It reminded me of this one.
Always wanted to buy it...
Mauser Gewehr 98 Trench Magazine - 20rd Capacity | Keep Shooting
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It reminded me of this one.
Always wanted to buy it...
Mauser Gewehr 98 Trench Magazine - 20rd Capacity | Keep Shooting
As a resident if California, I can only dream.....very nice job!
Hotchkiss M1922 , M1924 and M1926 LMG. Could be fed either through the top mounted mag (SMLE 20 round was one type but the Spanish had a mag for 7x57) or variations could use the usual side-feeding Hotchkiss strip or the three-cartridge-per-link strip belt. The majority of countries used the strip feed.
When they trialed them in the trenches in WWI the troops pretty much said they were shite citing the extra length snagged everything, made the rifle feel unwieldy, they never fully loaded them, suffered from mud incursion fouling them and in general hated them so they were withdrawn from service.
Pretty much every nation that tried these gave up on them, and for much the same reasons.
Interesting that after WWII the military went to large capacity magazines hanging below the rifle, with no problems. Thinking had changed evidently and so had the rifles.
The way of loading had changed for sure. The rifles were top loaded in that worst-of-conditions war and stuffing mud covered clips into an open action...as you well know, isn't good. With the advent of the contained magazine and bottom loading things changed. We might have had some more results from the Browning Auto Rifle if it had seen a couple years use. I don't recall ANY user results at all, don't think it even made the war. All the pics I remember are Val Browning demonstrating in 1919.
I remember an FN giving me some problems in sandy-snowy-wet conditions. It was reluctant to close completely but with some effort it still worked.