Semi-Auto 1903 Springfield Video!

[BigJ]

I've only ever read about it and seen pictures (black and white). Here it is demo'd (dry fired) by a couple of legends. Fantastic!

[emcon5]

Wow.

[Grendl]

Super sweet. Thanks for posting!

[Jeff L]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[Armistice]

I WANT TO SEE IT SHOOT!!!

Very cool

[Recon-01]

Thanks for sharing.

[0321jarhead]

Those are on Gun Broker often. Sold from anywhere from around $1200 to $3000 range pending on condition. Real screwy rifle but, its a part of American history. Sometimes you might be lucky and find one at Big 5.

[Habub]

Is there a vid with next version of it?

[BigJ]

Those are on Gun Broker often. Sold from anywhere from around $1200 to $3000 range pending on condition. Real screwy rifle but, its a part of American history. Sometimes you might be lucky and find one at Big 5.

?? As far as I know, there were one or two prototypes made and neither was ever made available to the market. These truly are unicorn guns.

[pitfighter]

Fascinating -

Was the Pedersen the next level, he's talking about?

[gunboat]

I expect the pedersen "device" was next --
I don't think the pedersen rifle appeared till the mid to late '20s - the .276 pedersen

[smle-man]

The Lee Enfield was made into an auto rifle and issued for home guard use in New Zealand at the beginning of WW2. It was known as the Charlton and used Bren gun magazines.

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/charlton-automatic-rifle/

[Discogodfather]

I wonder if these early semi's had the same accuracy as a bolt gun, that would seem to be a very big advantage. I have seen many kits sold for mausers, etc. in old ads from the 40's/50's.

What I really do not understand is how the bolt actually got out of battery with that 06' semi design? It looks as if the bolt head and bolt where all the same, so how did the piston? rotate it and push it in and out of battery?

Really interesting how the arms race of 1890-1910 played out. They had so many semi designs that actually worked ok but WWI turned people off from war, so it's as if arms design took a bit of a day off inter-war, except for Garands's efforts.

[xDoodles]

I never knew this existed. Thanks for posting!

[Father Ted]

And people worry about garand thumb...? I think '03 eye would pretty much ruin your day.