rifle of choice during the Second World War. The M1903A4 was a variation of the M1903A3. The only difference between receivers was that the model and serial number on

5226-514: The M249 and other squad automatic weapons , can feed from both magazines and belts. Many of the first repeating rifles and shotguns , particularly lever-action rifles and pump-action shotguns, used magazines that stored cartridges nose-to-end inside of a spring-loaded tube that typically runs parallel underneath the barrel, or inside of the buttstock. Tubular magazines are also commonly used in .22 caliber bolt-action rimfire rifles, such as

5360-605: The Marlin Model XT . Tubular magazines and centerfire cartridges with pointed ( spitzer ) bullets present a safety issue: a pointed bullet may (through the forces of recoil or simply rough handling) strike the next round's primer and ignite that round, or even cause a chain ignition of other rounds, within the magazine. The Winchester Model 1873 used blunt-nosed centerfire cartridges as the .44-40 Winchester . Certain modern rifle cartridges using soft pointed plastic tips have been designed to avoid this problem while improving

5494-586: The Ruger American series, the semi-automatic Ruger 10/22 , the bolt-action Ruger 77/22 and the Steyr SSG 69 . A capsule magazine functions similar to a box magazine, but the spring and follower is stowed away when the magazine bottom is flipped open. The cartridges are loosely dumped into the magazine and spring-fed to the chamber when the bottom is closed. On the Krag-Jørgensen the magazine

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5628-467: The Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle concept with its 30-round detachable magazine. After WWII, automatic weapons using detachable box magazines were developed and used by all of the world's armies. Today, detachable box magazines are the norm and they are so widely used that they are simply referred to as magazines or "mags" for short. All cartridge-based single-barrel firearms designed to fire more than

5762-563: The United Kingdom ) is a device that is used to store multiple rounds of ammunition together as a unit, ready for insertion into the magazine or cylinder of a firearm. This speeds up the process of reloading the firearm as several rounds can be loaded at once, rather than one round being loaded at a time. Several different types of clips exist, most of which are made of inexpensive metal stampings that are designed to be disposable, though they are often re-used. The first clips used were of

5896-449: The War to End All Wars , military planners failed to recognize the importance of automatic rifles and detachable box magazine concept, and instead maintained their traditional views and preference for clip-fed bolt-action rifles . As a result, many promising new automatic rifle designs that used detachable box magazines were abandoned. An important development that took place during this war was

6030-521: The en bloc system is that the firearm cannot be practically used without a ready supply of (mosty disposable) clips. Paul Mauser would solve this problem by introducing a stripper clip that functioned only to assist the user in loading the magazine quickly: it was not required to load the magazine to full capacity. He would continue to make improved models of rifles that took advantage of this new clip design from 1889 through 1898 in various calibers that proved enormously successful, and were adopted by

6164-567: The en bloc variety, developed by Ferdinand Mannlicher and first adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Army , which would be used Austro-Hungarians during the first world war in the form of the Mannlicher M1895 , derivatives of which would be adopted by many national militaries. The Germans used this system for their Model 1888 Commission Rifle , featuring a 5-round en bloc clip-fed internal box magazine. One problem with

6298-555: The 19th century. The first successful mass-produced repeating weapon to use a "tubular magazine" permanently mounted to the weapon was the Austrian Army's Girandoni air rifle , first produced in 1779. The first mass-produced repeating firearm was the Volcanic Rifle which used a hollow bullet with the base filled with powder and primer fed into the chamber from a tube called a "magazine" with an integral spring to push

6432-560: The 4 groove rifling that was the standard up until 1942. By some accounts, the M1903A4 was inadequate as a sniper rifle. The M1903A4 was a relatively accurate rifle with an effective range of about 600 yards (550 m). These limitations on long-range targeting were due to the limited field of view present in both the Weaver scopes. From its adoption in 1943 until the end of the war it was used extensively in every theater of operation by both

6566-447: The 5-round stripper clips). Helical magazines extend the drum magazine design so that rounds follow a spiral path around an auger-shaped rotating follower or drive member , allowing for large ammunition capacity in a relatively compact package (compared to a regular box magazine of similar capacity). Early helical magazine designs include that patented by an unidentified inventor through the patent agent William Edward Newton in 1857 and

6700-716: The 5th Army in Italy, was equipped with M1903 rifles. In August 1943, the Free French Forces of General Charles de Gaulle were re-equipped by the United States, primarily with M1903 Springfield and M1917 Enfield rifles . The M1903 became one of the primary rifles used by French forces until the end of the war, and was afterwards used in Indochina and by local militia and security forces in French Algeria. Large numbers of M1903 rifles were sent to China. During

6834-451: The AK-47. The detachable magazine quickly came to dominate post-war military rifle designs. Firearms using detachable magazines are made with an opening known as a magazine well into which the detachable magazine is inserted. The magazine well locks the magazine in position for feeding cartridges into the chamber of the firearm, and requires a device known as a magazine release to allow

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6968-451: The Army and Remington recognized that a new model name was appropriate. Other features of the M1903, such as high-grade walnut stocks with finger grooves, were replaced with less expensive but serviceable substitutes. Most milled parts made by Remington were marked with an "R". Production of the M1903 was discontinued in favor of the M1903A3. The most noticeable visual difference in the M1903A3

7102-706: The Korean War, South Korean Marines used the M1903A3. The M1903 rifles captured by the Germans were designated Gewehr 249(a) . The M1903A4 was slowly phased out during the Korean war by the Army, but saw extensive use in the Marine Corps in the form of the M1941 Sniper rifle. This new rifle was simply equipped with a very long and powerful Unertl 7.8x (as compared to the M73B1 2.5X telescopic sights issued with

7236-407: The M1 (1926) and M2 ball (1938) rounds. There were four standard types of cartridge: The rifle is a magazine-fed clip-loader and can fire at a rate of 20 shots per minute. Each stripper clip contains five cartridges, and standard issue consisted of 12 clips carried in a cloth bandoleer. When full the bandoleer weighs about 3 lb 14 oz (1.8 kg). Bandoleers were packed 20 in a box, for

7370-569: The M1903 (the A3 and A4) were delivered in February 1944. By then, most American combat troops had been re-equipped with the M1 Garand. However, some front-line infantry units in both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps retained M1903s as infantry rifles beyond that date and continued to use them alongside the M1 Garand until the end of the war in 1945. The Springfield remained in service for snipers (using

7504-727: The M1903 is still popular with various military drill teams and color guards, most notably the U.S. Army Drill Team . M1903 rifles (along with the M1 Garand, M1917 Enfield and M14 rifles) are also common at high school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) units to teach weapons handling and military drill procedures to the cadets. JROTC units use M1903s for regular and inter-school competition drills, including elaborate exhibition spinning routines. Exhibition teams often use fiberglass stocks in place of wooden stocks, which are heavier and more prone to breakage when dropped. JROTC Color Guards still favor wooden stocks over fiberglass because of their weight characteristics and appearance. The M1903

7638-399: The M1903 was, in fact, a Mauser design, and after that company brought suit, the U.S. government was judged to pay $ 250,000 in royalties to Mauser Werke. By January 1905, over 80,000 of these rifles had been produced at the federally-owned Springfield Armory. However, President Theodore Roosevelt objected to the design of the sliding rod-type bayonet used as being too flimsy for combat. In

7772-505: The M1903. Thousands of Spanish Mauser M1893 rifles, surrendered by Spanish troops in Cuba, were returned to the US and extensively studied at Springfield Armory , where it was decided that the Mauser was the superior design. A prototype rifle was produced in 1900; it was very similar to rifle No. 5, the final Mauser M92 prototype in the U.S. Army rifle trials of 1892. This design was rejected, and

7906-536: The M1903A4 rifle only if they were within almost exact specifications for the design. The front sight on the barrel was never installed on the A4 barrels, however, the notch for it was still in place. Barrel specifications were, in general, unchanged between the M1903A3 and M1903A4, however, the War Department did start installing barrels with 2 groove rifling instead of 4 groove, despite the lack of clear changes from

8040-711: The Mark II Lee-Metford , three years after the Schmidt-Rubin. The first pistol with a double-stack, staggered-feed magazine was the Mauser C96 although it was an integral design fed by stripper clips. The first detachable double-stack, single-feed magazine for pistols was probably the one patented by the American Elbert H. Searle in 1904 and adopted by Arthur Savage though he didn't apply it in practice to his designs until much later. One of

8174-513: The Pacific, such as the Battle of Guadalcanal , but the jungle battle environment generally favored self-loading rifles; later Army units arriving to the island were armed with M1 Garands. The U.S. Army Rangers were also a major user of the M1903 and the M1903A3 during World War II with the Springfield being preferred over the M1 Garand for certain commando missions. According to Bruce Canfield's U.S. Infantry Weapons of WW II , final variants of

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8308-579: The Pancho Villa Expedition and during World War I but was eventually deemed inadequate and was removed from the US Army's inventory by the 1920s. The military tested several M1903 rifles with Maxim suppressors starting in 1909, and requisitioned 500 in 1910 to be used for recruit training. Anecdotal evidence indicates that some of the M1903 rifles during the Pancho Villa Expedition were fitted with Maxim suppressors, possibly making them

8442-635: The Rock Island Arsenal which had been in storage since 1919. The very early Remington-made rifles are almost indistinguishable from 1919-made Rock Island rifles. As the already worn tooling began to wear beyond use Remington began seeking Army approval for a continuously increasing number of changes and simplifications to both speed up manufacture and improve performance. The milled parts on the Remington M1903 were gradually replaced with stamped parts until, at about serial number 3,330,000,

8576-538: The Spanish–American War, along with the .30-40 Krag and the .45-70. The Lee rifle's detachable box magazine was invented by James Paris Lee , and was very influential on later rifle designs. Other advancements had made it clear that the Army needed a replacement. In 1892, the U.S. military held a series of rifle trials, resulting in the adoption of the .30-40 Krag–Jørgensen rifle. The Krag officially entered U.S. service in 1894, only to be replaced nine years later by

8710-478: The Springfield was generally prized for its reliability and accuracy, though some problems remained. The precision rear aperture sight was located too far from the eye for efficient use, and the narrow, unprotected front sight was both difficult to see in poor light and easily damaged. The Marine Corps issued the Springfield with a sight hood to protect the front sight, along with a thicker front blade. The two-piece firing pin-striker also proved to be no improvement over

8844-525: The U.S. Army adopted the heavy, 174-grain, boat-tail bullet for its .30-06 cartridge, standardized as Cartridge, Ball, caliber 30, M1 . M1 ammunition, intended primarily for long-range machine gun use, soon became known by Army rifle competition teams and expert riflemen for its considerably greater accuracy over that of the M1906-round; the new M1 ammunition was issued to infantrymen with the Springfield rifle as well as to machine gun teams. However, during

8978-754: The U.S. Army's Krag, but also the Lee M1895 and M1885 Remington–Lee used by the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps, as well as all remaining single-shot trapdoor rifles. While the Krag had been issued with barrel lengths of both 30-inch rifle and 22-inch carbine models, the Springfield was issued only as a short 24-inch-barrel rifle in keeping with current trends in Switzerland and Great Britain to eliminate

9112-416: The US Army and the USMC. The Weaver scopes (later standardized as the M73 and M73B1) were not only low-powered in magnification, they were not waterproofed, and frequently fogged over or became waterlogged during humidity changes. In addition, the M81/82 optional scopes also had significant flaws. They most notably had less power (2.2x vs. 2.75x) and, like the other scopes on the M1903A4, had serious issues with

9246-442: The US in a matter of minutes. Likewise, earlier in the day, a Spanish force of 540 regulars armed with the same Mauser rifles, under Spanish general Vara Del Rey, held off General Henry Ware Lawton 's Second Division of 6,653 American soldiers and an independent brigade of 1,800 men for ten hours in the nearby town of El Caney , keeping that division from assisting in the attack on the San Juan Heights. A US Army board of investigation

9380-540: The United States, a number of states have passed laws that ban magazines which are defined as "high-capacity" by statute. High-capacity or large-capacity magazines are generally those defined by statute to be capable of holding more than 10 to 15 rounds, although the definitions will vary by state. Other nations impose restrictions on magazine capacity as well. In Canada, magazines are generally limited to 5 rounds for rifles and shotguns (with some exceptions) and 10 rounds for handguns (with some exceptions), depending on

9514-420: The absence of markings, except for occasions when time permitting during manufacture, on early to mid-production rifles, and also only on certain parts. To speed up production output, two-groove rifled barrels were adopted, and steel alloy specifications were relaxed under "war emergency steel" criteria for both rifle actions and barrels. All M1903A3 rifles with two-groove "war emergency" barrels were shipped with

9648-415: The aerodynamic qualities of the bullet to match those available in bolt-action designs, therefore extending the effective range of lever-actions. The most popular type of magazine in modern rifles and handguns, a box magazine stores cartridges in a column, either one above the other or in staggered zigzag fashion. This zigzag stack is often identified as a double-column or double-stack (The double-stack

9782-517: The army's M1903A4) variant type scope. It was used in situations when the range to the target simply exceeded that of the Marines' M1C and M1D sniper rifles, which were effective to about 500 yards (460 m). In some rare cases, kills from up to 1,000 yards (910 m) were reported by Marines using the M1941 sniper rifles. Marine Corps armorers continued to rebuild some M1903 sniper rifles as late as

9916-513: The axis of rotation, rather than being parallel, and are usually mounted on top of the firearm. This type is used on the Lewis Gun , Vickers K , Bren Gun (only used in anti-aircraft mountings), Degtyaryov light machine gun , and American-180 submachine gun. A highly unusual example was found on the Type 89 machine gun fed from two 45-round quadrant-shaped pan magazines (each magazine held 9 of

10050-499: The barrel, a very cold steel rod was inserted; after it warmed up it was too tight to remove. The US rifle, Model of 1903 is 44 + 7 ⁄ 8 inches (1.14 m) long and weighs 8 lb 11 oz (3.9 kg). A bayonet can be attached; the M1905 bayonet blade is 16 in (410 mm) long and weighs 1 pound (0.45 kg). From 1906, the rifle was chambered to fire the .30 caliber M1906 cartridge (.30-06 cartridge), later

10184-480: The cartridges being stored parallel to the axis of rotation. After loading of the magazine, a wound spring or other mechanism forces the partition against the rounds. In all models a single column is pushed by a follower through a curved path. From there the rounds enter the vertical riser either from a single or dual drums. Cylindrical designs such as rotary and drum magazines allow for larger capacity than box magazines, without growing to excessive length. The downside of

10318-639: The cartridges in to the action, thence to be loaded into the chamber and fired. It was named after a building or room used to store ammunition. The anemic power of the Rocket Ball ammunition used in the Volcanic doomed it to limited popularity. . The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action , breech-loading , tubular magazine-fed repeating rifle , and was an improved version of the earlier Volcanic rifle. Designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860, it

10452-496: The clips to hold them in place so they would not fall out while the weapon was being transported or fired. A STANAG magazine or NATO magazine is a type of detachable magazine proposed by NATO in October 1980. Shortly after NATO's acceptance of the 5.56×45mm NATO rifle cartridge, Draft Standardization Agreement ( STANAG ) 4179 was proposed in order to allow NATO members to easily share rifle ammunition and magazines down to

10586-417: The earlier features in a form that was to last virtually unchanged from its issue by Russia in 1894 through World War II and with its sniper rifle variants still in use today. A feature of many late 19th and early 20th century bolt-action rifles was the magazine cut-off, sometimes called a feed interrupter. This was a mechanical device that prevented the rifle from loading a round from the magazine, requiring

10720-465: The early stages of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. After the Korean War, active service (as opposed to drill) use of the M1903 was rare. Still, some M1903A4s remained in sniper use as late as the Vietnam War; and technical manuals for them were printed as late as 1970. The U.S. Navy also continued to carry some stocks of M1903A3s on board ships for use as anti-mine rifles. Due to its balance,

10854-466: The end of the war, Springfield turned out the Model 1903 Mark I. The Mark I has a cut on the left hand side of the receiver meant to act as an ejection port for the Pedersen device, a modified sear and cutoff to operate the Pedersen device; a specialized insert that replaced the bolt and allowed the user to fire .30 caliber pistol cartridges semi-automatically from a 40-round detachable magazine. The stock

10988-447: The entire stripper clip into the hopper magazine. The Japanese Type 11 light machine gun was the only weapon system that used a hopper magazine. This light machine gun was fed by standard 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka stripper clips that were used by riflemen armed with the Type 38 bolt action rifle . The hopper is located on the left side of the receiver and held 6 of the 5-round clips, for a total of 30 rounds of ammunition. The hopper magazine

11122-475: The field of view. The USMC and the US Army would eventually switch to a large 8x scope that spanned the length of the rifle designed by John Unertl. The US Army Military Police (MP) and the US Navy Shore Patrol also used M1903s and M1903A3s throughout the war. Various US allies and friendly irregular forces were also equipped with the weapon. The Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB), operating in

11256-485: The firearm or removable: There are, however, exceptions to these rules. The Lee–Enfield rifle had a detachable box magazine only to facilitate cleaning. The Lee–Enfield magazine did open, permitting rapid unloading of the magazine without having to operate the bolt-action repeatedly to unload the magazine. Other designs, like the Breda Modello 30 , had a fixed protruding magazine from the right side that resembled

11390-640: The first double-stack, single-feed box magazines was patented in November 1888 by an English inventor called Joseph James Speed of Waltham Cross. Another was patented in May 1887 by the Austro-Hungarian Karl Krnka. The bolt-action Krag–Jørgensen rifle, designed in Norway in 1886, used a unique rotary magazine that was built into the receiver. Like Lee's box magazine, the rotary magazine held

11524-556: The first suppressed rifles used in the field by the US military; however, during World War I American M1903s were not fitted with suppressors due to opposition from officers and the fact that suppressors would preclude the use of bayonets. By the time of US entry into World War I , 843,239 M1903 rifles had been produced at Springfield Armory and Rock Island Arsenal . Pre-war production utilized questionable metallurgy. Some receivers constructed of single-heat-treated case-hardened steel were improperly subjected to excessive temperatures during

11658-493: The forend of the stock was added to the design. This new design was accepted, type classified and officially adopted as the United States Rifle, Caliber .30, Model 1903 and entered production in 1903. The M1903 became commonly known among its users as the "aught-three" in reference to the year, 1903, of first production. Despite Springfield Armory's use of a two-piece firing pin and other slight design alterations,

11792-412: The forging process. The carbon could be "burnt" out of the steel, producing a brittle receiver. Despite documented evidence indicating some early rifles were improperly forged, actual cases of failure were very rare. Although several cases of serious injury from receiver failure were documented, the U.S. Army never reported any fatalities. Many failures were attributed to use of incorrect cartridges, such as

11926-452: The increased use of semi-automatic and automatic firearms , the detachable magazine became increasingly common. Soon after the adoption of the M1911 pistol, the term "magazine" was settled on by the military and firearms experts, though the term " clip " is often used in its place (though only for detachable magazines, never fixed). The defining difference between clips and magazines is

12060-869: The individual soldier level. The U.S. M16 rifle magazine was proposed for standardization. Many NATO members subsequently developed or purchased rifles with the ability to accept this type of magazine. However, the standard was never ratified and remains a "Draft STANAG". The STANAG magazine concept is only an interface, dimensional, and control (magazine latch, bolt stop, etc.) requirement. Therefore, it not only allows one type of magazine to interface with various weapon systems, but also allows STANAG magazines to be made in various configurations and capacities. The standard STANAG magazines are 20, 30, and 40 round box magazines, but there are many other designs available with capacities ranging from one round to 60 and 100 round casket magazines, 90 round snail-drum magazines , and 100 round and 150 round double-drum magazines. In

12194-626: The internal magazine of the Evans Repeating Rifle , patented in the late 1860s. This type of magazine is used by the Calico M960 , PP-19 Bizon , CS/LS06 and KBP PP90M1 . The North Korean military uses a 100- to 150- round helical magazine in the Type 88 assault rifle. Helical magazines offer substantially more ammunition carriage; however, they are inherently complex designs. As such, they can be difficult to load and may decrease

12328-475: The invention of Schmeisser's Cone in 1916 by Hugo Schmeisser which allowed high-capacity double-stack, single-feed box magazine using guns to function reliably although it wasn't implemented on any of his designs until after World War One . The first reliable high-capacity double-stack, staggered-feed box magazine was developed by an American designer called Oscar V. Payne for the Thompson submachine gun around

12462-614: The late 1930s, it became apparent that, with the development of mortars, high-angle artillery, and the .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun, the need for extreme long-range, rifle-caliber machine-gun fire was decreasing. In 1938, the US Army reverted to a .30-06 cartridge with a 152-grain flat-base bullet, now termed " M2 ball ", for all rifles and machine guns. In the 1920s and the 1930s, M1903s were delivered to US allies in Central America, such as Cuba, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Costa Rica troops were equipped with Springfields during

12596-641: The magazine aligned horizontally over the barrel. Rather than being positioned laterally to the barrel like with the aforementioned examples, ammunition is positioned vertically with the bullet facing downward at a 90-degree angle relative to the barrel where it is fed into a rotary chamber before firing. The AR-57 , also known as the AR Five-seven, is an upper receiver for the AR-15 rifle lower receiver, firing FN 5.7×28mm rounds from standard FN P90 magazines. Another form of box magazine, sometimes referred to as

12730-560: The magazine through recoil or simply rough handling. This remains a concern with lever-action firearms today. Two early box magazine patents were the ones by Rollin White in 1855 and William Harding in 1859. A detachable box magazine was patented in 1864 by the American Robert Wilson. Unlike later box magazines this magazine fed into a tube magazine and was located in the stock of the gun. Another box magazine, closer to

12864-506: The magazine to be separated from the firearm. The Lee–Metford rifle, developed in 1888, was one of the first rifles to use a detachable box magazine, and the spare one could be optionally worn on soldier equipment , although with the adoption of the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield Mk I this became only detachable for cleaning and not swapped to reload the weapon. However, the first completely modern removable box magazine

12998-571: The magazine. One of the first detachable box magazines with a double-stack staggered-feed was the Schmidt-Rubin of 1889. Other examples include the patent of Fritz von Stepski and Erich Sterzinger of Austria-Hungary in May 1888 and the British patents by George Vincent Fosbery in 1883 and 1884. James Paris Lee is sometimes claimed to have invented the double-stack, staggered-feed detachable box magazine but he didn't design one until 1892 for

13132-548: The modern type though non-detachable, was patented in Britain (No. 483) by Mowbray Walker, George Henry Money and Francis Little in 1867. James Paris Lee patented a box magazine which held rounds stacked vertically in 1875, 1879 and 1882 and it was first adopted by Austria in the form of an 11mm straight-pull bolt-action rifle, the Mannlicher M1886 . It also used a cartridge clip which held 5 rounds ready to load into

13266-510: The narrowing of a magazine tube to a single-feed induces extra friction which the magazine springs needs to overcome. Some magazine types are strongly associated with certain firearm types, such as the fixed "tubular" magazine found on most modern lever-action rifles and pump-action shotguns. A firearm using detachable magazines may accept a variety of types of magazine, such as the Thompson submachine gun , most variations of which would accept box or drum magazines. Some types of firearm, such as

13400-405: The need for both long rifles and carbines. The two main problems usually cited with the Krag were its slow-to-load magazine and its inability to handle higher chamber pressures for high-velocity rounds. The United States Army attempted to introduce a higher-velocity cartridge in 1899 for the existing Krags, but its single locking lug on the bolt could not withstand the extra chamber pressure. Though

13534-533: The new assault rifle developed by the Germans. The SKS used a fixed magazine, holding ten rounds and fed by a conventional stripper clip. It was a modification of the earlier AVS-36 rifle, shortened and chambered for the new reduced power 7.62×39mm cartridge. It was rendered obsolete for military use almost immediately by the 1947 introduction of the magazine-fed AK-47 assault rifle, though it remained in service for many years in Soviet Bloc nations alongside

13668-479: The new improved Model 1904 sight was also added. The retooling was almost complete when it was decided another change would be made. It was to incorporate improvements discovered during experimentation in the interim, most notably the use of pointed ammunition, first adopted by the French in the 1890s and later other countries. The round itself was based on the .30-03, but rather than a 220-grain (14 g) round-tip bullet fired at 2,300 ft/s (700 m/s), it had

13802-523: The original one-piece Mauser design, and was a cause of numerous ordnance repairs, along with occasional reports of jammed magazine followers. World War II saw new production of the Springfield at private manufacturers such as the Remington Arms and Smith-Corona Typewriter companies. Remington began production of the M1903 in September 1941, at serial number 3,000,000, using old tooling from

13936-448: The parts for it, but it was not accepted; further changes were asked for. Following then-current trends in service rifles, the barrel was shortened to 24 inches after it was discovered that a longer barrel offered no appreciable ballistic advantage, and the shorter barrel was lighter and easier to handle. This "short rifle" also eliminated the need of a shorter carbine for mounted troops or cavalry . A spike-type bayonet with storage in

14070-405: The presence of a feed mechanism in a magazine, typically a spring-loaded follower, which a clip lacks. A magazine has four parts as follows: a spring, a spring follower, a body and a base. A clip may be made of one continuous piece of stamped metal and have no moving parts. Examples of clips are moon clips for revolvers; "stripper" clips such as what is used for military 5.56 ammo, in association with

14204-537: The receiver were split on M1903A4 to make room for the Redfield scope mount . The Redfield scope mount removed the rear peep sight that was standard on the M1903A3. The scope used on the M1903A4 was a Weaver Model 330 or 330C, which was a 2.75x telescopic sight. The receivers were tested by Remington Arms and those that were deemed best, meaning those closest to design specifications were selected to become M1903A4s. The barrels were also selected specifically to be added to

14338-459: The reliability of feeding the weapon. The hopper magazine is a very unusual design. Unlike many other types of magazine-fed machine guns, which commonly used either box magazines or belts to feed ammunition into the firearm's action, the hopper magazine functioned differently. It would use stripper clips from an infantryman or machine gunner to supply ammunition for the machine gun to operate. This could be accomplished at any time, by just dropping

14472-642: The rifle if necessary, for example to attempt a second strike on a round that failed to fire. This was implemented from the U.S. model of the Krag–Jørgensen rifle. Magazine (firearms) Magazines come in many shapes and sizes, from integral tubular magazines on lever-action and pump-action rifles and shotguns, that may hold more than five rounds, to detachable box magazines and drum magazines for automatic rifles and light machine guns , that may hold more than fifty rounds. Various jurisdictions ban what they define as " high-capacity magazines ". With

14606-539: The rifle ready to be quickly reloaded. The M14 rifle , which was based on incremental changes to the Garand action, switched to a detachable box magazine. However, the M14 with magazine attached could also be loaded via 5-round stripper-clips. The Soviet SKS carbine, which entered service in 1945, was something of a stopgap between the semi-automatic service rifles being developed in the period leading up to World War II, and

14740-509: The rifle to lose its preset range elevation setting. Other modifications included a new stamped cartridge follower; the rounded edges of the new design largely alleviated the "fourth-round jam" complaints of the earlier machined part. All stock furniture was also redesigned in stamped metal. In late 1942, Smith-Corona Typewriter Company began production of the M1903A3 at its plant in Syracuse, New York. Smith-Corona parts are mostly identified by

14874-410: The rounds side-by-side, rather than end-to-end. Like most rotary magazines, it was loaded through a loading gate one round at a time, this one located on the side of the receiver. While reliable, the Krag–Jørgensen's magazine was expensive to produce and slow to reload. It was adopted by only three countries, Denmark in 1889, the United States in 1892, and Norway in 1894. A clip (called a charger in

15008-452: The same time as Schmeisser's Cone. As World War II loomed, most of the world's major powers began to develop submachine guns fed by 20- to 40-round detachable box magazines. However, of the major powers, only the United States would adopt a general-issue semi-automatic rifle that used detachable box magazines: the M1 carbine with its 15-round magazines. As the war progressed the Germans developed

15142-428: The shooter to manually load each individual round as he fired, saving the rounds in the magazine for short periods of rapid fire when ordered to use them. Most military authorities that specified them assumed that their riflemen would waste ammunition indiscriminately if allowed to load from the magazine all the time. By the mid-20th century, most manufacturers deleted this feature to save costs and manufacturing time; it

15276-480: The speed and trajectory of the new cartridge. By the time of the 1916 Pancho Villa Expedition , the M1903 was the standard issue service rifle of US forces. Some rifles were fitted with both the Warner & Swasey Model 1913 and 1908 "musket sights" during the campaign, "musket sights" being the vernacular at the time for telescopic sights. The Warner & Swasey Model 1913 musket sight continued to see service after

15410-403: The tooth bar of the sprocket, which is mounted on a spindle parallel to the bore axis and rotates each round sequentially into the feeding position. Rotary magazines may be fixed or detachable, and are usually of low capacity, generally 5 to 10 rounds, depending on the caliber used. John Smith patented a rotary magazine in 1856. Another rotary magazine was produced by Sylvester Roper in 1866 and

15544-504: The top which can simplify the design of the pistol frame with regards to grip thickness. The FN P90 , Kel-Tec P50 , and AR-57 personal defense weapons use horizontally mounted feeding systems. The magazine sits parallel to the barrel, fitting flush with the top of the receiver, and the ammunition is rotated 90 degrees by a spiral feed ramp before being chambered. The Heckler & Koch G11 , an experimental assault rifle that implements caseless ammunition , also functions similarly with

15678-482: The user depresses the slide stop, throwing the slide forward, stripping a round from the top of the magazine stack and chambering it. In single-action pistols this action keeps the hammer cocked back as the new round is chambered, keeping the gun ready to begin firing again. During World War One, detachable box magazines found favor, being used in all manner of firearms, such as pistols, light-machine guns, submachine guns, semi-automatic and automatic rifles. However, after

15812-458: The vertical motion of the cartridges out of the magazine but allow one cartridge at a time to be pushed forward (stripped) out of the feed lips by the firearm's bolt into the chamber. Some form of spring and follower combination is almost always used to feed cartridges to the lips which can be located either in the magazine (most removable box magazines) or built into the firearm (fixed box magazines). There are also two distinct styles to feed lips. In

15946-456: Was also slightly cut down on the left side to clear the ejection port. In all other respects, the Mark I is identical to the M1903. Temperature control during forging was improved prior to Mark I production. The receiver alloy was toughened by addition of nickel after Mark I production. In 1926, after experiencing the effect of long-range German 7.92×57mm rifle and machine gun fire during the war,

16080-546: Was also used in the weapons by Anton Spitalsky and the Savage Model 1892 . Otto Schönauer first patented a spool magazine in 1886 and his later design, patented in 1900, was used on bolt-action rifles produced at least until 1979, among them Mannlicher–Schönauer adopted by the Greek Army in 1903. The M1941 Johnson rifle also uses a rotary magazine. The design is still used in some modern firearms, most notably

16214-515: Was commissioned as a direct result of both battles. They recommended replacement of the Krag. The 1903 adoption of the M1903 was preceded by nearly 30 years of struggle and politics, using lessons learned from the recently adopted Krag–Jørgensen and contemporary German Mauser Gewehr 98 bolt-action rifles. The design itself is largely based on the Mauser M1893 and its successive models up to the Gewehr 98 rifle. The M1903's forward receiver ring diameter

16348-439: Was designed with a series of mechanical teeth activated by a cam track on the gas piston to pull cartridges off each clip and into the action. After the fifth and final round from each stripper clip was fed and fired, the empty clip would then fall out the bottom of the hopper magazine and the next fully loaded stripper clip would then be dropped into place for feeding. There is a spring-loaded follower that applied pressure on top of

16482-415: Was fed by a special eight-round en bloc clip. The clip itself was inserted into the rifle's magazine during loading, where it was locked in place. The rounds were fed directly from the clip, with a spring-loaded follower in the rifle pushing the rounds up into feeding position. When empty, the bolt would lock open, and a spring would automatically eject the empty clip with a distinctive pinging sound, leaving

16616-556: Was one of the first firearms to use self-contained metallic cartridges . The Henry was introduced in 1860 and was in production until 1866 in the United States by the New Haven Arms Company . It was adopted in small quantities by the Union Army in the American Civil War and was favored for its greater firepower than the standard issue carbine . Many later found their way Westward and was famed both for its use at

16750-599: Was originally a single-shot action that added a tubular magazine in its 1884 update. The Norwegian Jarmann M1884 was adopted in 1884 and also used a tubular magazine. The French Lebel Model 1886 rifle also used 8-round tubular magazine. Tubular magazines remain common on many makes and models of shotgun. The military cartridge was evolving as the magazine rifle evolved. Cartridges evolved from large-bore cartridges (.40 caliber/10 mm and larger) to smaller bores that fired lighter, higher-velocity bullets and incorporated new smokeless propellants . The Lebel Model 1886 rifle

16884-512: Was patented in 1908 by Arthur Savage for the Savage Model 99 (1899), although it was not implemented on the 99 until 1965. James Paris Lee’s patent of November 4, 1879, Number 221,328 would have been before Arthur Savage's magazine. Lee's magazine was also used on the Remington Lee model 1899 factory sporting rifle. Other guns did not adopt all of its features until his patent expired in 1942: It has shoulders to retain cartridges when it

17018-405: Was previously designed by Adelbert R. Buffington of the U.S. Army Ordnance Department. The M1905 rear sight was calibrated to match the trajectory of M1906 service ammunition and offers several sighting options. When the leaf and slider are down, the battle sight notch appears on top. This was set for 547 yd (500 m) for the down position of the slide, and is not adjustable. When the leaf

17152-545: Was purchased in limited numbers by the U.S. Navy. Several hundred M1882 Lee Navy models (M1882 Remington-Lee) were also subjected to trials by the U.S. Army during the 1880s, though the rifle was not formally adopted. The Navy adopted the M1885, and later different style Lee M1895 (a 6 mm straight pull bolt), which saw service in the Boxer Rebellion . In Army service, both the M1885 and M1895 6 mm Lee were used in

17286-517: Was replaced by the faster-firing semi-automatic eight-round M1 Garand starting in 1936. However, the M1903 remained in service as a standard issue infantry rifle during World War II , since the U.S. entered the war without sufficient M1 rifles to arm all troops. It also remained in service as a sniper rifle during World War II, the Korean War , and the Vietnam War . It remains popular as

17420-500: Was sometimes lax when fighting in the jungle on various Pacific islands, and the higher moisture levels compounded the corrosive action of the residue. The M1903 and the M1903A3 rifles were used in combat alongside the M1 Garand by the US military during World War II and saw extensive use and action in the hands of US troops in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific. The US Marines were initially armed with M1903 rifles in early battles in

17554-476: Was the first rifle and cartridge to be designed for use with smokeless powder and used an 8 mm wadcutter -shaped bullet that was drawn from a tubular magazine. This would later become a problem when the Lebel's ammunition was updated to use a more aerodynamic pointed bullet. Modifications had to be made to the centerfire case to prevent the spitzer point from igniting the primer of the next cartridge inline in

17688-459: Was the replacement of the barrel-mounted rear sight with a smaller, simpler aperture rear sight mounted on the rear of the receiver which was designed by Remington; it was primarily adopted in order to speed familiarization by soldiers already trained on the M1 Garand, which had a similar sighting system. However, the leaf spring providing tension to the elevation adjustment on the new aperture sight tended to weaken with continued use over time, causing

17822-402: Was the usual side arm for German Army personnel in both World Wars . The M1911 semi-automatic pistol set the standard for most modern handguns and likewise the mechanics of the handgun magazine. In most handguns the magazine follower engages a slide-stop to hold the slide back and keep the firearm out of battery when the magazine is empty and all rounds fired. Upon inserting a loaded magazine,

17956-411: Was used. This later finish was also used on arsenal repaired weapons. It is somewhat unusual to find a World War I or early World War II M1903 with its original dated barrel. Most, if not all, World War II .30-06 ammunition used a corrosive primer which left corrosive salts in the barrel. If not removed by frequent and proper barrel cleaning, these residues could cause pitting and excessive wear. Cleaning

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