Early Semiautomatic Rifles

[Captain Jack]

So in 1913 the French army adopted the A6 Meunier rifle as a replacement for the 1886 Lebel. The Meunier was a semiautomatic rifle and chambered for 7mm ammunition that was significantly more powerful than the Lebel's 8mm. However, WW1 intervened before the rifle could be brought into full production or issued to troops. At approximately the same time Vladimir Fedorov built a semiautomatic rifle for testing by the Russian army. These test happened in late 1913 and the results were apparently very pleasing. I'm curious if any other countries had plans to replace their current service rifles with semiautomatic guns at around the same time. I know the British were about to replace the .303 Lee-Enfield with a .276 calibre gun but was there any program to develop a semiautomatic gun analogous to the French? I know very little about the German army of the time but the same questions apply to them and any other country.

 

[Delta Force]

Mexico had the Mondragón rifle. The semi-automatic version was designed in 1904, and entered production in 1908, although the Mexican Revolution resulted in SIG delivering only a few hundred rifles after payments stopped. They were purchased by Imperial Germany during World War I for use in air combat.

There were a few semi-automatic rifles available in the early 1900s for commercial purchase. Winchester produced the Model 1903, Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910. Remington produced the Model 8. The Winchester Model 1907 and Model 1910 were actually purchased for use in World War I, although the Model 8 may have been an interesting choice for a military weapon because it had powerful military grade cartridges with spitzer bullets.