Warfare from the 1850s to the 1950s and the late adoption of high rate of fire rifles

[JoelUpchurch]

@Martini_Enfield

As I understand it, effective commercial semi- and full-auto rifles weren’t developed until after the turn of the century (or WWI, in the case of full-auto models) but machine-guns (which were around from the 1880s) have been mentioned.

I know Mannlicher had a semi-auto rifle in the late 1880s but I don’t know how far beyond “commercially produced prototype” the design was.

I still maintain that practical machine guns were dependent on smokeless powder.

[EMAIL=“Poudre B - Wikipedia”]Poudre B - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_machine_gun

[Bookkeeper]

Another reason for the slow adoption would have been logistics. There’s no point in having a fast-firing rifle if the existing supply system can’t keep up with manufacturing and moving the additional amounts of ammunition required.

[Martini_Enfield]

@JoelUpchurch

I still maintain that practical machine guns were dependent on smokeless powder.

Broadly, I agree with you, but there were successful black powder cartridge based “Mechanical Guns” (ie the Gatling and the Nordenfelt) which were more or less the same thing as a machine gun, but operated manually (by a crank or similar contrivance) rather than simply holding a trigger.