Self-Loader

Perfecting the instruments by which men shall individually kill their fellow men is not a pretty science, but in every army some one must study it. In the U. S. his name is Brigadier-General John T. Thompson, retired. He directed all the U. S. arsenals during the War and, as chief of the small arms division of the Ordnance Department, he improved the Army's standard Enfield rifle and distributed it promptly among the A. E. F. After the War, General Thompson set himself the task of perfecting a one-man machine gun and a self-loading infantry rifle.

The one-man Thompson machine gun, or so-called "submachine gun," was perfected some time ago and adopted by many a city police force as well as the U. S. Marines. It weighs only ten pounds, which is 100% lighter than any other weapon of similar functions. It fires 100 shots per minute and is valued for spraying death into a city street or narrow mountain defile. U. S. gangsters as well as police admire and use Thompson submachine guns. They are fired from the hip or from a rest on boulder, windowsill or automobile tonneau.

The self-loading infantry rifle perfected by General Thompson was last week awarded the British War Office prize of $15,000 and will now be tried generally throughout the British Army. A rifle for each soldier to carry, to fire aimed shots from the shoulder without pausing to reload, the Thompson self-loader differs from a machine gun in that the trigger is pulled for each shot instead of held down for a continuous stream of lead. Rid of the necessity for bolting a new cartridge into the firing chamber between shots, as in hand-loading rifles, a soldier can aim 25 or 30 shots per minute with the Thompson self-loader.

A bullet no bigger round than a seed-pearl would kill a man if projected through his heart, brain or spinal cord. But martial experience has found 30/100 of an inch to be about the ideal diameter for man-killing bullets. The prize-winning Thompson weapon is .30 calibre.

Increased lethal effect is obtained by softening the nose of the bullet to make it spread at impact. Steel jacketed bullets shoot straightest and farthest but bore clean holes instead of smashing a wide wound. Various powder loads have various killing power, but following is a rough table of the calibres and types of bullets generally recommended for various types of killing by rifle:

PREY BULLET DIAM. (Inches) BULLET NOSE

Rats, squirrels, etc. .22 Rounded lead.

Woodchucks, muskrats, beavers, dogs, etc. .25 Steel jacketed (to avoid marring fur).

Humans, deer, etc. .30 to .32 Optional; steel jacket considered more "sporting."

Bear, lions, tigers, water buffaloes, etc. .30-.405 Soft-nose for safety; steel-jacketed for sure-shooting pelt-collectors.

Elephants, rhinoceros .405 to .500 Soft-nose, with "express" powder charge.