AUTOMATIC RIFLE

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 76, 25 February 1930, Page 7

AUTOMATIC RIFLE

IMPORTANT INVENTION. LONG-SOUGHT IDEAL. MANUFACTURE IN BRITAIN. (United Press Association- —By Electric Telegraph —Copyright.) Received February 25, 12 noon. LONDON, Feb. 24. The Daily Telegraph’s military correspondent states :- — . “The long-sought ideal of an efficient self-loading rifle has been realised and is now being produced at Vickers’ works in Britain. “It is light and short and as simple as the ordinary rifle, but it has twice or three times the rate of fire. Moreover, an infantryman can fire with a greater likelihood of hitting his target owing to the comfort under which the rifle is used, as the mechanism absorbs the recoil, thus sparing the shoulder of the person firing it. “The invention is due to an American named Pederson. “The gun weighs B.Blb, and in length is 45 inches. A clip of ten cartridges is inserted in the magazines and, when ejected, the breach of the rifle is left open. “Though the loading . is automatic, pressure on the trigger is required for each round and thus avoids the wastage of the Lewis gun with which the gunner may keep his linger on the trigger too long and thus use more rounds than are necessary. “With the ordinary rifle British regulars could fire 15 aimed rounds per minute, though the Continental conscript could only maintain half that “With the Pederson rifle a reservist can soon learn to fire 25 aimed rounds per minute, whereas an expert can fire 50.”