Mondragón (rifle)

Mondragón was a Mexican automatic rifle.

Infobox Weapon
name= Fusil M-1908 "Mondragon"


caption=
origin= flagicon|Mexico Mexico
type= Automatic rifle
is_ranged=yes
service= 1887-1921
used_by=Mexico
Switzerland
Chile
Brazil
Peru
France
Republic of China
People's Republic of China
Imperial Japan
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Imperial Germany
Nazi Germany
wars= Mexican Civil War
Ecuadorian–Peruvian War
Chinese Civil War
Second Sino-Japanese War
Korean War
World War One
World War Two
designer= General Manuel Mondragon
design_date= 1884
manufacturer=Dirección General de Industria Militar del Ejército
production_date= 1887
number= 475,420Fact|date=January 2008
variants= automatic rifle, carbine, sniper rifle, light machine gun.
weight= 4.18 kg (9 lb 3oz) empty
length= 1105 mm (43.5 in)
barrel_length= 577 mm (22.7 in)
crew=
caliber= 7x57mm Mauser
cartridge= 7 x 57 mm Mauser
action= gas-operated, rotating bolt
rate= 750 - 1400 rounds/min depending on variant
velocity= 710 m/s (2300 fps)
range= 200 m to 550 m sight marks
max_range= 900m (984 yd)
feed= 8 round box, 10 round box, 20 round box, 30 round drum, 100 round drum
sights= Iron sights or ScopeThe Mondragón was the first automatic rifleFact|date=November 2007 and was designed by General Manuel Mondragón. He began 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 7mm (.284in) Mauser with an 8-round box magazine; a trial LMG version had a 20 round box and provision for a bipod, like the BAR; the Mexican Army also used a 100-round drum magazine for a light machine gun variant produced in 1910. It was known for it's extreme accuracy and stopping power but suffered from high recoil when fired on it's fully automatic setting. The Mondragon was so accurate that the German Army added a scope to it and used it in single shot mode as a sniper rifle during World War II. The Mondragon also had a light machine variant that when used with it's 100 round clip had similar fire power to the MG-42 but with far more portability and much less recoil. For this reason the Mexican army used an improved light machine gun variant of the Mondragon up until 1943 when it was replaced with the Mendoza M-1943 general purpose infantry machine gun.

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 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 complately Mexican manufactured version was again issued to the Mexican Imperial Army as the Fusil Porfirio Diaz Systema Mondragón Modelo 1908 this time with the 20 round magazine. By 1910 however adequate facilities were completed in the Mexican cities of Veracruz, Ciudad Juarez, Guanajuato, and Mexico City where they were produced until 1921.

With World War I, Germany bought the remainder of SIG's stock that had not been sent to Mexico, issuing them to the infantry, where they proved highly susceptible to mud and dirt in the trenches (a problem familiar even to less complex straight-pulls such as the Ross). 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 meaning that the Mondragon did not have a problem with dirt getting in it but, more of a problem with moisture as it would still work well when it would get dry sand and dust in it mechinism. Instead, they were withdrawn and reissued, with 30-round helical magazines, to aircraft crews as the "Fliegerselbstlader Karabiner" 1915 (Flier's Selfloading Carbine model 1915), until sufficient numbers of machineguns were available.

In the early 1930's the Mexican government decided that they could make a profit trying to market the weapon on the international stage. At the time the Mondragon was still considerd a quite advanced weapon with it's only true rival being the BAR which wheighed more and had far less acurracy. It was sold to many Mexican allied nations including Chile, Brazil, Peru and Nationalist China. The Weimar Republic of Germany 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 machining technologies at the time were not advanced enough to mass produce the delicate firing mechenism. When Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army declared victory over nationalist forces in 1949 many of the nationalist's weapons were siezed by the communist forces and almost all of the Chinese Mondragon rifles were redistributed to the People's LiberationArmy where they remained in active service as sniper rifles and support weapons up until the late 1980's although a small number of them still remain in service with auxilliary Peoples Liberation Army Reserve Force units.

During World War II there were still many of the Mexican rifles in German stocks left over from World War I these were given as auxillary weapons to the Waffen SS or somtimes as replacemets or complementery weapons to the Kar 98k in the early parts of the war. During the siege of Stalingrad some Wehrmacht troops used them instead of the Kar 98k as they were less suceptible to the frigid climate, and during the later part of the war they were issued to many Volkssturm groups. They also found their way into France when they were given as a donation by the Third Reich to the German allied Vichy French army, many would later be captured and used by the French resistance. Few of the German versions with the helical magazine survive, however the Mexican army still uses the Mexican version in parades and other military celebrations as a ceremonial rifle. [Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. "Mondragón", "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons and Warfare", Volume 18, pp.1933-35. London: Phoebus Publishing Company, 1978.]

Users

*flag|Mexico
*flag|Switzerland
*flag|France
*flag|Chile
*flag|Brazil
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*flag|People's Republic of China
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*flag|Nazi Germany

References

ee also

*BAR
*Huot
*Garand