Dirtdog20 -> RE: Question about French rifles of WW1 (11/2/2007 12:26:00 AM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Disintegration quote:
ORIGINAL: Dirtdog20 The basic problem with the tubular magazine is the balance of the rifle shifts with every shot. Which is not a big deal when the basic doctorine is attack with the bayonet. That's not that big a problem unless you're target shooting - shooting at a man-sized target at 100 yards or less it's not even noticeable. One reason tubular magazines went out of style was the prospect of ammo detonation in the magazine once everyone went to spitzer bullets - this is an interesting solution to that and I wasn't aware of it. But I think the main reason was the difficulty in loading - you can't use clips, so once they went to stripper clips you could load 5 rounds into an SMLE or Mauser in the time it took to load 1 or 2 into a tubular magazine. It's also awkward trying to grab and load a handful of loose rounds and less experienced shooters tend to fumble them under stress - I see a lot of that in competition, and that's with nobody shooting back! Slower loading was initially thought to be an advantage (it would discourage wasting ammo) but designers eventually learned what a mistake that was. Also the learned ability to forge folding springs that allowed magazines. The French, again looking at doctorine, originally went with the 3rd magazine. The 8MM casing also played a part I am sure. The Cho-Cho using the same round had the half moon magazine. I would think trying to put a 10 rd magazine on the Lebel and its follow ons could have resulted in an ugly rifle. Which isnt a bad thing in combat but even today is seen as a bad thing on parade.
|
|
|
|