| Olin/Winchester Salvo Rifle | |
|---|---|
| Type | Battle Rifle |
| Place of origin |
 United States |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Stefan Kenneth Janson |
| Designed | 1956 |
| Manufacturer | Olin/Winchester Corp. |
| Produced | 1957 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 11.8 pounds |
| Length | 43.5" |
| Barrel length | 23" barrels |
|
| |
| Cartridge | 5.56mm T65 Duplex |
| Barrels | 2 |
| Action | Gas, Selective Fire |
| Feed system | Box Magazine |
| Sights | Iron |
The Olin/Winchester Salvo Rifle is an experimental double-barreled 5.56mm automatic rifle created for the U.S. Army's Project SALVO in the 1950s. Developed in hopes of increasing the hit probability of soldiers in combat, the Salvo Rifle was designed by Stefan K. Janson, who had previously created the Enfield EM2 rifle for the British Army.
The Salvo Rifle used a single US-made T48/FN FAL receiver with a single bolt, hammer and gas system. Two barrels were fitted to the receiver, and the rifle used two magazines. The Salvo rifle could be fired from only one barrel by inserting a single magazine, or from both barrels simultaneously by inserting both magazines.[1]
The use of the FAL action is curious given that only a few years earlier, Janson's EM2 design had lost out to a FAL variant, the L1A1 SLR, for British military adoption.
The Salvo Rifle was chambered for the experimental 5.56mm T65 Duplex cartridge, based on a long-necked variant of the 7.62mm NATO cartridge case loaded with a pair of conventional projectiles. Two variants of the duplex cartridge existed: one fired two 35 grain projectiles at 3,505 ft/s (1,068 m/s), while the other fired a pair of 41 grain bullets at 3,250 ft/s (990 m/s). With its two barrels each firing a duplex cartridge, the Salvo Rifle would effectively launch four projectiles with every press of the trigger. However, this proved to be the Salvo Rifle's downfall as the recoil of firing two duplex cartridges at the same time exceeded that of the M1 Garand.
An example of the Salvo Rifle is currently held in the collection of the Springfield Armory Museum.
References[]
- ↑ "Winchester Salvo Rifle". GunsHolstersAndGear.com. http://www.gunsholstersandgear.com/winchester-salvo-rifle/. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
External links[]
- http://www.rediscov.com/spring/full/P_MUSEUM-SERVICES_IMAGES_OBJECT-IMAGES_1001-1500_1261.jpg
- http://www.rediscov.com/spring/VFPCGI.exe?IDCFile=/spring/DETAILS.IDC,SPECIFIC=594,DATABASE=objects,
- http://www.thegunzone.com/spiw.html
- http://www.google.com/patents?id=IoJgAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PPA1,M1
The original article can be found at Olin/Winchester Salvo Rifle and the edit history here.