HOME | DD

Description
Poll winner was China, so here we go.

This rifle was invented by General Liu Qing En, Superintendent of Hanyang Arsenal.
It's known as General Liu, after its inventor, as it never recived any other designation.
Most likely the first semi-automatic rifle ever developed in China. It used a muzzle gas-trap system similar to the Bang system (That system was used in rifles such as Gewher 41 or M1922 Bang Rifle).
The rifle had a weird feature of being able to switch from gas system to straight-pull bolt action rifle by rotating the cylinder located on the muzzle counterclockwise. So it was basically the OG Gewehr 41M.
Inside the stock there was compartment for cleaning tools.

In early 1914 General Liu contracted Pratt & Whitney Tool Company in order to purchase machinery for Hanyang Arsenal. A contract for $1 082 500 was signed on April 11 with delivery expected to be made in 2 years.
Later that year Liu Qing En alongside his family and seven subordinates arrived at Hartford, Connecticut, where Pratt & Whitney was located (Now it is in Bloomfield, Connecticut), the reason for the visit was to familiarize with the machinery. Liu stayed at Hartford untill June 1915.
On September 8 1916, two version of this rifle were tested at Nan Yuan Proving Ground in Beijing. First version was made at Hanyang with hand-made driving spring, the second was made at Pratt & Whitney and had machined spring.
Test revealed that hand-made springs were too weak to properly cycle the rounds, but the machined ones worked perfectly fine.
In 1918 two of the rifles were tested at Springfield Armory by Julian Hatcher.
Summer of 1919, during an Army Department meeting, Liu unfortunelly suffered a stroke that caused paralysis of side of his body, supposedly due to fact that transport of machinery sank on its way to China.
Later that year the machinery was luckily recovered and arrived at Shanghai, but it was kept in storage untill 1921 when it was moved to Gongxian Arsenal, where it was redirected back to Hanyang, but would not go there untill 1935.
At Hanyang, again, it was initially set up to manufacture Hanyang 88 (Chinese bolt-action rifle based on Gewher 1888), but later was ultimatelly used to make Type 24 Chiang Kai-Shek Rifles (A copy of Mauser Standardmodell, forerunner of K98k)

After reading this all, do you get why only about 10 were made?

Name: General Liu Rifle
Type: Semi-Auto Rifle (But also straight-pull bolt-action rifle)
Bullet: 7.92x57mm Mauser
Country of Origin: Republic of China (1912 one)
Year: 1914

Description
Poll winner was China, so here we go.

This rifle was invented by General Liu Qing En, Superintendent of Hanyang Arsenal.
It's known as General Liu, after its inventor, as it never recived any other designation.
Most likely the first semi-automatic rifle ever developed in China. It used a muzzle gas-trap system similar to the Bang system (That system was used in rifles such as Gewher 41 or M1922 Bang Rifle).
The rifle had a weird feature of being able to switch from gas system to straight-pull bolt action rifle by rotating the cylinder located on the muzzle counterclockwise. So it was basically the OG Gewehr 41M.
Inside the stock there was compartment for cleaning tools.

In early 1914 General Liu contracted Pratt & Whitney Tool Company in order to purchase machinery for Hanyang Arsenal. A contract for $1 082 500 was signed on April 11 with delivery expected to be made in 2 years.
Later that year Liu Qing En alongside his family and seven subordinates arrived at Hartford, Connecticut, where Pratt & Whitney was located (Now it is in Bloomfield, Connecticut), the reason for the visit was to familiarize with the machinery. Liu stayed at Hartford untill June 1915.
On September 8 1916, two version of this rifle were tested at Nan Yuan Proving Ground in Beijing. First version was made at Hanyang with hand-made driving spring, the second was made at Pratt & Whitney and had machined spring.
Test revealed that hand-made springs were too weak to properly cycle the rounds, but the machined ones worked perfectly fine.
In 1918 two of the rifles were tested at Springfield Armory by Julian Hatcher.
Summer of 1919, during an Army Department meeting, Liu unfortunelly suffered a stroke that caused paralysis of side of his body, supposedly due to fact that transport of machinery sank on its way to China.
Later that year the machinery was luckily recovered and arrived at Shanghai, but it was kept in storage untill 1921 when it was moved to Gongxian Arsenal, where it was redirected back to Hanyang, but would not go there untill 1935.
At Hanyang, again, it was initially set up to manufacture Hanyang 88 (Chinese bolt-action rifle based on Gewher 1888), but later was ultimatelly used to make Type 24 Chiang Kai-Shek Rifles (A copy of Mauser Standardmodell, forerunner of K98k)

After reading this all, do you get why only about 10 were made?

Name: General Liu Rifle
Type: Semi-Auto Rifle (But also straight-pull bolt-action rifle)
Bullet: 7.92x57mm Mauser
Country of Origin: Republic of China (1912 one)
Year: 1914