The evolution of automatic weapons is one of the most significant developments in weapons history. While this development has been filled with disagreements, controversy, and stray hurdles, out of all of this tumult, shouting, and shooting has come the progress in firearms from the days when it was necessary to build a fire under a gun to make it go off to the “you press the button and they do the work” automatic firearms of the present day.

Includes index.

Early multifiring arms --Automatic pistols -- Automatic rifles up to and including the First World War -- Post-war military developments -- Classification of automatic weapons -- Factors affecting design -- Methods and systems of feed -- Malfunctions and stoppages -- Headspace -- Ammunition -- Combat notes -- Fire effect -- Combat efficiency of the rifle -- Automatics in the squad -- Considerations affecting the L.M.G -- The problem of ammunition supply -- Accuracy -- Design critique of automatic mechanisms.