Small arms only quiz

Off-Topic Quiz Room
#41

Right. No takers? Then the answer is:

The new cartridge significantly outshot the range safety templates then in use, causing some issues. A. “training cartridge” for use on these ranges which replicated the original 30-06 ballistics was then quickly introduced, which was the 30 M2 cartridge. Soldiers much preferred this cartridge, due to the lighter recoil, and because the majority of the old First World War machine gunners had moved on (so there was nobody who really remembered doing extreme range barrages with Vickers) and the fact that the M2 cartridge was cheaper because it used less materials in its manufacture, the M1 cartridge was dropped.

Okay, new question:

A Swiss gentleman named Rubin, who designed the British .303 cartridge, offered a rimless version to the British Army. For what spurious reason was this rimless version turned down? (It would have been such a storming cartridge…)

#42

Right. That’s what it says in Hatcher’s Notebook. But the original question specified two reasons, and I see only one - the long range of the bullet exceeded the safety zones of some rifle ranges. Or is it that soldiers preferred the lighter recoil of the M2?

BTW, thank you for pointing out the error about the Garand.

Suggestion: Perhaps we could give members a little more time to respond to questions.

JT

#43

Yes, the two reasons were the range template issue and the fact that the soldiers preferred the lighter recoil of the “training” ammunition (coupled with the lower material cost) .

That last one was up for almost 24 hours, if we leave things longer than that it gets stagnant, but I see your point.

#44

Yet another advantage mentioned by Hatch - the lighter bullet allowed a man to carry more rounds for a given weight.

JT

#45

I think that one is one of the occasions when Hatcher gets a little over exuberant – for every hundred rounds, the difference is less than 6 ounces, allowing him to carry approximately 6 extra cartridges per hundred rounds for the same weight .

The one thing that Hatcher really isn’t very good at is numbers and maths. he will have thought “lighter equals more rounds” without actually working it out.

#46

A reiteration of the question in case it got lost in the noise:

Okay, new question:

A Swiss gentleman named Rubin, who designed the British .303 cartridge, offered a rimless version to the British Army. For what spurious reason was this rimless version turned down? (It would have been such a storming cartridge…)

#47

was it because the price was too expensive or was it because the bullet was a weaker inconvient bullet

#48

No, the price is the same.

The answer is that the members of the machine-gun committee were of the opinion that a machine-gun needed a protruding rim to be able to grab onto for reliable operation (which is completely untrue, and I suspect that they didn’t quite understand what “rimless” meant).

Rimless .303 really would have been an excellent cartridge (interestingly this is more or less what 7.7 Japanese is), but never underestimate the power of a committee to throw a spanner in the works.

New question:

Name four bolt action rifles which were converted to semi/fully automatic in at least prototype form and firing the original cartridge. Extra brownie points if you can name five or more.

#49

Hello, Man of Stoat!

Here’s what I came up with to answer your question:

  1. SNABB 38: Swedish designed modification of the M1894 Krag-Jorgensen rifle

  2. Charlton Automatic Rifle: New Zealand modification to Lee Enfield rifles

  3. Fusil Mle 1917 RSC: modification / alteration of the French Lebel model 1886 rifle using the stock, barrel, trigger guard, and foregrip

  4. The Huot automatic rifle: Canadian conversion of obsolete Ross Rifle to light machine guns

I couldn’t find anymore during my search on-line.

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes

#50

Number three doesn’t count because the conversion only used trivial components, not the action.

The other two immediate answers are:

1903 Springfield
Schmidt Rubin K11

Of course, only in prototype form…

There were also several variations of converting Lee Enfield’s.