NEW AUTOMATIC RIFLE.
At the Norma! Powder Company s range. Hendon, a demonstration has j just been given of the Sjogren auto- '■ raatic system of fire-arms as appiled to military rifles, says the "Standard of the Empire." Military and shooting notabilities present were Lord Elphinatone, Major-Ge/.eral Sir William Knox. K.C.8.; Colonel Victor Farquhaison (who fired five shots in two seconds with a Sjogren fitted rifle); Mr A. Uppenheimer, Mr E. J. Allcard, Mr It. Lang, Mr Custaf Rous. Captain D .ndas, 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 hour. Captain : Dundas, late musketry instructor of I the 15th Hussars, in introducing the I Sjogren system, said the system was unique. It has gained the unanimous approval of the very highest expects 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 coir-;ct his aim immediately without having to remove j J his eye from the objcict at which he j aimed, which was inevitable under other systems. This was of vital importance in warfare, and it would affect the whole strategy of the future military operations. The defender of a position behind entanglements armed with rifles thus fitted would be enabled to maintain such I a fire upon an attacking enemy that successful advances over a distance 1 of, say, 400 or 500 yards would be totally impossible, because the de- j fenders would ne able to concentrate their fire with such accuracy on any ' attacking force that they could not I possibly face a weapon of this j description. He had seen one rifle | fitted with it fire over 2,000 shots without a single failure, and it had | passed triumphantly through all j varieties of tests. j } Sergtant Wallingford then de- | n-'onstrated the advantages of a rifle fitted with the Sjogbren system over than of a Mauser. It was found 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 occupied was 14 seconds and the shortest time 12 seconds. Taking the slower figures this would mean that the user of such a rifle has a capacity of five shots every 20 seconds, equal to 900 per hour or at the higher speed five shots in 16 seconds, « which is equal to 1125 shots per hour. A prominent member of the National Rifle Association remarked that the system meant that every soldier would carry a miniature Maxim gun.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3204, 2 June 1909, Page 3
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453NEW AUTOMATIC RIFLE. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3204, 2 June 1909, Page 3
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