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Farquhar-Hill rifle

The Farquhar-Hill rifle, a British design by Moubray G. Farquhar and Arthur H. Hill, was one of the first semi-automatic rifles designed in the early 20th century.

It was first tested in May 1908, and had many failures. Several improved designs followed, none of which completely satisfied the Small Arms Committee. The Farquhar-Hill is a long recoil operated semi-automatic rifle with rotary bolt locking. It was 0.303 in (7.7 mm) caliber and fed from a 19-round drum. Magazine variations included a 10-round truncated cone and a 65-round drum. It has a muzzle velocity of 732 m/s (2,400 ft/s) and is sighted to 1,500 yd (1,370 m). One example was tried in the United States late in the First World War using a drum magazine. The British Army appears to have adopted and ordered the Farquhar-Hill rifle in 1918, but the end of hostilities in Europe led to the cancellation of the order before any rifles were delivered. The rifle did see some use with British aviators, along the same lines as the Mauser M1916 and Mondragon rifles. For observers and gunners aloft, self-loading rifles were an enormous improvement over bolt-action weapons, and self-loading rifles saw brief use before the practice of mounting machine guns in aircraft took hold.