That year, Joseph Huot, an engineer from Richmond, Quebec,[3] adapted the Ross' straight-pull bolt action. His sample model, which shared 33 parts with the Ross Mark III,[4] had a pneumatic piston parallel to the barrel, which moved a sleeve on the bolt backward, operating the action. To absorb excess energy, the bolt was buffered. The entire mechanism was sheathed in sheet metal. Huot copied the cooling system from the Lewis Gun, then standard in British Army service.[5] It fed from a 25-round drum magazine. He filed Canadian patents; #193724 on 8 March 1917 (granted 4 November 1919) and #193725 on 13 November 1917.[5]
Early in September 1916, he approached the government to licence-produce the weapon, meeting with a Colonel Matyche on 8 September,[5] and was hired by the Government Small Arms Experimental Department.[5]
The Dominion Rifle Factory (formerly the Ross rifle factory)[5] built a finished version of the design, under the supervision of Assistant Inspector of Small Arms Major Robert Mills of the Seaforth Highlanders. It was tested at Quebec City on 12 November 1916, with a second 650-round[5] trial of an improved version on 15 February 1917.[5] The Master-General of Ordnance, Blair, demanded a third test, firing 11,000 rounds (half Dominion Cartridge Company, half Dominion Arsenal) on 5–6 March 1917.[5] The Huot was also examined at the Rockcliffe Rifle Range on 22 October 1917, which led S. C. Meuburn to recommend it be adopted by the British Army.[4]
To further this aim, Blair, A.A. Janson, and Huot sailed for Britain, arriving at Sandling, Hythe on 10 January 1918, for an extensive British trial at the arms testing establishment at RSAF Enfield. This took place between 19–21 March 1918, and the Huot competed against the Lewis, Hotchkiss, and Farquhar-Hill. The results appeared favorable. "The Huot did better in some tests than the Lewis. It was superior in snapshooting from a trench, in quickness of getting into action..."[4] Even muddy, after firing four or five clearing rounds,[4] it would function again, without the need for stripping and cleaning;[6] Blair noted it was the only weapon on the trial able to suffer immersion and do so.[citation needed]
In firing 10,000 rounds through the Huot, Enfield uncovered fouling of the gas cylinder at 4,000 rounds, and the barrel worn out at 10,000.[4] Since this example had already had some 11,000 rounds fired through it before coming into Enfield's hands, this is understandable. Using all varieties of Mark VII ammunition it would be likely to encounter (including K, KN, J, and US), they found the Huot had no major problems, though there were unexplained stoppages, and it did not require the specially chosen ammunition the Lewis did.[4] Furthermore, the Huot proved able to fire 4,000 rounds without oiling or cleaning; which the Lewis was unable to do.[7]
In a 22 October 1917 letter to the British Minister of Munitions, Blair said tooling existed in Canada and the Dominion Factory was ready to begin manufacturing the Huot, using parts from Rosses scheduled for scrapping.[4] After exposure to it in France, Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie, commanding the Canadian Corps, reported every soldier to come in contact with the Huot liked it, and on 1 October 1918 wrote requesting 5,000 be purchased, arguing casualties required increased firepower for each remaining man,[6] as well as to allow his men to answer the growing number of German light machine guns.[6] It was disliked for its physical appearance, but at C$50, it was considerably cheaper than the original C$1,000 cost of the Lewis.[8]
Huot (above) and Lewis (below)
One drawback was the Huot was fully automatic only, with no provision for semi-automatic fire. The magazine could be emptied in just 3.2 seconds[9] (a drawback shared by the Browning Automatic Rifle); however, the rate of fire was low, much like a Bren Gun's, so that was not a problem. A magazine could be changed in four seconds, and an empty magazine could be filled with ammunition in 30 seconds.[4] The Huot used a 25-round stripper clip to fill the drum magazine. In addition, the Huot functioned just as well upside-down.[10]
Enfield noted 13 flaws, all with simple fixes,[4] remarking "converting the Ross was not a complicated matter."[4] Field trials in France showed "well authenticated" reports of few breakages or stoppages.[6]
View inside the Huot breech
Enfield recommended a number of changes: the barrel cover be fitted with a continuous length of tubing and a wooden forend, allowing the weapon to dispense with the rest, which was criticized for its fragility; a corrugated metal cover be fitted to the body, with a dust shield over the bolt handle; the magazine mouth be bevelled to ease feeding; the magazine be made of thinner metal to reduce its excessive weight; the breech cover not extend so far back to prevent injury to the firer; strengthen the extractor to prevent failures to feed with thick-rimmed cases (one of the few feeding problems noted); the hand-cocking lever be deleted [a puzzle as the weapons still has to be cocked for the first shot], also removing eight new parts; and the barrel casing be made in one piece, to eliminate a minor double failure issue.[11]
The war ended before it entered service, and the idea was dropped. Huot was out of pocket about C$30,000.[12]
Major Robert Blair with a Huot
Four specimens are known to exist (2015). Serial # 1 - The Army Museum at the Halifax Citadel, Nova Scotia. Serial # 2 - The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Museum and Archives, Vancouver, British Columbia. This was Colonel Blair's personal souvenir and is complete with the stripper clip and heavy leather carrying/shipping case. Shipping company stickers on this case indicate that this is one of the Huots taken overseas for testing. Serial # 4 - Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario. Serial # 5 - Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario. Serial # 3 has not been located and it is uncertain how many were built.[citation needed]
A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries.
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against the shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting. Rifles are used extensively in warfare, law enforcement, hunting and target shooting sports.
The SA80 is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle. The prototypes were created in 1976, with production of the A1 variant starting in 1985 and ending in 1994. The A2 variant came to be as the result of a significant upgrade in the early 2000s by Heckler & Koch and remains in service as of 2023. The A3 variant was first issued in 2018 with several new improvements.
The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of the British Armed Forces from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957.
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The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also used in the Korean War and saw service throughout the latter half of the 20th century, including the 1982 Falklands War. Although fitted with a bipod, it could also be mounted on a tripod or be vehicle-mounted.
The Lewis gun is a First World War–era light machine gun. Designed privately in the United States though not adopted there, the design was finalised and mass-produced in the United Kingdom, and widely used by troops of the British Empire during the war. It had a distinctive barrel cooling shroud and top-mounted pan magazine. The Lewis served to the end of the Korean War, and was widely used as an aircraft machine gun during both World Wars, almost always with the cooling shroud removed, as air flow during flight offered sufficient cooling.
The Chauchat was the standard light machine gun or "machine rifle" of the French Army during World War I (1914–18). Its official designation was "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG". Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry, where the troops called it the FM Chauchat, after Colonel Louis Chauchat, the main contributor to its design. The Chauchat in 8mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917–18 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.), where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)". A total of 262,000 Chauchats were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the 8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. The armies of eight other nations—Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Serbia—also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I.
The Ross rifle is a straight-pull bolt action rifle chambered in .303 British that was produced in Canada from 1903 until 1918.
The .45 Reising submachine gun was manufactured by Harrington & Richardson (H&R) Arms Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, and was designed and patented by Eugene Reising in 1940. The three versions of the weapon were the Model 50, the folding stock Model 55, and the semiautomatic Model 60 rifle. Over 100,000 Reisings were ordered during World War II, and were initially used by the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard, though some were shipped to Canadian, Soviet, and other allied forces to fight the Axis powers.
The Pedersen device was an experimental weapon attachment for the M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle that allowed it to fire a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) pistol-type cartridge in semi-automatic mode. The attachment was developed to allow an infantryman to convert "their rifle to a form of submachine gun or automatic rifle" in approximately 15 seconds.
A magazine, often simply called a mag, is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun or externally attached. The magazine functions by holding several cartridges within itself and sequentially pushing each one into a position where it may be readily loaded into the barrel chamber by the firearm's moving action. The detachable magazine is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "clip", although this is technically inaccurate since a clip is actually an accessory device used to help load ammunition into a magazine or cylinder.
The .303 British or 7.7×56mmR, is a .303-inch (7.7 mm) calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows the traditional black powder convention.
The Lee–Metford is a British bolt action rifle which combined James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system and detachable magazine with an innovative seven-groove rifled barrel designed by William Ellis Metford. It replaced the Martini–Henry as the standard service rifle of the British Empire in 1888, following nine years of development and trials, but remained in service for only a short time until replaced by the Lee–Enfield.
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The EM-2, also known as Rifle, No.9, Mk.1 or Janson rifle, was a British assault rifle. It was briefly adopted by British forces in 1951, but the decision was overturned very shortly thereafter by Winston Churchill's incoming government in an effort to secure NATO standardisation of small arms and ammunition. It was an innovative weapon with the compact bullpup layout, built-in carrying handle and an optical sight.
The Fedorov Avtomat or FA is a select-fire infantry rifle and one of the world's first operational automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and later in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A total of 3,200 Fedorov rifles were manufactured between 1915 and 1925 in the city of Kovrov; the vast majority of them were made after 1920. The weapon saw limited combat in World War I, but was used more substantially in the Russian Civil War and in the Winter War. Some consider it to be an early predecessor or ancestor of the modern assault rifle.
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