RAPID FIRING RIFLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 906, 25 February 1930, Page 9

RAPID FIRING RIFLE

SIMPLE, YET LIGHT AND DEADLY COMFORT FOR MARKSMAN Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Monday. The “Daily Telegraph’s’’ military correspondent says that a long-sought ideal—an efficient self-loading rifle—has been realised, and now is being produced at Vickers’s works in Britain. It is light and, short, and as simple as an ordinary rifle, but has twice to three times the rate of fire. Moreover, an infantryman can fire it with greater likelihood of hitting the target, owing to the comfort under which it is fired, as the mechanism absorbs the recoil, thus sparing the firer’s shoulder.

The invention is that of an American named Pedersen. The gun weighs 8.81 b., and has a length of 45 inches. A clip of 10 cartridges is inserted into the magazine, and after being all elected, the breach of the rifle is left open.

Though the loading of the rifle is automatic, pressure on the trigger is required for each round. This avoids the wastage of the Lewis gun, where the firer may keep a linger on the trigger too long, thus firing more rounds than are necessary.

With the ordinary rifle British soldiers could fire 15 aimed rounds a minute though the Continental troops could only maintain half that rate. W’ith the Pedersen rffle a reservist can soon learn to fire 25 aimed rounds a minute, whereas an expert could fire 50.