Bolt action question

Discussions on all aspects of China, from the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War till the end of the Chinese Civil War. Hosted by YC Chen.
Garuda
Member
Posts: 70
Joined: 02 Jul 2006 09:07
Location: kuala lumpur

Bolt action question

Post by Garuda » 15 Nov 2017 20:10

According to Wikipedia , both the Hanyang 88 and the Japanese Type 38 rifles are "bolt action" rifles. I know this an amateurish question cause I don't know about WW2 firearms but does bolt action mean that you have to manually manipulate the bolt handle after each shot is fired? So that means that the Hanyang 88 and Type 38 rifles can only fire one shot each(after manipulating the bolt handle) and not multiple shots at once unlike the Thomson Submachine Gun and other submachine guns?

User avatar
Richie B
Member
Posts: 227
Joined: 19 Jan 2008 20:30
Location: UK

Re: Bolt action question

Post by Richie B » 16 Nov 2017 09:09

Garuda

You've got it.

Bolt action - work the bolt - fire -repeat until the magazine is empty.

SMG [set to full auto] - pull the trigger - will fire all the rounds in the magazine.

CroGer
Member
Posts: 130
Joined: 27 Oct 2017 19:27
Location: Germany/Croatia

Re: Bolt action question

Post by CroGer » 17 Nov 2017 18:01

Yes.
The advantage of the old bolt action is the cartridge. Hanyang and Type 38 shoot the 8x57 cartridge, the same as the germans, poles, czechs, yugoslavians.
Impact of a caliber like 8x57 are described as "explosion like". During WW1, the military surgeons were shocked by the injuries these cartridges would leave. The bullet hits with an extremly high velocity and than fragments on impact. Can potentially punch through walls.
A shot to the head can make the head explode (read about police battalion 101 if you don't believe me). Even a legshot can be lethal from a 8x57.

While SMG cartridges usually only pokes a hole in your body. The thompson shoots the 45 acp. it's a reatively slow bullet that punches a relatively big hole.
Sperg

LineDoggie
Member
Posts: 1181
Joined: 03 Oct 2008 20:06

Re: Bolt action question

Post by LineDoggie » 18 Nov 2017 16:42

CroGer wrote:Yes.
The advantage of the old bolt action is the cartridge. Hanyang and Type 38 shoot the 8x57 cartridge, the same as the germans, poles, czechs, yugoslavians.
Impact of a caliber like 8x57 are described as "explosion like". During WW1, the military surgeons were shocked by the injuries these cartridges would leave. The bullet hits with an extremly high velocity and than fragments on impact. Can potentially punch through walls.
A shot to the head can make the head explode (read about police battalion 101 if you don't believe me). Even a legshot can be lethal from a 8x57.

While SMG cartridges usually only pokes a hole in your body. The thompson shoots the 45 acp. it's a reatively slow bullet that punches a relatively big hole.
7.92×57mm Mauser S Patrone had a Muzzle Velocity of 878 meters per second (2,881 ft/s) was adopted in 1903
.303 British Mark VII had a Muzzle Velocity of 744 meters per second (2,440 ft/s) was adopted in 1910.
.30US M1906 ball had a Muzzle Velocity of 820 meters per second (2,700 ft/s) was adopted in 1906
8mm Lebel Balle D had a Muzzle Velocity of 730 meters per second (2,400 ft/s) was adopted in 1898
"There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here".
Col. George Taylor, 16th Infantry Regiment, Omaha Beach

OldBill
Member
Posts: 341
Joined: 04 Mar 2012 09:19

Re: Bolt action question

Post by OldBill » 19 Nov 2017 18:42

The Type 30 and the Type 38 were the older versions of the Japanese military rifles. Both were chambered in 6.5x50, with a mv of 770 meters per second. The Type 99 was the newer rifle, and it used a different cartridge, 7.7x58, at 740ms.

User avatar
Hama
Member
Posts: 278
Joined: 21 Jul 2016 21:48
Location: the coast

Re: Bolt action question

Post by Hama » 20 Nov 2017 00:07

Just want to mention to Garuda (if it's of any interest to you) that there were also some rifles invented that could operate in both bolt-action and semi-automatic modes (though they weren't super common). The Mondragón M1908 Rifle was one such example. It could be fired in semi-auto mode (where the gun shoots as many times as you pull the trigger) or you could flip the gas-cutoff switch and make it fire as a bolt-action (where you work the bolt, pull the trigger, work the bolt, pull the trigger, etc.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondrag%C3%B3n_rifle

Nodeo-Franvier
Member
Posts: 67
Joined: 11 Jan 2020 12:26
Location: Thailand

Re: Bolt action question

Post by Nodeo-Franvier » 07 May 2022 07:15

CroGer wrote:
17 Nov 2017 18:01
Yes.
The advantage of the old bolt action is the cartridge. Hanyang and Type 38 shoot the 8x57 cartridge, the same as the germans, poles, czechs, yugoslavians.
Impact of a caliber like 8x57 are described as "explosion like". During WW1, the military surgeons were shocked by the injuries these cartridges would leave. The bullet hits with an extremly high velocity and than fragments on impact. Can potentially punch through walls.
A shot to the head can make the head explode (read about police battalion 101 if you don't believe me). Even a legshot can be lethal from a 8x57.

While SMG cartridges usually only pokes a hole in your body. The thompson shoots the 45 acp. it's a reatively slow bullet that punches a relatively big hole.
Well the majority of Chinese troops in WWII were still using round nose version of 8mm cartridge(Same as Japan+Russia in Russo-Japanese war,Austria-Hungary in WWI and Italy in both world wars). These round nose bullet have been described as humane bullet during Russo-Japanese war because they just went through human body without fragmentation.

Return to “China at War 1895-1949”