In 1823, the Mexicans launched the War of Independence and successfully drove out the Spanish colonists, thus establishing an independent country. However, Mexico’s industrial base is too backward, and it has not been able to build a strong military industry. The military’s weapons and equipment can only rely on imports. Today, this situation has not been improved.
Of course, Mexico is not completely without military industry. In the past 200 years, some successful weapons have been born.
Mondragón M1908 (Mondragón M1908) semi-automatic rifle, the work of Mexican Manuel Mondragón. This man has an extremely good talent for firearms and joined the Army after graduating from military academy The armament department has devoted his life to the research and development of various weapons, which has had a very important impact on the development of the equipment of the Mexican army, and he himself has become an admiral and has a very high status.
In 1894, Manuel Mondragon created the first weapon in his life-the M1894. The principle of the bolt mechanism was borrowed from the Swiss Rubin rifle, and the Mond was added at the same time. Lagon’s own design, combined with the Mexican habit of using guns, was improved, so strictly speaking, M1894 is not an original, but it also pointed out the direction for the subsequent birth of M1908.
M1894 is a straight-pull bolt rifle, but different from the general bolt, Mondragon has added a speed machine to its body, which can be switched between three modes: insurance, standard and fast . The standard is normal bolt-action shooting, but the fast is special. This is Mondragon designed to increase the rate of fire of the M1894 rifle.
When the dial of the speed machine is pointed to "fast", the rifle will enter a fast shooting state. At this time, there is no need to pull the trigger, just push the bolt to a fixed position, and the bolt will release the firing pin naturally , Thus completing the firing of the bullet.
In other words, in the "fast" mode, the trigger is negligible. All the soldiers have to do is to continuously pull the bolt back and forth, so that they can continue shooting until the bullets in the magazine are exhausted. Because the process has been simplified, the rate of fire of the M1894 has been effectively improved.
A similar design can also be seen on the Winchester M1897 shotgun in the United States. Hold the trigger with your right hand and continuously pull the pump-action slider with your left hand to complete continuous shooting. Dragoon M1894 does not need to pull the trigger in the fast mode, the operation will be simpler.
M1894 is not included in the Spanish Army. In the final analysis, it is only a bolt-action rifle. Even with a fast shooting mode, it still needs to manually pull the bolt. The upper limit of the rate of fire is very low. Compared with semi-automatic rifles, Mondragon then focused on the automatic loading structure and finally created the M1908 semi-automatic rifle.
The bolt action adopts the principle of long-piston air-guided type, combined with the rotating bolt type lock. This design was relatively advanced in the early 20th century, and Mondragon also shot 20 rounds for the M1908 In the context of the era when 5-round magazines were commonly used at the time, Mondragon's design was more advanced.
Interestingly, the Mondragon M1908 is actually a composite rifle. There is a switch regulator at the air guide under the barrel. If the regulator is turned on, then the M1908 is a semi-automatic rifle with a high rate of fire and can be used against the enemy. The formation of firepower suppression; if the regulator is closed, then the M1908 is a bolt-action rifle, the rate of fire is reduced, but the corresponding range and accuracy will increase.
The advantage of this design is that soldiers can adjust the attributes of M1908 according to the actual needs on the battlefield, so as to deal with various battles, but the disadvantages are also obvious, in order to take into account both semi-automatic and bolt-action , M1908's gun structure is very complicated. Once it fails, it is very difficult for soldiers to quickly repair it, which reduces its reliability and environmental adaptability.
当Shimondragon commissioned the Swiss company Sigsauer to produce 4000 M1908 rifles (Mexico was not capable of making such complicated weapons), but in the end the Mexican military only purchased 400. It is not that the Mexican military does not want the M1908. Precision weapons, but really can't use them.
First of all, the Mondragon M1908 rifle is too expensive, priced at 160 Swiss francs per piece, which was equivalent to 46.4 grams of gold at the time, and if it is put today, it is equivalent to 16,000 yuan. Buy a set of high-precision sniper rifles (Including scope, bipod and other accessories) are more than enough;
Secondly, the bullet is special. The M1908 fired a 6.5×53mm Mondragon bullet, while the Mexican standard ammunition was 7×57mm Mauser. If the M1908 rifle is purchased on a large scale, the army must purchase an additional 6.5mm bullet, which is equivalent to increasing the logistics pressure;
Finally, the reliability of the rifle is the problem. Once the weapon fails, the soldiers cannot repair it in time. It is easy to cause problems on the front, so in the end, the Mexican army only purchased 400 of them.
As for the remaining 3,600 Mondragon M1908 rifles, they did not become a ballast. Because of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army’s demand for weapons and equipment soared. Gesauer saw a business opportunity, so he took the opportunity to sell the M1908 to the German army.
However, the German army is used to playing precision rifles, and soon discovered that the Mondragon M1908 is not adaptable to the environment, especially in the trenches, the Mondragon M1908 simply cannot withstand the infestation of sand, dust and mud. , Which caused the 3,600 Mondragon M1908 rifles to quickly retreat from the front line and were thrown to the second line troops as rubbish by the Germans, failing to make a name for themselves.
