AHQ--Early assault rifle adopted: what effect on national smallarms?

Pretty much what it says on the tin.;)

I'm thinking (to take the U.S. as my example), if the *M2 (.30-'06 Short/7.62x40mm) was adopted in 1936, this means M1903 Springfields become surplus. Does it also mean no M1C? (I would say so.) Does it mean the M1911 can be surplused off, too?
 
An early Assault Rifle still isn't a PDW. Tough to get rid of the 1911, even though any pistol is a terrible PDW

Say your round is pretty much a necked down Winchester .351 Self Loading, Still won't have the long range that the Army was demanding, they still wanted something that could shoot thru a tree at 1000 yards.

yeah, way more powerful than was needed, but say you somehow convince the Army for a dual caliber setup, and this shorter .30 is based off a round that was adequate on Deer sized game, so is good enough to kill people.

Snipers still keep the 30-06 along with BARs and M1919, and then also as a longer ranged, cheaper Thompson SMG, your *M2, that has more per Squad than the SMGS had OTL, and being easier to shoot than a pistol, also fills the role for support personell that the M1 Carbine filled.

Sure it makes sense, so that's why the Army wouldn't do it.
 
Sure it makes sense, so that's why the Army wouldn't do it.
I knew that,:p so let's leave rationality (or not) out of it.
An early Assault Rifle still isn't a PDW. Tough to get rid of the 1911, even though any pistol is a terrible PDW

Say your round is pretty much a necked down Winchester .351 Self Loading ...also fills the role for support personell that the M1 Carbine filled.
I'm thinking of something akin to the 7.92mmK, so it outperforms the .30M1C without being insanely powerful for less well-trained troopers. (Bullpup is probably out of the question...;)) And I had in mind it taking over the M1C role. I pictured officers not needing the M1911, too. (In this era, the tunnel rat isn't a factor, so given Vietnam happens as OTL, something else may need to be developed, tho, TBH, by that era, I imagined a bullpup caseless rifle being standard ish...:cool::p {Yeah, that's ASB against OTL:rolleyes:})
 
I knew that,:p so let's leave rationality (or not) out of it.

I'm thinking of something akin to the 7.92mmK, so it outperforms the .30M1C without being insanely powerful for less well-trained troopers. (Bullpup is probably out of the question...;)) And I had in mind it taking over the M1C role. I pictured officers not needing the M1911, too. (In this era, the tunnel rat isn't a factor, so given Vietnam happens as OTL, something else may need to be developed, tho, TBH, by that era, I imagined a bullpup caseless rifle being standard ish...:cool::p {Yeah, that's ASB against OTL:rolleyes:})
Rimless version of .30-30 perhaps?
 
Just get the French to adopt the 8mm Ribeyrolles carbine in 1918, this used a necked down 3.51 SL cartridge and would have actually been a pretty good quasi assault rifle. Between that and the Russian Federov Avtomat firing the Japanese Askari 6.5mm rifle round you are pretty much their regarding the parameters of what we would now call an assault rifle.
 
Extreme case would be the Mondragon rifle or similar entering limited production a decade sooner. This batch is credited (justified or not) with battle sucess thus sparking development of 'assault' rifles.

Madsen had automatic weapon that might has served as a inspiration. Hi by
 
Extreme case would be the Mondragon rifle or similar entering limited production a decade sooner. This batch is credited (justified or not) with battle sucess thus sparking development of 'assault' rifles.

Always odd that the use of full auto versions of the Winchester 351 SL by the French for arming the pilots early on gets overlooked so frequently
 
There was that cunning conversion of the Ross Rifle - the Huot Automatic Rifle - have the Ross Rifle replaced earlier and have development of the Hout starting earlier and weapon this adopted earlier and enough are produced to provide at least 1 weapon for every infantry section in the BEF (10,000 weapons should do it) during the Michael Offensive and subsequent 100 days battles in 1918.

I like the Hout - rugged and more reliable than the Lewis gun (which was pretty rugged and reliable in its own right) - the drum can be reloaded in about 4 seconds using a 25 round stripper clip

Then with large numbers of the weapon and subsequent 'select fire' versions available start development on a 'carbine' version intended for trench fighting and develop the Short .303 - which in my head is exactly the same cartridge but with a longer slightly heavier bullet and reduced 'powder' to reduce recoil.
 
Rimless version of .30-30 perhaps?
Actually, per ".30-'06 Short", a shortened .30-'06 (case 40mm v 63 of the '06).

I also have to correct something I saw in another thread. It claimed the trench stalemate was a product of lack of an SMG or AR, which is just total nonsense.:rolleyes: It was because the lethality of artillery, compared to ACW, had gone up something like 200:1,:eek: thanks to increased ROF (hydraulic recoil in the French M1897) & HE (v black powder) shell filling. (I've also seen air recce blamed...)
 
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