#john pedersen

John Pedersen’s Military Combination Rifle

In July 1920, John Pedersen filed a patent for a military combination rifle combining a bolt action rifle with a submachine gun. No doubt an evolution of Pedersen’s work with the Pedersen Device developed during the First World War.

Pedersen sought to combine the power, range and accuracy of a full-power rifle cartridge but also give soldiers the shorter range firepower of a blowback actioned, submachine gun. Pedersen’s patent explains his aims: 

“A principal object of the invention is to furnish a weapon of that class comprising a pair of firearms, preferably each having a magazine, - one for each of said purposes, respectively combined in a system whereby each of said firearms may be used either independently of or concurrently with the other, and so arranged that while the gunner may be using one firearm the other may be held loaded and the magazine thereof fully charged, in readiness for instant use without regard to the use or non-use of such firearm.”

The rifle featured in the patent drawings is a Springfield M1903 but Pedersen states that the system could be adapted to any service rifle. Below the main barrel is a secondary barrel capable of both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire depending on trigger pull. The secondary barrel ran from just in front of the rifle’s magazine to the rifle’s nose cap. Holding the trigger depressed causes the “...loading and firing operations [to] become automatic and may so continue until the supply of cartridges in the magazine is exhausted.”

Springfield 1903 fitted with Pedersen Device and magazine (source)

Pedersen also explains his system for aligning the two barrels so that “the trajectory of the short-range projectiles may cross that of the long-range projectiles in two points, and thereby provide for the proper sighting of each said firearms by the use of the same sights.” Pedersen explains that “the soldier when surprised by a nearby enemy... can instantly bring into action the rapid-fire automatic mechanism without having to change the sights or make any allowance for the different range.” (see image #3)

Pedersen remained wedded to the marching/walking fire concept that grew during World War One, and on which the Pedersen Device was based, seeking to give troops both an accurate long range rifle and increased short range firepower. This design followed the practical criticisms aimed at Pedersen’s earlier ‘Device’. The new design removed the need to remove the rifle bolt, it also re-positioned the magazine to a more ergonomic position. And it also separated the trigger mechanisms of the two elements of the weapon - the Pedersen Device had a notoriously heavy trigger pull. 

Traditionally, combination guns were hunting weapons although there have been some practical military applications. Some of the earliest were used during the 18th and 19th centuries. Later examples include the M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon issued by the US Air Force in aircraft survival kits combined either a .22 or .45 calibre rifled barrel with a .410 shotgun barrel. Another example are the Heckler & Koch and AAI prototypes developed for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon program during the 1990s which combined a 5.56mm rifle with a 20mm grenade launcher. 

Heckler & Koch XM29 OICW entry with integrated 20 mm smart grenade launcher and 5.56mm assault rifle (source)

Pedersen’s combination rifle had two triggers, one for the rifle and a second for the submachine gun. The second trigger was linked by a transfer bar to the action of the submachine gun (see image #2). While the main barrel fed from the rifle’s normal internal box magazine the secondary submachine gun barrel fed from a short, single-stack box magazine. With two barrels, actions and loaded magazines the rifle would certainly have been heavier than standard rifles. Pedersen makes no mention of the calibre of the submachine gun but does warn that more powerful ammunition would require a heavier bolt which would increase the weapon’s weight. It is likely that Pedersen envisaged the submachine gun using the .30 Pedersen (later known as 7.65×20mm Longue) round developed for the Pedersen Device. 

One of the positives of the combination rifle over the earlier Pedersen Device was that the two barrels allowed for optimisation of the barrels’ rifling for the two different projectiles. As the submachine gun’s barrel would heat up quickly the main barrel acts as a heatsink. While Pedersen’s patent was granted in 1924, it is unknown if a prototype of his ingenious combination rifle was ever made. 

Source:

‘Firearm’, J. D. Pedersen, US Patent #1487801, 25th March, 1924 (source)

Recent Recap

Since the last recap we’ve covered everything from 1950s guided missiles to WWI tank machine guns. We’ve looked at rocket guns, Australia’s SAS in Vietnam and failed US Army prototypes. There have also been posts covering the Chinese Army’s  Type 81 rifle and John Pedersen’s fascinating military combination rifle. Check out the links below.

Thanks again for following, reading and supporting HF. If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon! You can also help spread the word about HF and the content I cover by sharing links with friends and sharing on social media, don’t forget you can also follow HF on facebook. As always if you have any questions, suggestions feel free to send me a message here.

Thanks guys, ~Matt

Walther A115 Prototype Semi-Auto Rifle

Letter to John Browning from a Grateful Nation

AAI Objective Individual Combat Weapon

Australian Special Air Service in Vietnam

April HF Patreon Wallpaper - FN High Power

Chinese Type 81

John Pedersen’s Military Combination Rifle

Clyde Farrell’s Rocket Machine Gun

A Handy Guide to Guided Missiles

The Morrison Pistol Adaptation

Hotchkiss Machine Gun MkI*

The SMLE & the Musketry of 1914 (Pt.1)

For more content check out the Historical Firearms facebook page which has some additional pictures and other content.

The Joys Of Directing In-House with Creative Director John Pedersen.

Creative Director John Pedersen is a talented Director/Producer who spent his last few years in-house as a creative Swiss Army Knife for Scheels sporting goods mega stores. I’ve consulted with John and his team over the last few years on both creative and logistics. His spot called “Kid Coach” was made specifically for the Super Bowl in Scheels country and it turned out fantastic. Recently, he’s…

Remington Model 51

The John D. Pedersen designed Remington Model 51 was the commercial adaptation of the earlier .45 ACP Model 53 (or Model 1917) developed for military service. Offered first to the US Army who were willing to test the new pistol but continued to place orders for M1911s. Remington decided not to provide a pistol for tests. However, in April 1918 the US Navy requested a pistol to test as they had struggled to get enough M1911′s to adequately equip both the Navy and Marine Corps as the Army had priority. 

Remington provided a Model 53 for a battery of tests carried out in June 1918. Following a 5,000 round endurance test, sand test and a evaluation against the M1911 and a Grant-Hammond Pistol the Navy testing board found that the Model 53 was “…a simple, rugged and entirely dependable weapon, which should be suitable in every respect for a service pistol.” However, the high unit cost quoted for the pistol by Remington undermined its adoption by the Navy.  With the war in Europe about to end the Navy decided to abandon the project.

The Remington Model 53 (source) 

With peace approaching and large-scale military contracts about to dry up Remington saw Pedersen’s pistol as a possible commercial success. They developed smaller versions in the popular .32 ACP and .380 ACP calibres and in August 1920 Pedersen was granted a very detailed patent (originally filed in 1915) protecting all elements of his design. Pedersen and another Remington designer Crawford C. Loomis filled further patents in 1919 and 1920.

Remington introduced the Model 51 onto the civilian market in .380 ACP in late 1918 with full production beginning in 1919. Unlike the Model 53, tested by the Navy, the Model 51 had a concealed hammer and thumb and grip safeties but did not have the Model 53′s slide lock. Production of the .32 ACP model began in 1921 and production continued until 1927, with some pistols assembled from parts into the early 1930s. Remington made approximately 65,000 Model 51s before production ended.        

Patent drawing detailing Pedersen’s hesitation lock (source) 

Pedersen’s pistols had a unique action, developed to sidestep John Browning’s patents to avoid infringement. He achieved this by devising a system which had a separate slide and breechblock. Once the pistol was fired the slide and breechblock recoiled together for a short distance of approximately 5mm before the breechblock locked against a lug in the pistol’s frame. The slide continued to the rear with the breechblock travelling on a cam track up, out of the locked position. The slide and breechblock then continued together the full length of travel. The result is what is sometimes described as a hesitation lock. Remington sales brochures claimed that the pistol’s “breech remains positively locked until bullet has left the muzzle - not a blowback action.”

The Pedersen is an ergonomic pistol with a comfortably angled grip and low bore-axis. It points naturally and despite its heavy trigger it is an accurate pistol. The Model 51 has three safeties, a grip safety, manual safety and a magazine disconnect. The manual safety is located just behind the left-side grip panel and appears to have been an afterthought as Pedersen’s patent does not include it. Unlike many contemporary pocket automatics it has a thumb-operated magazine release rather than the heel release used by the Colt Pocket Hammerless and FN Model 1910. The .32 ACP Model 51 could hold 8-rounds in its single stack magazine while the .380 ACP version could hold 7-rounds.         

In an effort to increase their sales Remington priced the Model 51 at $15.75, cheaper than Colt’s $20.50 Pocket Model. Despite this Colt retained market dominance in the US and the price cut combined with the Model 51′s expensive manufacturing costs meant that the pistol was an unprofitable product for Remington despite its advanced design. In 2014 Remington launched the R51, chambered in 9x19mm using Pedersen’s hesitation lock, however the pistol suffered a number of problems and Remington recalled the first generation of R51s. A second, apparently improved, generation became available in 2016.

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3 4

‘Automatic Firearm’, J.D. Pedersen, US Patent #1349733, (source)

The Remington Model 51, Unblinkingeye.com, E. Buffaloe, (source)

Remington M53, Forgotten Weapons, (source)

October HF Wallpaper - Remington Model 51

This month's Historical Firearms desktop wallpaper features one of John D. Pedersen's best known designs, the Remington Model 51. In 1919, Pedersen patented his design for an advanced new pocket pistol using a hesitation lock to lock the breech during firing. The wall paper includes just some of the very detailed drawings, which accompanied Pedersen's patent application, showing how the pistol operated.

You can download the hi-res Wallpaper here if you’re a HF Patreon supporter

As always thanks for reading and your support - it means a lot!  

The Vickers-Armstrong Pedersen Rifle

In 1919 the US Army began to consider replacing its bolt-action rifles with a new semi-automatic rifle with Berthier and Thompson rifles being tested first in the early 1920s.  In 1922 the first Garand designs from the Springfield Armory were considered.  John D. Pedersen offered his first rifle specification in 1924 with the first rifle ready for testing in 1925, during the first tests in January 1926 the US Ordnance Board were impressed and ordered 20 Pedersens for testing. In 1928 it appeared that Pedersen’s toggle-delayed rifle would be adopted and in 1929 he travelled to Britain to oversee the setting up of production for his rifle at Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, who believed the rifle had been adopted by the US, in the hopes of securing overseas contracts.  

However, by late 1929 John Garand had submitted improved specifications and extensive trials were held between 1931 and 1934 which eventually resulted in Garand’s rifle being accepted instead of Pedersen’s T1.  Despite the US Ordnance Board’s eventual rejection Pedersen had interest in the design from a number of other countries, including Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. in Britain and the Japanese Military.  

Patent drawing for Pedersen’s toggle-delayed action (source)

Pedersen’s rifle was chambered in a .276 calibre cartridge developed by Pedersen himself while the rifle’s action used a toggle-delayed blowback action rather than a gas-operated system found in the rival Garand.  It also differed from Georg Luger’s toggle-locked action in that Luger’s 1906 rifle used a recoil operated system to unlock the toggle.   The Pedersen instead used the resistance of carefully calculated and carefully machined cams to break open the action’s toggle hinging it upwards and moving it to the rear - ejecting the spent case before returning forward to strip a new round from the 10-round magazine and feed it into the breech.  

Pedersen’s 1929 patent drawing explaining the toggle action and at what point it unlocks (source)

Vickers-Armstrong hoped that the new semi-automatic rifle would be adopted by the British Army to replace the Lee-Enfield as even before the First World War there had been attempts to replace the ageing rimmed .303 round with a smaller rimless cartridge - Vickers believed that Pedersen’s .276 calibre round would be attractive.   In 1930 the British Army held trials of new self-loading rifles with the Danish Bang-Gevaer (which was found to overheat to easily and was too complex), the White - another rifle using a toggle lock, and the Vickers-Armstrong Pedersen.  Trials continued until 1933 but no new rifle was adopted as the inter-war British establishment lacked the funding. The American decision to retain the larger .30-06 round also diminished British interest in the rifle. However, the British made rifles were used in the later American trials against Garand’s rifles as well as test rifles for Chinese and Portuguese trials. Possibly as many as 200 rifles in various configurations including a rifle and a cavalry carbine version were made (see image #1).  

Vickers-Armstrong Pedersen complete with chargers and a 1913 Pattern Sword Bayonet (source)

The Vickers-Armstrong Pedersen Rifle was approximately 44-inches long, weighing 9 lbs.  While an exquisitely designed rifle it suffered from a number of shortcomings including the need for a special process of lubricating ammunition and the action’s inherent momentary blocking of the sight picture. The downfall of the Pedersen was its complexity, inability to chamber the larger .30-06 round and the need for lubrication of ammunition in order to function.  As a result John Garand’s rifle was adopted as the M1 in August 1933.

Experimental Japanese Pedersen rifle (source)

However, Pedersen continued to refine his design and with Japanese interest in a semi-automatic rifle it is believed he travelled to Japan in 1932.  Pedersen made a further refinement of his design which tested by the Japanese Imperial Army in the mid 1930s.  A batch of 24 rifles were made with a new stock and rotary magazine - chambered in the 6.5x50 semi-rimmed Arisaka cartridge.  It has the characteristic Pedersen action as well as the cooling slots in the wooden furniture but also has its sights off set to the left.  The Japanese experimented with the rifle between 1932 and 1936 but it suffered from failures to feed as the Japanese ammunition was not lubricated.  The project was abandoned although a number of indigenous attempts appear to have been made to produce a rifle with Pedersen’s action during the war.

Sources:

Image One Source Image Two Source Images Three & Four Source Image Five Source

This is my Model 51. It's an heirloom given to my mother by her father. It was a pistol that he really adored and I feel bad that it wasn't taken care of as much as it could have been. I'm not willing to strip it as it's a bit of a complicated and peculiar gun. I'm also not willing to fire it - unless I get a hold of parts and an experience gunsmith. I just value this pistol too much.

The Model 51 uses hesitation locked action designed by John Pedersen Only the Model 51 and SIG MKMS were the only guns in production to ever use this mechanism. The barrel is stationary with a recoil spring surrounding it. I really love how the silhouette tapers as it reaches the end of the barrel.  It has three safety mechanisms consisting of a dumb safety, a grip safety, and magazine disconnect.

The silhouette and safety features of the gun really stood out in the United States 1918-1927, but not enough to get the attention of the general public. It seemed that the gun never reached a big commercial success. It's a shame that it wasn't released in Europe where it might have done better, and been less affected by the stock market crash.

School Administrators of South Dakota has a new executive director, Rob Monson, who used to be Parkston's elementary principal.

He replaces John Pedersen, who angered members last session when he spoke as a proponent of HB1234, Gov. Daugaard's education reform bill. I hear Pedersen since has found a different school lobbying job.

You can tell Monson is East River because he doesn't own a real cowboy hat.