The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Didn't the Americans do something with the .45 and the Springfield 1903 in WW1 or am I dreaming that?

You are thinking of the Pederson device.

This was a device that replaced the normal turn bolt that converted the manual action into a semi automatic.
It fired a 30cal. pistol sized round from a box magazine that stuck out the right hand side of the device at about the 2 oclock position.

I was up in the Royal armouries up at Leeds and i saw there in the ww1 part a experemental Gas operated SMLE, damdest thing i ever saw, normal looking rifle with a heaverly modified bolt, and a gas tube running the length of the rifle with a gas port near the muzzle. i wonder how many intresting experemental rifles they have got tucked away in storage next door?