The end of World War II marked the end of the era of infantry magazine rifles. All the more surprising was the Danes' attempt to jump into the last car of the departing train, which predictably ended in nothing. This happened for a number of objective reasons. At the same time, the Madsen model 1947 rifle itself with a manual reloading and a magazine for 5 rounds was a good example of small arms, it's just that the time of such models has really passed.
Sunset of magazine rifles
The Second World War was the last war in which magazine rifles were the main infantry weapon of almost all the belligerents. In the Soviet Army, this is the famous three-line, Mosin rifle of the 1891/30 model, in the German army - the Mauser 98k magazine rifle, in the British army - the Lee Enfield magazine rifle. At the same time, already during the war years, there was a trend towards the transition of infantry units to self-loading (semi-automatic) and automatic models of small arms. For example, back in 1941, the Red Army had more than a million SVT-40 self-loading rifles, earlier SVT-38 models, as well as AVT-40. And the US Army entered the war with the M1 Garand self-loading rifle, which was put into service back in 1936.
Thus, the end of World War II only marked the emerging trend. All armies of the most developed countries of the world were massively rearmed with new infantry weapons - self-loading rifles and automatic infantry weapons. At the same time, developing countries, or, as they were also called, the countries of the "third world" often could not afford modern models of infantry weapons, which were often quite expensive. Not having the ability to buy automatic weapons abroad, and not having a developed industrial base that would allow mass production of their own assault rifles, such countries were forced to acquire simpler weapons.
This situation seemed to some companies attractive enough to bring new models of magazine rifles to the market. One of the companies that continued to work in this direction after the end of World War II was the famous Danish arms company Madsen, which at one time made itself famous by creating the first light machine gun in history, one of the first buyers of which was the Russian Empire. After the end of a major war in Europe, Danish gunsmiths rushed to catch up. Their idea was quite simple. They hoped to develop a new lightweight infantry magazine rifle with an eye on mass export. The countries of Latin America, the countries of Asia, and also Africa were considered as the countries that buy such weapons.
The representatives of the arms company Dansk Industrie Sindikat "Madsen" A. S completed the development of a new infantry rifle in 1947. However, the new magazine infantry rifle, designated Madsen model 1947 or Madsen M1947, predictably did not generate interest from buyers. The developed states no longer needed such weapons, and the developing countries did not show due interest in the model, for which there was a simple explanation.
The thing is that Danish entrepreneurs did not learn one important nuance. After the deadly battles of World War II, huge stocks of small arms remained in the arsenals of the belligerent countries. Internationally, they were sold at bargain prices, with countries often supplying old magazine rifles at no cost to their new ideological allies around the world. For this reason, the first and only buyer of the Madsen M1947 rifle was found only in 1958. A decade after the creation of five thousand of these rifles, the Colombian naval forces purchased. And the total production of Madsen M1947 rifles did not exceed six thousand pieces. At the same time, most of the rifles supplied to Colombia stayed in the fleet for a short time, almost all of them were soon transferred for sale on the civilian market.
Features of the Madsen model 1947 rifle
Created by Danish gunsmiths in the second half of the 1940s, the Madsen model 1947 rifle claims to be the last bolt action rifle. In the future, "bolt-ons" will remain only for snipers, and all infantrymen will switch to self-loading models and automatic weapons. In the catalogs of the Danish company, the new rifle, also known as the Madsen M47, was designated "The MADSEN Lightweight Military Rifle", that is, the Madsen light army rifle. As planned by the Danes, it was supposed to completely oust the German Mauser 98k rifles from the market.
A distinctive feature of the Danish rifle was the weight and size characteristics that were small for such a weapon. The advertisement that accompanied the production of Madsen M47 even indicated that this model was designed for medium-sized fighters. It should be noted that this was not an empty marketing ploy. The rifle was really light and compact, surpassing all the magazine rifles of the previous series. The weight of the model without cartridges was only 3.65 kg, and the total length was 1080 mm. At the same time, the designers achieved such values without sacrificing the shooting qualities of the weapon, the rifle received a barrel with a length of 595 mm. For comparison, the Mauser 98k rifle, with which the Wehrmacht soldiers fought the entire war, had a barrel length of 600 mm. Moreover, both models in the Russian classification would be considered lightweight rifles. Madsen M47 looks good in terms of weight and dimensions, even against the background of modern Izhevsk hunting rifles. For example, the classic Baikal 145 Elk hunting rifle with manual reloading weighs 3.4 kg without cartridges, and its maximum length is 1060 mm with a barrel length of 550 mm.
Structurally, the Danish post-war Madsen model 1947 rifle was the classic representative of the magazine rifle. The rifle was equipped with a sliding bolt, the weapon was reloaded manually after each shot, the barrel was locked by turning the bolt. At the rear of the bolt of the Madsen M47 rifle there were lugs, which reduced the bolt travel when reloading the weapon. The creators of the rifle took care of damping the recoil energy. For this, a muzzle brake appeared on the barrel of the weapon, and a shock-absorbing pad appeared on the back of the butt - a rubber butt pad.
The rifle was equipped with box magazines designed for 5 rounds. The store was integral, it was loaded with an open bolt either from the clip or with separate cartridges. Together with the rifle, the.30-06 Springfield cartridge (7, 62x63 mm) was used, which was the main rifle cartridge of the US Army in the first half of the 20th century. The cartridge remains very popular and widespread today, but already as a hunting ammunition and a cartridge for shooting sports. The declared rate of fire of the rifle was up to 20 rounds per minute, of course, you could almost forget about careful aiming. It is worth noting that the Danes themselves were ready to produce a rifle for other common ammunition, but they never received orders.
All rifles received standard open-type sights and a front sight placed in a ring that protects it from damage. The open sight had markings for firing at a distance of 100 to 900 meters. Naturally, it was not easy to hit the target at a distance of 900 meters, but when optical sights were installed on the rifle, such a task became quite feasible. Normally, all models of the Madsen model 1947 light infantry rifle were equipped with a belt and a bayonet-knife.
Instead of an epilogue
The Madsen model 1947 rifle is a very good example of small arms that appeared 15-20 years late. This lost time did not allow the model to take its rightful place in the market. At the same time, all owners of this weapon speak only positively about the rifle. The rifle has a good and well thought-out design, a very high-quality assembly, and also a low weight, which is an important advantage of the model. The light weight puts this bolt-on infantry rifle on a par with hunting rifles, allowing the wearer to easily navigate miles of marches across any terrain.
Highlight the arrows and the safety of such rifles. Since most of them were practically not used in the armed forces, the safety of the samples that have come down to us is very high. They fired little from the rifles, they were not in the hands of conscripts, they did not participate in hostilities and field exits, therefore, today experts call the Madsen model 1947 one of the best preserved among all available models of magazine rifles with a sliding bolt. True, given the small volume of the released series, it is not so easy to acquire such a weapon. You cannot find a rifle in ordinary shops, the model only occasionally appears at online auctions. Moreover, the price of such rifles often exceeds $ 1,000.
