AStandard Reference Bookfor Shooters, Gunsmiths,Ballisticians,
Historians,Hunters andCollectorsBy JULIAN S. HATCHERMajorGeneral,
U. S. Army, RetiredHATCHER'SNOTEBOOK)\1.1\' :-'.II\Il.IlI:.KI Tix
A,m:r;&3/1 Rifln1un, :'Ileml..", I he 1" "Ilhe new ,22 ullibre
Springfield."Aboul Ihe lime Ihal Europe inlo war, a y",mg or the
UnilerJSlate, Army was hecominj:; known'" an authority on rapirJ
firero. A. the warl'wgrened, he turneu his atlention 10 military
.man arms, anu having bet'llinlereSled in rifle and piuol .homing
all his life, he..,,"e ev,n a moreprominenl human ,,"crur in Ih..
devdopmenl of our arm)' rifle. lhan he hatl bw11inwork...-ilh
machine guns,"For Ihe three yeaHpa.sr, whirh have SC9H1911)
1,55,09: 19H 1441H1 :19:U 1,16:,511935 1491,531IY: 1 1,:II,JOOIII
IY36, during the tooling up for theCarand, productionIIi
theSpringfield butit wasresumedinaslll,tll wayin 11)3].Ihefast
receiver 1l1ade was inOctoher 1939. and it hadthe numberI,Sp,87S Un
Novemher I:. 1941. rhe proouction uf Springlidlls was
,.gainresllmed at Ihe plant of the Remington Arms Co. Ilion, N. Y.,
andIhe lint riRe produced by themunder this contrnct was
3,000,001.TherearethuefurenoSpringfields withnumbersbetween
1.534>878,rhe last one m:\deat SpringfieldArmoty. and
3,000.O(1I, Ihe fin.1 onemade oncommercial contract
during'Vorld'Var H.At first, Remingtoll Il ....Jetheordin:u)' :\,
11)03, withsomeoptionsas to the formof stock and (){hcr
det2ikTheystaned lTllI\::in'" re-ceiversandooltswiththes::lllleJ Vz
% nickel Steel usedintheSr"ring-fiek.ls, afte:r"'2rdchangingto:\
chrome-nickel-molyhdenumsrcc withunlv .20%to.40%nickel. or onthe
avenge.:Jhout onctenth2Smuchas ll11d been fomK'r)v. but withthe
s:t.me amount of chromium.,th;'!t is, .:0%to.40%. plus 1Io SIII:\I1
percent,lgeof molyhdenum.Tn the dIan to gain increased production,
this finn immediatelybeganstudiesandexperiments on design changes
tol11:Jkemanufacturesimpler :l.ndeasier. Onechange wastoomit twoof
the four groovesusedinriRingthebarrel. Asit wasfound thai there
waslinlcdiffer-ence in the performance of lhe two grooved barrel
and the fourgrooved one, thisapprovcd. There were a nlllllbcr of
IIlherchanges, andonewhichwasadistinct illlprm'Cl1lellt W'bthe
provisionofarecciver rcepsight.H....TCHER'S NOTEIlOOl{Onl\lay21,
194z, thissimplifiedformofSpringfieldwas approvedfor
manufacturil:;lltandRedfieldJuniorwas madeby the Remington
Co.,withserialin N,ebllochgivenhelow:3,47.088 to 3,4Z7,01l7"
4,9\l2.oo1 to +997,045i'-4,lXlO.OOOtoZ-l,fX}!,920Spri1lgfield
IH."le by L. C. Smitb-CQrOll;1 'l'ypt"f' closure principleused in
an earlv experimental Garand semiautomatic rifle.totherear
thecamsurfaceliftsthislockingblockourofcngagementwith the reilj",
uf lhe Marlill Rockwell Co. The l1un " ' a ~ u,eda' a fixed a,rnafl
ma,-hinc ~ u n synchroni.oo 10 fire Ihrou/(h Ihe
pro-peller,,"'erful deariemotor. S,,-dball
bearin.'!swerefedintulheof rOlOf through,he nuible pipe. and ,,'ere
deli"ered at a speed of abont 1200 thMugh ,he slot at lefr. The
Meuraalion \",hen it was submitted to the Board. I was present,
till havethis hl111et andthe. remainsofthiscartridgecase
amongIllyrather large collectionof cartridgecurios.At thetest
oftheBerthier machinerifleat SpringfieldArmory in1917, a
jamoccurred, and when rhe handle of the gun was drawnback the hot
cartridge was ejected but exploded in the air JUSt infront of the
groupof men who were holding the gun. The bulletin the cuff of one
of the spectators.Another time at Springfield Armory a cartridge
exploded whileIwasextra(;tingit fromahot Browningautomaticrifle,
but ately it was all the way out of the breech; and ,vhen a
modernmilitaryriflecartridgeexplodesintheopen
airitdoesnothavemuchforce, sonodamagewasdone.
USltallytheexplosionis JUSt sufficientto tear open rhe cartridge
casc andsend the bullet with very lowvelucity. Of course there isof
gettingpieces of brass blownintohandsor eyes.The greate,t danger
ina case like this i, in havingan explosionwhenthebreechis
jammedinapositionverynearlydosed.
Inthiscasethepressureishigh:mdtheexplosionis "jolent,
andsomepartsof thebreechmechanismarclikely to be blownout
withsufficientforce to do great damage. )n this way, an extractor
blewout ofa"1:l.rlin gunandstruckasoldier in
the:l.bdomeninflictingawoundfromwhich heafterwarddied,Submachine
Guns or Machine PistolsDuring World ,",'ar J, the Germans
introdu(;ed into actual andrather extensive use atype of machine
gun which up tothat limehad been very little known. but which was
very widely used inWorldWar n. Thisisthemachinepistol, or
submachinegun, firingpistol ammunition, or in some cases,
ammunition intermediate inT h ~ fi ... S"hr>u...hi". RU"; .h..
h"lian Viii.... P....os:I.. "nC'J no..... hu WRe'gmann. ;, UWS the9
mmLuger O1"tridg". On al,'CQ canbemade heavy enough to absorb d1e
sudden and powerful impact ofthe gas. Moreover. the pressure of the
gas on the piston enduresfor only averysmall time interval, andif
the piston can be madcrather heavy, it will havea bettcr chance
toabsorbenough energyduringthis very brief interval tocarry it
through its stroke.With thc shouldcr rifle; conditiOn> ~ r e
I"C')' milch lIlorc difficlilT.. ~ n early example 01 the
semiautomatic rille submitted for tesl hI' tbe United S t a t e ~
Machine liunCompan}'. Based on a Bc:rthier design.I,d1Th., Bang
wmiamOm2fic rille, IDOlkI of 1911. This gun ;5o?"raled by me pull
of l h ~ muzzle bl:ul O.rreJ. II mll5l be removed befon.
fitin];_The impru,-n! .2'S6 Banfl rifl# .uhminrd b) .\Ir. Bang ID
me Ordnanl"f' l ~ p : l T l m m l In 19?7. h did DOl diffN
ltre:lll!origin21 lbng. The anion is shown dOled.from m.'47The
piston and other moving parts C:lllllot be made heavy or thegunwill
weightoomuch; andlight parts donot haveenoughinertiato carrythrough
the rearward motionafter the gas pressure is gone the impact of the
gas is made extremely violent. The resulthas been that in most
gas-operated shoulder fiAcs thepistongets upenergy enough toopen
the breech against theSprIngactionbybeingslammedtothe fcar withvcry
highspccu, and this violentaction is conducive [0 vcry high
breabgcs.The BrwglVjl"In 1911, Sorcll Hansell Hang, of
theDanishRecoil RifleSyndicate,CAlpenhagen, submittedarifle
whichpassedaremarkablysatisfactorytest. Its
performancewasbenetthanthat ofanyothersemi-automaticrifle
whlllittcd up to that tUlle or ior Illan)' years to COllie. It
isdescribl:donpage62.The Bang gun ,vas big and bulky, but very
light. The lighmesswasohtainedbyhollowingout the';tocksothat
insomespotsit waslittlemorethanashell,
andbyturningdowntheharrelsothat it wasreducedtothe
minimumindiameter.While thisgunpassedasplendidt'Cst asfar as
thefunctioning wasconcerned, the harrel far roo lighr Tn stand the
heat.The muzzle cap used by Bang was mnch like one patented 'JySir
Hiralll IVhxill) in 1885. Such a principle was experuncnred withby
Juhn Bw\\/ning in i889 on a modd gun hllilt by him. It ,vasused,
but not patented by Bang, probably on account of Maxim'spatent. It
was used in an auto-loading ritle built by Mr. Garrisonofthe
RemingtonArms Co., about the time ofWorld\Var 1, usingthe breech
action of the Remington auto-loading rifle. Grant Ham-mond also
patCllted some modifications of this principle. The riflesubmitted
for test at Springfield in 1921 by General Liu of Chinahad the
muzzle attachment in almost the identical form inwhich Rang
;-;sedit. ThePnte:lllxl\hchille !Yun, used bv the French, .for some
years used asimilar type of g"lS lake-ofT.
TheRheinmemll&llIi-autolll,ltic: rille, designed by lelTl and
tested atAbcHken Proving Ground in ll)2l) in the .276caliber
hadamuzzlecapalmost exactly likethe one used byS. I-I.
Bang.Hl1tCfJi:TSelFLOiJdillgRifieIn 1920, Major James L. llatcher,
(nowColonel; brother of thewrirer) built asCllliauromarjcrifleat
SpringfieldArmory, which had sallietype I)f munle cap gas take-off
that Bang used,hut which was abig improVl:memon the Bangas far as
ruggednesswas concerned, and eliminated the defects formerlv noted
in theoriginal Bang. Hecompletedhis first model rifleindie
phenomenallyshort time of four months, :Illd \vhilc this rifle
passed an excellentpreliminary test, breakages eventually
developed, indicating the needT,,o modeh of tiu
JCnliaUlomalie'h.,':nwifj >mi . Ii. "t _ Nil!1tl\i .:The
Hcincnmnn rifle, anolher modification of the famous and popular
Bang, de,iHoed b," Karl Heinemann and submitted b.,Rheinische
Mcnallwann uod Maschinen Fabrik. The muwe a{lammeDt andoperalion
arc 'the same as in rh" Bang, but Ih" breedldosure i. a I.;nSf oil
ntufillcd felt pads buill ;nw,he ,id.., of d,,, m"""zine.f' IL
;,,St. "tienne semiautomatic rifle. Thi, simple gas operated armwas
used bl' the frro this doublehut trnllMnl. buhchids. sq. in.proof
shotO.K.O.K.H..\TCIll,;R'S NOTlmnoKF. toAfter ,80000 n".sy,.
in.proof shot19..91.951Bolt jammcdBolt jammedBolt
jammed'-94''.,'"inFig. 1 aret:l.peredor bottle-necked !ifl they
coulJn't go \'cry far in even if theydidn't have arim. These
alwaysh:l.ve nclearance at diesho\llder, asshownin the:.0 that the
rimwill be sure to bear on its seat before theshoulder cancome
intoCOl1t:lct. ':Vhensuchacartridge is fired, thebrass e;houlder
eventually; but most of the t:nergr in these pHts ismitred more or
less gradually through the actiun ofoperatingrod spring.So.\lEU.'l:
Ih.l:Ull.,',.",Uppt'r: TbompsolI'S expt'rilN!flllll rcoXl rnIuc(r.
Lo....er: anmodd in prwiple lu ,I.., 'H'" usn! nn , ....
I.ew;,nll>iunof recoil, rhe Hritish Text-bookof Small Arms,
It)Ol) edition, states."The physiological sensation produced by the
recoil is generallytermed tlle 'kick.' It is probable that the kick
is intensified by rherapidity ofthefirst rise invelocity,
whichwiththeLee-Metfordrifleis atrained in about .0006 seconds. The
shorrer the time in whichthis maximum is reached, and the greater
the velocity, the moreviolem the kick; from this it fullows that
the kick, though nodoubt depending chiefly on theenergy of n:coil,
cannut be said tobestrictly proportion:ll to lhebtter alone in
various arms and withdifferent powders ...'79,80 HATCIIEa's
;'\'O'1'ElIOOI>"The kick is reduced by pressing the rifle firmly
against theshoulder, andbyletringthe latter come back freely when
the riflerecoils, for then part of the weight of the firer's body
i
