Mondragón rifle

Mondragón rifle
Fusil M-1908 "Mondragón"
Mondragón rifle.jpg
Type Semi-automatic rifle
Automatic rifle
Light machine gun
Place of origin  Mexico[1]
Service history
In service 1887-1949 (Mexico)
1932-present (foreign users)
Used by See Users
Wars Mexican Revolution
World War I
Second Sino-Japanese War
World War II
Ecuadorian–Peruvian War
Chinese Civil War
Korean War
Vietnam War
Production history
Designer General Manuel Mondragón
Designed 1887
Manufacturer Dirección General de Industria Militar del Ejército
Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft
Produced 1887
Number built 1,175,400
Variants Automatic rifle
Carbine
Sniper rifle
Light machine gun.
Specifications
Weight 4.18 kg (9 lb 3oz) empty
Length 1105 mm (43.5 in)

Cartridge 7 x 57 mm Mauser
Caliber 7x57mm Mauser
Action gas-operated, rotating bolt
Rate of fire 750 - 1400 rounds/min depending on variant
Muzzle velocity 710 m/s (2300 ft/s)
Effective range 200 m to 550 m sight marks
Maximum range 900m (984 yd)
Feed system 8 round box,
10 round box,
20 round box,
30 round drum,
100 round drum
Sights Iron sights or Scope

The Mondragón was the world's first[2] semi-automatic rifle and automatic rifle, and was designed by Mexican general Manuel Mondragón.

Mondragón began his work in 1882 and patented the weapon in 1887. It was gas-operated with a cylinder and piston arrangement, now very familiar but unusual at the time, and rotating bolt, locked by lugs in helical grooves in the receiver; it was also possible to operate it as a simple straight-pull bolt action. The caliber was 7 mm (.284 in), Mauser with an 8-round box magazine; a trial LMG version had a 20-round box and provision for a bipod, like the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR); the Mexican Army also used a 100-round drum magazine for a light machine gun variant produced in 1910.

Contents

Features and uses

The Mondragón rifle was known for its stopping power but suffered from high recoil and poor accuracy[2] when fired on fully automatic setting. The Mondragón also had a light machine gun variant that could be used with a 100-round magazine. For this reason, the Mexican Army used an improved light machine gun variant of the Mondragón up until 1943, when it was replaced with the Mendoza M-1943 general purpose infantry machine gun. The first versions of the rifle had trouble working in muddy and moist environments, German troops using the Mondragón rifle in Western Europe had difficulties with the rifle jamming while used in trench warfare. Although they did not function well in the thick moist mud and dirt of Central Europe, they proved to work well in hot and arid climates such as the North of Mexico. This meant the Mondragón did not have a problem with dirt trapped inside, instead having more of a problem with moisture, but would still work well with dry sand and dust in its mechanism, although the Mexican manufactured 1908 model fixed his problem with slight improvements to the firing mechanism and the barrel.

Initial production

Because of the Mexican Revolution, few facilities in Mexico were able to mass-produce it and those that could were not able to shut down their assembly plants for the required retooling time needed to initiate production of the new rifles. Mondragón attempted to interest a U.S. firm, without success as they thought that semi-automatic rifles were not practical and could not be produced in the numbers that Mexico wanted. He then turned to Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG), of Neuhausen am Rheinfall, who agreed to manufacture the rifle. In 1901, the first rifles were shipped to Mexico and issued to the army as the Fusil Mondragón Modelo 1900 with an 8 round magazine. In 1908, during the Mexican Revolution, a completely Mexican manufactured version was again issued to the Mexican Army as the Fusil Porfirio Diaz Sistema Mondragón Modelo 1908 this time with the 20 round magazine. By 1910 however adequate facilities were completed in the Mexican cities of Veracruz, Ciudad Juárez, Guanajuato, Guadalajara and Mexico City where they were produced until 1943.

Use in World War I

With World War I, Germany bought the remainder of SIG's stock that had not been sent to Mexico (which was about 3,000 of the 5,000 rifles), issuing them to the infantry, where they proved highly susceptible to mud and dirt in the trenches (a problem familiar even to less complex bolt action rifles such as the Ross). Instead, realizing their potential as portable yet powerful automatic weapons, they were withdrawn by the German high command and reissued to aircraft crews as the Flieger-Selbstlade-Karabiner Mondragon, Modell 1915 (Pilot's Selfloading Carbine Model 1915), until enough numbers of machine guns were available. Many of the Mondragon rifles were used with a 30-round helical magazine, known as Trommelmagazin für F.-S.-K.. This helical magazine was patented by Friedrich Blum; the units were tougher than expected. The 32-round drum magazine used by the Artillerie-Modell Pistole 08 (and later by the MP18) was a direct descendant. Few of the German versions with the helical magazine survive. Other Mondragon rifles appear to have been used by the navy.[3]

International sales

In the early 1930s, the Mexican government decided it could make a profit trying to market the weapon on the international stage. At the time the Mondragón was still quite advanced, with its only true rival being the BAR. It was sold to many Mexican allied nations including Chile, Brazil, Perú, and the Republic of China. The Weimar Republic and later Nazi Germany purchased rights to licence manufacture the weapon along with Austria and Japan. Japan however, manufactured less than five thousand, as Japanese machine tools at the time were not advanced enough to mass produce the delicate firing mechanism.[citation needed]

A number of the rifles made their way into the Lithuanian Army by World War II. Several Mondragón rifles, called Mandragon by the Lithuanian military, could be found in 1936 and 1939 armament lists.

Users

See also

References

  1. ^ http://world.guns.ru/rifle/autoloading-rifles/switch/mondragon-e.html
  2. ^ a b http://www.cruffler.com/historic-february01.html
  3. ^ Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. "Mondragón", Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons and Warfare, Volume 18 (London: Phoebus Publishing Company, 1978), pp.1933-35.

External links


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