X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Pedersen rifle


Pedersen rifle

Some writers have implied that the Pedersen rifle was effectively killed by Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur’s decision to require use of the .30-06 cartridge for the standard semiautomatic rifle.

The operating principle was actually the same as that used in the Model 07/12 Schwarzlose machine gun used by Austria-Hungary during the First World War.

The Pedersen Rifle, officially known in final form as the T1E3 rifle, was a United States semi-automatic rifle designed by John Pedersen that was made in small numbers for testing by the United States Army during the 1920s as part of a program to standardize and adopt a replacement for the M1903 Springfield.

The breech block mechanism thus operated in a manner resembling the operation of the Luger pistol, but unlike that pistol the Pedersen mechanism was at no time mechanically locked.

Pedersen also designed the Pedersen Device during World War I. This was a sub-firearm intended to allow battlefield conversion of Springfield and M1917 Enfield rifles into semiautomatic rifles firing a pistol-sized cartridge.



see also