POTD: Better Than 30-06 and The Garand? .276 Pedersen and His Rifle
Sam.S 04.25.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Imagine a totally different world where the US military adopted a different rifle than the M1 Garand in .30-06 Springfield. It is really hard to picture, but one contender that arguably almost beat the Garand was the Pedersen Rifle in .276 Pedersen. Yes, the same Pedersen that created the mythical wonder weapon – the Pedersen Device! If you do not know what that is it is a device that would replace the bolt of a 1903 Springfield and effectively transform it into a semi-automatic pistol caliber carbine (PCC). It was intended to be used in the 1919 spring offensive of WWI, but that never came to fruition since the war ended in November 1918.
The Pedersen rifle was unique in that it used a toggle sort of reciprocating bolt similar to a Luger P08. It had an en-bloc clip just like the Garand and ejected them after the last shot just like the Garand. One of the biggest faults against the Pedersen was that it was chambered in a proprietary cartridge and the US was not really interested in changing from there .30-06 Springfield cartridge.
“The .276 Pedersen cartridge was a potential replacement for .30-06 as the US Army searched for a new rifle in the 1920s and 30s. This lot from our collection was made at Frankford Arsenal.
-Cody Firearms Museum’s Facebook”
Did you ever wonder what a bunch of .276 Pedersen boxes looked like all together? Wonder no more. [Photograph found in Photos, Cody Firearms Museum Facebook]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/CodyFirearmsMuseum/photos/2967406050150221
