The Bang Semi-Automatic Rifle
The semi-automatic arm upon which especially high hopes were placed after
1911 was a gun invented by a Dane, S.H. Bang. Tests followed by modifications
of design and then further tests were to be carried on for some years. After
the World War the Ordnance Department set Captain Hatcher of the Ordnance service
to work upon perfecting a model using the Bang principle.56 The
Bang gun first submitted to test at Springfield, however, in May 1911, was designed
for use only with 7.5 or 8mm ammunition. Therefore, after a first test the rifle
was returned to the manufacturers with request that the inventor adapt it to
the U.S. .30 caliber service ammunition and make several other changes of design.57
The new 1911 model, tested on July 30, 1912, was enthusiastically received and
the Board of Officers reported that “the functioning of this rifle was
more satisfactory than has heretofore been obtained at this Armory from any other
rifle of this type.”58 In
spite of some defects, notably the wedging of the cartridge in the magazine,
and the opening in the bolt unlocking sleeve’s not being properly regulated
for the service ammunition, the United States Ordnance Department endeavored
to secure rights to manufacture 100 of these Bang guns to issue for trial in
the field. While the conditions proposed by the Aktieselkabet Bangs Skydevaaben
of Copenhagen, the manufacturer, were so drastic as to cause the Ordnance Office
to refuse them,59 the Ordnance
Office did arrange with Bang personally to supervise at the Armory some alterations
upon the one rifle tested in July. The firings of this altered rifle, conducted
in October, showed perfect functioning of the mechanism but such heat was developed
that the stock was scorched.60 In
fact twenty months later Captain Sheppard noted that tests of the Bang had shown
that if a wooden stock were used upon a semi-automatic shoulder arm some kind
of insulation of stock from barrel was essential.61 Only
the fact that by the end of 1913 Armory officials believed Captain Sheppard’s
own design more promising than the Bang led the Ordnance Office to drop for the
time being testings of the latter.62
A close-up view of the action on the Bang Semi-Automatic Rifle
Renewal of Tests the next year followed, an endurance test of an altered 1911
model, and some weeks later a complete test of the 1913 model in which were embodied
a number of changes desired by the Ordnance Department.63 The
report of the testing Board noted the improvements in the 1913 model, but listed
several weaknesses. In the words of Lt. Colonel W.S. Pierce, the Commanding Officer:
It is not believed that this rifle in its present stage of development is satisfactory
as a military arm, although it is the most promising semi-automatic shoulder
rifle known to this office. The weight of the rifle [9.93 lbs.] is somewhat against
it; its accuracy is not equal to that of the service rifle; and its ease and
certainty of operation are not yet satisfactory.64
The Bang 1913 model was kept at the Armory to serve as a basis for developmental
work. But little further was to be accomplished till after the World War.65
Annual Report of Operations,
Springfield Armory, Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1920, #67
S.A. 109/k, O.O. 38351-305,
-339, May 27, Sept. 16, 1911
S.A. 109/k, O.O. 38351-380,
6th Ind., Sept. 4, 1912
Ibid., O.O. 38351/409 Oct.
3, 1912
S.A. 109/k, O.O. 38351-400,
1st Ind., Oct. 14, 1912
S.A. 114-4, O.O. 38351-675,
684, 689, June 19, 1914
S.A. 109/m, O.O. 38351-511,
1st, 2nd Ind., Mar. 13, Sept. 15, Sept. 18, 1913; O.O. 38351-685, 1st Ind., Dec.
26, 29, 1913
S.A. 110-7, O.O. 38351-750,
1st Ind., June 12, 1914; S.A. 110-9, O.O. 38351-757, 1st Ind., June 3, 1914
S.A. 110-13, O.O. 38351-526,
8th Ind., Nov. 13, 1914, Incl.
S.A. 110-18, O.O. 38351-786,
1st Ind., Dec. 12, 1914; Annual Report of Operations, Springfield Armory, 1916,
#11; 1917, #11.
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