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History of weapons: Madsen M1947 – The latest infantry rifle Europe

History of weapons: Madsen M1947 - The latest infantry rifle Europe Shop rifle Madsen model 1947

The end of World War II marked the end of the era of infantry store rifles. All the more surprising was the attempt by the Danes to jump into the last car of the departing train, which predictably ended in nothing. This happened for a number of objective reasons.. At the same time, the Madsen model rifle itself 1947 with manual reload and magazine on 5 rounds was a good example of small arms, just the time for such models really passed.

Sunset store rifles

World War II became the last war, in which the main infantry weapons of almost all howling parties were store rifles. In the Soviet Army, this is the famous trilinear, Mosin rifle sample 1891/30 years, in the German army - shop rifle Mauser 98k, in the British army - shop rifle lee enfield.

Moreover, already during the war years there was a trend towards the transition of infantry units to self-loading (semi-automatic) and automatic models of small arms. For example, in the Red Army back in 1941 there were more than a million self-loading rifles SVT-40, earlier models SVT-38, as well as AVT-40. And the U.S. army entered the war with self-loading rifle M1 Garand, adopted in 1936 year.

In this way, the end of World War II only marked an emerging trend. All armies of the most developed countries of the world were massively re-equipped with new infantry weapons - self-loading rifles and automatic infantry weapons.

At the same time, developing countries or, as they were called, Third World countries often could not afford modern infantry weapons, which often were quite expensive. Unable to buy automatic weapons abroad, and not having a developed industrial base, which would allow to mass-produce their own assault rifles, such countries were forced to acquire simpler weapons.

History of weapons: Madsen M1947 - The latest infantry rifle Europe

This situation seemed attractive to some companies., to bring to the market new models of magazine rifles. One of the firms, who continued to work in this direction after the end of World War II, became famous Danish arms company Madsen, at one time glorified herself by creating the first machine gun in history, one of the first buyers of which was the Russian Empire.

After the end of the major war in Europe, the Danish gunsmiths rushed to catch up. Their idea was simple enough. They hoped to develop a new lightweight in-store infantry rifle aimed at mass export.. The countries of buyers of such weapons were considered the states of Latin America, Asian countries, as well as Africa.

Representatives of the arms company Dansk Industrie Sindikat "Madsen" A.S completed the development of a new infantry rifle in 1947 year. However, a new store infantry rifle, received the designation Madsen model 1947 or Madsen M1947, predictably not aroused interest among buyers. Developed states no longer needed such weapons, and developing countries have not shown due interest in the model, to which there was a simple explanation.

History of weapons: Madsen M1947 - The latest infantry rifle Europe

The thing is, that Danish entrepreneurs did not take into account one important nuance. After the fading battles of World War II, huge stocks of small arms remained in the arsenals of the howling countries.. On the international market, they were sold at bargain prices., often countries supplied old store rifles at no cost to their new ideological allies around the world.

For this reason, the first and only buyer of the Madsen M1947 rifle was found only in 1958 year. A decade after the creation of five thousand of these rifles purchased the naval forces of Colombia. And the total production of Madsen M1947 rifles did not exceed six thousand pieces. At the same time, most of the rifles delivered to Colombia did not last long in the fleet, almost all of them were soon transferred for sale on the civilian market.

Features rifle Madsen model 1947

Created by Danish gunsmiths in the second half of the 1940s, the Madsen model rifle 1947 claims the title of the last storefront infantry rifle with a sliding bolt. In the future, “boltoviks” will remain only the weapons of snipers, and all infantrymen will switch to self-loading models and automatic weapons.

In the catalogs of the Danish company a new rifle, also known as Madsen M47, held under the designation "The MADSEN Lightweight Military Rifle", i.e. light army rifle Madsen. According to the idea of ​​the Danes, she was supposed to completely oust the German Mauser 98k rifles from the market.

A distinctive feature of the Danish rifle was the small overall dimensions for such a weapon.. In advertising, which accompanied the production of Madsen M47, even indicated, that this model is designed for small-sized fighters. It is worth noting, that this was not an empty marketing ploy. The rifle was really light and compact, surpassing all magazine rifles of previous series.

The weight of the rifle without cartridges was only 3,65 kg, and the total length is 1080 mm. At the same time, the designers achieved such values ​​not to the detriment of the small arms quality, the rifle got a barrel length 595 mm. For comparison, the Mauser 98k rifle, with which the Wehrmacht soldiers fought the whole war, possessed a barrel length 600 mm. Moreover, both models in the Russian classification would be considered lightweight rifles.

History of weapons: Madsen M1947 - The latest infantry rifle Europe

Madsen M47 looks good in terms of weight and size characteristics even against the background of modern Izhevsk hunting rifles. For example, Baikal classic hunting rifle with manual reload 145 «Elk» empty 3,4 kg, and its maximum length is 1060 mm at a barrel length 550 mm.

Structurally, the Danish post-war rifle Madsen model 1947 was a classic representative of store rifles. The rifle was equipped with a sliding bolt, reloading of weapons was carried out manually after each shot, the barrel locking process was carried out by turning the shutter. At the back of the bolt of the Madsen M47 rifle were combat stops, which reduced the stroke of the shutter when reloading weapons.

The creators of the rifle took care of the extinction of recoil energy. For this, a muzzle brake appeared on the barrel of a weapon, and on the back of the butt appeared shock absorbing pad - rubber butt pad.

The rifle was equipped with box magazines, designed for 5 rounds. The store was integral, it was equipped with an open shutter or from a clip, either individual cartridges. A cartridge was used with the rifle .30-06 Springfield (7,62X63 mm), which was the main rifle cartridge of the US Army in the first half of the XX century. The cartridge remains very popular and common today., but already as a hunting munition and cartridge for sports shooting.

The stated rate of the rifle was up to 20 rounds per minute, naturally, with careful aiming, one could almost forget. It is worth noting, that the Danes themselves were ready to produce a rifle for other common ammunition, but never received orders.

History of weapons: Madsen M1947 - The latest infantry rifle Europe

All rifles received standard open sights and a front sight, encircled, protects it from damage. The open sight had markings for firing at a distance from 100 to 900 m. Naturally, hit the target at a distance 900 meters was not easy, but when installing optical sights on the rifle, such a task became quite feasible. Natively all models of the light infantry rifle Madsen model 1947 equipped with a belt and bayonet knife.

Instead of an epilogue

Rifle Madsen model 1947 is a very good example of small arms, which appeared late on 15-20 years. This lost time did not allow the model to take its rightful place in the market.. Moreover, all owners of this weapon speak about the rifle only positively..

The rifle has a good and thoughtful design., very high quality assembly, as well as light weight, what is an important advantage of the model. Light weight puts this bolted infantry rifle on a par with hunting rifles, allowing the owner to easily make multi-kilometer marches in any terrain.

History of weapons: Madsen M1947 - The latest infantry rifle Europe

The arrows and the safety of such rifles are distinguished.. Since most of them were practically not used in the armed forces, safety of samples that have reached us is very high. Rifles shot a little, they were not in the hands of conscripts, did not participate in hostilities and field exits, therefore, today experts call the Madsen model 1947 one of the best-preserved of all available models of magazine rifles with a sliding bolt.

true, given the small volume of the released series, acquiring such weapons is not so easy. You can't find a rifle in ordinary stores, model only occasionally appears on online auctions. However, often the price of such rifles exceeds 1000 dollars.

/Sergey Yuferev, topwar.ru/

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