#prototype firearms

Browning Lever-Action Box Magazine Prototype

Hi guys, this week we have the first of a series of videos filmed at the Cody Firearms Museum looking at some of the fascinating firearms in their collection.

In this episode of The Armourer's Bench I take a look at John Browning's 1891 Box Magazine prototype. The magazine is certainly not what you'd expect and is one of Browning's many fascinating designs that never made it to production.

I'm humbled to say TAB has now reached 5,000 subscribers, if your one of them, or enjoy the videos when I share them here, - thank you. Your support of TAB and Historical Firearms makes keeping the projects going worthwhile, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Colt Experimental Prototype Pocket Model GX-3181

The GX-3181 pocket pistol prototype is one of a number of post-World War Two developments attempted by Colt. The other major project being the redesign of the 1908 Pocket Hammerless.

Like the 1908 Pocket Hammerless redesign, the GX-3181 prototype takes the original pistol and makes some ergonomic changes and subtly restyles the 1908 Vest Pocket. The Colt 1908 Vest Pocket was designed by John Browning, which used a striker-fired action to create a compact .25 ACP pocket pistol.

The 1908 Vest Pocket was introduced first through FN as the Model 1906, before Colt began production in 1908. The original pistol incorporated a frame-mounted manual safety and a grip safety. A magazine disconnect, designed by George Tansley, was added in 1916.

Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (source)

The original 1908 Vest Pocket pistol remained in production until 1941 (with a brief restart of production in 1946), and on sale into the late 1940s. This is likely when Colt looked to revamp the original. The prototype, pictured above, reshaped the pistol grip, deleted the grip safety and redesigned the magazine release catch. The pistol grip now swelled to make it more ergonomic and easier to hold. 

Very little is known about the prototype but unlike the original pistol it is chambered in .22 LR, rather than .25 ACP. It has an anodised black aluminium frame and a blue finish on the slide. The pistol did not enter production, instead Colt introduced the Junior, a .25 ACP hammer-fired pocket pistol in 1957. The Colt Junior was little more than a re-branded Astra Cub, imported from Spain.

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Images: 1 2

Hiram Maxim’s Rifle

Patented in May 1885, Sir Hiram Maxim’s rifle patent follows on from the filing of his machine gun patent in Britain in January 1884 and his April 1884 US patent for a recoil operated lever action rifle. 

It would appear that Maxim was just as interested in producing other weapons as he was machine guns because during the same period he began working on a self-loading pistol design. All of the designs used variations of Maxim’s toggle-lock action. In the patent drawings the outline of the toggle joint can be see showing the position the toggle descends to when the rifle cycles.

Maxim’s rifle includes a single stack box magazine which appears to be holding six rounds of .450/577. While it does not appear to be detachable in his patent Maxim notes that “my improved rifle may be adapted for use with a Lee, Mannlicher, or other magazine.” He notes that the rifle is shown with a Mannlicher-style magazine. 

The position of the trigger up under the receiver does not appear to be very ergonomic but the receiver appears to be quire narrow. The rifle also has a bolt hold open catch, shown in fig.4, which is described by the patent as a means of preventing the rifle to operate, as a safety feature. One interesting feature of the rifle is its complex, multi-piece, trigger which has a number of toggle linkages to bring it into contact with the firing pin. 

I’ve been unable to find any other reference to Maxim’s rifle design and it is unclear how far the rifle progressed and if prototypes were produced. Maxim spent several years working on pistol designs but they, like the rifle, never saw the development or success of Maxim’s machine guns. 

Sources:

‘Magazine Fire Arm’, H.S. Maxim, 5 May, 1885, US #317162 (source)

The 1866 Benson-Poppenburg Breechloading Rifle

In the wake of the Prussian-Danish and Austro-Prussian Wars the 1860s saw much of Europe scramble to adopt breechloading rifles. Britain was amongst the first to leap into the process to find a suitable rifle. They held extensive trials with over 20 designs tested in an effort to find a rifle which could stand up to the difficult field conditions found across the British Empire. One of the most interesting rifles was submitted by Johann von der Poppenburg. 

In this week's Armourer’s Bench video I take a look at the Benson-Poppenburg which used an ingenious horizontally sliding action. The prototypes were seemingly rushed for the trials and suffered some problems, the Snider and  what became the Martini-Henry eventually won out. 

Check out my full length blog, with some extra history, over on the TAB website here. 

Prototype Bolt Action Repeating Pistol

Sold by Rock Island Auctions in 2010, this unusual bolt action, manually repeating pistol has three tube magazines running alongside the barrel. The maker is unknown and the date of manufacture can only be guessed at. Given its general aesthetic and mode of operation it likely dates from the ~1880s. The prototype is in-the-white and has a walnut grip.

The barrel is 6 1/2 inches long and s listed as .45 calibre (potentially .45 long Colt). It operates by a simple bolt action. The method of feeding is described as ‘gravity fed’, it is unclear if the tube magazines have a spring and follower or the pistol was simply tipped up. The magazines are locked in place by a knurled pin on the left side that extends into a recoil shield in the receiver. They are loaded through a channel on top of the receiver which also acts as a rear sight cutout. 

View of the pistol’s muzzle and three tube magazines (source)

The bolt is connected to the barrel and when pushed forward 1.25 inches the barrel moves forward to open the breech and allow a round to enter, lifted by a cartridge lifter. Moving the bolt (and barrel) back then feeds the round into the chamber. The cartridge lifter drops back down and picks up the next round. There is a space for an extractor, which is no longer present, on the right side of the receiver.

The trigger is unguarded and has a housing that projects from the grip and receiver. The bolt handle appears to be hinged, probably for disassembly. The prototype appears to be well made but unmarked, sadly, I was unable to find any patents of other designs that match the prototype pistol. 

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Images Source

FAMAE PAF Submachine Gun 

This week’s episode of The Armourer’s Bench I take a look at a rare and very interesting South American submachine gun. In the mid-1970s FAMAE, Chile's state-run small arms manufacturer, made their first attempt at manufacturing a submachine gun. To limit development costs they chose to copy the British Sterling Mk4 (L2A3).

The copy was somewhat crude and only a limited number of pre-production prototypes are believed to have been assembled. For more information check out the video and also take a look at the in-depth article on the PAF over on TAB’s website. 

Fedorov Avtomat

Kalashnikov Concern, the Russian small arms manufacturer which formed from the former  Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, as part of an ongoing series looking at rare and interesting Russian firearms have released a video and some great photos showing off a rare example of Vladimir Fedorov’s Avtomat (automatic carbine). 

In the early 1900s Vladimir Fedorov (Fyodorov) began developing a semi-automatic infantry rifle, chambered in 7.62x54R with a rotating bolt. The first prototypes were completed in 1906, however, these suffered from failures to extract. Federov joined the Weapons Section of the Main Artillery Commission in 1900, which was responsible for both foreign and domestic weapons testing and inspection. Federov probably encountered a great many designs and a period working with Sergei Mosin no doubt encouraged him to develop his own designs. By 1911, Fedorov had begun work on a new design, with the assistance of Vasily Degtyaryov, it was ready to submit it for testing. Tested against a design by Fedor Tokarev the Imperial Russian government ordered 150 Fedorov's for troop trials.

A disassembled Fedorov (source)

Still chambered in 7.62x54R, the rifle used a short recoil action. Russian service ammunition proved to be too powerful for the rifle’s action and in 1912, he began working on chambering his automatic rifle in a smaller prorietary 6.5mm rimless cartridge. this was intended to make the weapon more controllable and reliable.

In 1916, the decision was made to switch to the readily available Japanese 6.5x50mmSR cartridge. This round was chosen as the Imperial Russian Army at the time was using a substantial number of 6.5 Arisaka rifles to allay war shortages. Additionally, Fedorov made some fundamental changes to the design following a trip to France in 1915, to study French small arms and production techniques. Fedorov decided to make his rifle select fire capable and increase the weapon’s magazine capacity from 5 to 25 rounds to allow his rifle to be used in the ‘walking fire’ role pioneered by the CSRG 1915 Chautchat automatic rifle. Fedorov’s Avtomat was ready by 1916, and a small production run of the new Avtomats were readied,. These were issued to the 189th Izmail’skiy Regiment for troop trials. It is believed these early Avtomats saw action in December 1916

The eruption of the Russian Civil War in 1917, caused massive upheaval and Russia's exit from World War One. Fedorov sided with the revolutionaries who commissioned him to build 9,000 Avtomats.

Production was initially to be established at Sestroretsk in 1918, but was moved to the old Madsen factory at Kovrov.  Production proved slow and only 3,200 Avotmat 1916s were made by October 1925. Matters were not helped when Fedorov was imprisoned by the Bolshevik authorities when they felt he was sabotaging production. He was released when Degtyaryov intervened and convinced them otherwise. The lack of tooling and machinists held production back and Fedorov’s production staff were forced to hand finish many parts.

Soviet troops with Fedorov’s during the Winter War (source)

The Avtomat was a complex weapon which was difficult to disassemble. It used a short recoil action with a breech which was locked by a cammed locking block. The rifle fed from a 25-round box magazine with a safety and fire-selector inside the trigger guard.

Fedorov's guns entered service in the early 1920s before being placed in reserve in 1928, due to the 6.5x50 round complicating the supply chain. They again saw action during the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939-40 when they were issued to mobile ski units as the Red Army had very few submachine guns in service. and a light, automatic weapon was desperately needed.

There is little doubt that Fedorov’s weapon was ahead of its time and depending on your chosen definition of what qualifies a weapon to be an ‘assault rifle’ then the Fedorov Avtomat is perhaps the earliest mass produced, formally issued assault rifle. Developed long before the tactical landscape that lead to the creation of the StG-44 and manufactured in extremely difficult circumstances. 

Fedorov continued to develop small arms working on automatic rifles and a series of light machine guns with Degtyarov during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Fedorov retired in 1933, as a Lieutenant General, but was recalled when World War Two broke out. He remained on staff at the Artillery Academy until 1953 and died in 1966, aged 92.

Sources:

Images Source 

The AK-47 Story, E.C. Ezell, (1988)

A Brief History of the Russian Fedorov Avtomat Rifle, TFB, M. Popenker (source)

My thanks to Max for some additional information and corrections. 

Further assorted images (source)

Rheinmetall Rh4

The CETME, and by extension the G3, had never been designed to fire a powerful round like 7.62x51mm NATO. CETME and Heckler & Koch had worked hard to reinforce the rifle’s receiver and introduce the use of high carbon steel. 

Rheinmetall, who along with H&K, had won the contract to manufacture the G3 for the Bundeswehr developed a variant of the G3 chambered in the Soviet 7.62x39mm intermediate cartridge. The Rh4 used a long-stroke gas piston system believed to be designed by Henk Visser, however, contemporary patents suggest Theodor Loffler worked on on the gas system. Instead of using Ludwig Vorgrimler’s roller-delayed blowback action, the Rh4 fired from a locked breech with the rollers only unlocking once the projectile had passed the gas vent. 

Two prototype Rh4′s are believed to have been manufactured. They fed from 30-round AK-pattern magazines and had a distinct hand guard which attached to the receiver by a pin just in front of the magazine housing. Rheinmetall struggled to get the G3 into full production and H&K took over prodction later developing their own intermediate cartridge versions of the G3: the HK32 chambered in 7.62x39mm, which never went into production, and the more successful 5.56×45mm HK33 family. 

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3 4 5

The World's Assault Rifles, G.P.Johnston & T.B. Nelson, (2016)

Small Arms of the World, W.H.B. Smith, (1983)