The Rieder automatic rifle was a fully automatic
Lee–Enfield
The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's st ...
SMLE rifle conversion of South African origin. The Rieder device could be installed quickly with the use of simple tools. A similar weapon of New Zealand origin was the
Charlton automatic rifle.
While the rifle had no select fire capability, single shots could be achieved by releasing the trigger quickly. Alternatively the bolt could be operated manually if the gas vein was closed. Prototype rifles fitted with the "Rieder attachment" or device were tested on bipod and tripod mounts and proved reliable with little maintenance, although recommendations were made to change the sight system to take account of vibration during automatic fire.
[http://www.rieder.741.com/ transcript: THE RIEDER AUTOMATIC RIFLE ATTACHMENT FOR THE S.M.L.E., Lt. Cdr. W. M. Bisset (Military Museum. Cape Town), 4-4-2011]
See also
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Ekins automatic rifle
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Howard Francis semi-automatic carbine
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Howell automatic rifle
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Huot automatic rifle
The Huot Automatic Rifle was a Canadian World War I era light machine gun project.
Design and development
In 1916, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was desperately short of light machine guns. Since the Ross rifle had finally been taken out of s ...
References
External links
Rieder Automatic Rifle
{{BritishEmpireWeapons
.303 British rifles
Light machine guns
Automatic rifles
Rifles of South Africa