The question of magazine arms was considered (1891-92) in the United States by a board which tested 53 different designs, among which they found two general classes—repeaters, which could not be used as single-loaders while the magazine was charged, and magazine guns proper, in which the magazine could be charged and held in reserve for an emergency while load ing is done shot by shot. The gun selected was one of the latter class—a bolt-action gun with magazine under and rising to the left of the chamber. It had a clasp containing 5 cartridges placed under and to the left of the receiver: the calibre of the barrel was .30 inch. It was sighted lip to 1900 yards, and had a firing capacity (single loading) of 42 shots to the minute. It was the weapon used by the regular troops in the war with Spain, and was food to be all that was claimed for it. The Krag-Ji1rgensen bullet had a weight of 220 grains, and a velocity of 2200 feet per second. It had an inside of tin and lead composition, and an outer jacket of cupro-nickel steel. Its weight without. bayonet was 9.187 pounds, and its total length without bayonet 4S.9 inches. The cartridges are put in on the right through a gate, lie side by side, and are pushed sideways across and up into the chamber by a follower. Partly entering the magazine, they are caught by the bolt coming forward, forced on an inclined path into the bore, and supported behind by the bolt, which is locked by lugs and the handle engaging in recesses when rotated.
An example of the repeater is the Austrian Mannlicher, a bolt gun, into which is introduced from above, through the receiver, a metal packet holding five cartridges. The packet forms an essential part of the mechanism until all its cartridges have been used. when it falls out. There is no cut-off, as, in the Krag-J13rgensen, by which the magazine can be held in reserve; all regiMents, who were for the most part armed with the Springfield .45. The bore of the origi nal .Mauser as adopted for the Prussian military service was II millimeters (.433 inches) diame ter, and was rifled with four flat grooves. The length of the barrel was 33.65 inches, and the total length 53.15 inches.
During the last fifty years of the nineteenth century, as we have seen, the mnzzle-loader was superseded by a single-shot breech-loader, and this in turn by a magazine rifle, which latter weapon is being replaced in some armies by auto matic rifles ejecting and loading by the energy of discharge. During this time there was a constant decrease in the calibre until 1895, when sonic reaction was felt. The average is now about .30 inch, that of the United States gun. The wisdom of arming the soldier with an automatic magazine rifle is a subject of grave debate among military authorities. It
is argued on the one hand that the percentage of hits with repeating fire weapons indicates wasteful and badly directed fire, and such an arm is strongly subversive to good fire disci pline, besides adding considerably to the already complex problem of ammunition supply. On behalf of the automatic and magazine systems it is nrged that the soldier is in a constant state of readiness, and that, notwithstanding its un doubted tendency to wastefulness, its faults are more than compensated for in critical moments when rapid-fire action is of vital importance. In 1903 the tendency was to reduce the length of the barrel and increase the strength of the charge; to increase the magazine capacity, and, where such was not already employed, to replace the detachable magazine with a clip.
In the United States the Springfield magazine rifle, model 1902, has been adopted as the military weapon. It differs from the weapon that is dis five cartridges nmst be fired before any more can be put in.
The Mauser rifle was a modification of the French ChassepAt, constructed for the use of the military gas-check cartridge. It was first, adopted by the Prussian Government as the successor of the needle gun, but it has been so frequently improved that in 1903 it still remained one of the most effective of modern military weapons. The Spanish troops were armed with the Mauser magazine rifle during the Spanish-American War, and derived from it a great advantage in effective rifle fire over the American volunteer placed in that it is centrally fed by clips, and the bolt has two lugs instead of one. The barrel has four grooves, and a calibre of 0.30. The bullet weighs 220 grains, and is fired by a pow der charge of a little over 44.5 grains, giving a pressure of 4200 pounds per square inch and an initial velocity of 2300 feet, a velocity at 1000 yards of 958 feet, and a muzzle energy of 2581.6 foot pounds. The rifling in the barrel makes one turn in S inches. The magazine is charged from a clip, the cartridges being forced from it directly into the magazine by pressure of the thumb on the top of the cartridge. The clip is ejected by the forward motion of the holt. The gun may be used as a single loader with the maga zine empty, and it may be filled by the insertion of a single cartridge. There is a rod bayonet, which also is used as a cleaning rod. An inter esting fact in connection with the preliminary tests of this weapon before the examining board was the fact that it exceeded by 9.3 per cent. in rapidity and MG per cent. in hits, the results obtained by the same marksman with the regular service weapon. Later tests gave still more favorable results.