UnckleBob
WKR
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2022
- Messages
- 1,362
Great post. After thinking about, I think the limiting factor in the early 1900's was probably the relatively new "smokeless" gun powders of the era. I am pretty sure Brits were using cordite loaded like spaghetti in their WW1 rifles.I look at something like my 6.5x55 Swede and early versions were around 1:7.9 twist for heavy for caliber bullets so they were aware of the advantages. Straight wall cartridges were not uncommon back then coming from the black powder world, but tapered was used probably for feeding reliability. I don't doubt they could have made tighter spec chambers if they wanted. I simply refuse to believe the Mauser brothers couldn't have made tight match chambered rifles, but they were making weapons for war and not target matches. I'd have to assume straight wall cases were tried and rejected for a reason. After all, why wouldn't they want that case volume if they could have gotten it for free? Same for sharp shoulders. This is an obvious design consideration and I just find it hard to believe people like the Mausers, Browning, Garand, Springfield Armory, etc. never considered it. Certainly Ackley proved it out repeatedly.
From what I can tell, everyone got speed from using long cartridges in what are now considered "long actions" for their military rifles.