NEW AUTOMATIC RIFLES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9465, 7 June 1909, Page 6

NEW AUTOMATIC RIFLES.

At the Normal Powder Company 5 * ranee, Hendon, a demonstration has jnst been given of the Sjogren automatic system of fire-arms as applied to military rifles, says the Standard of the Empire,. Military and shooting notabilities present were Lord Elphinstone, Major-General Sir William Knox, K.C.B. ; Colonel Victor Farquharson (who fired five shots in two seconds with a Sjogren fitted rifle); Mr A. Oppenheimer, MrE. J. Allcard, Mr B. Lang, Mr Qnstaf Boos, Captain Dnndas, and Sergeant Wallingford, of the Hythe School of Musketry, who demonstrated by actual firing that the Sjogren system gives a rifleman the power to fire 1125 shots an honr. Captain Dnndas, late musketry instructor of the 15th Hussars, in introducing the Sjogren system, said the system was unique. It had gained the approval of the very highest experts in this country and on the Continent. The particular merit of the Sjogren automatic system was that the soldier was enabled while firing a shot to keep his rifle at the same level and to correct his aim immediately without having to remove his eye from the object at which he aimed, which was inevitable under other systems. This was of vital importance in warfare, and it would alfeot the whole strategy of the future military operations. The defenders of a position behind entanglements armed with rifles thus fitted wonld be enabled to maintain such a fire upon an attacking enemy that successful advances over a distance of, say, 400 or 500 yards wonld be totally impossible, because the defenders would be able to concentrate their fire with such accuracy on any attacking force that they could not possibly face a weapon of this description. He had seen one rifle fitted with it fire over 2000 shots wlthont a single failure, and it had passed triumphantly through all varieties of tests.

Sergeant Wallingford then demonstrated the advantages of a rifle fitted with the Sjogbren system over that of a Mauser. It was fonud that of three consecutive clips of five cartridges each the slowest time was six seconds per clip, and the fastest four seconds, whilst for loading the longest time oconpied was 14 seconds and the shortest time 12 seconds. Taking the slower figures this wonld mean that the user of such a rifle has a capacity of five shots every 20 seconds, eqoaljjto 900 an hoar or at the higher speed five shots in 16 seconds, which is equal to 1125 shots per hour. A prominent member of the National Bifie Association remarked that the system meant that every soldier wonld carry a miniature Maxim gun.