In 1893 Peter Mauser upset the apple cart with the development of his 1893 Model, which was adopted by Spain along with the 7x57 Mauser cartridge which used a 175 grain round nosed bullet at roughly 2400 fps. Thus beginning an arms race. The slightly improved Model 94 was sold in Carbine form to Sweden chambered for the Union 6.5x55 cartridge shared with Norway. In 1895 Argentina, Chile and a few others adopted the 1895 Model in their choice of cartridges. The Swedes came back for the Model 96 as a rifle. Germany waited until the pinnacle 1898 Mauser had been developed. The Spanish-American War caused the US to abandon their almost new Krags and develop the 1903 Springfield with a .30 caliber cartridge propelling a 220 grain bullet at about .2300 fps. Germany with their Mauser Model 98s stepped up the velocity with a pointed 154 grain bullet at 2900 fps in their 7.92x57 JS cartridge forcing the US to shorten thier Springfield's barrels by one thread and rechambering for the .30-06 cartridge, just 1/10 of an inch shorter with the 150 grain bullet at 2750 fps. Britian, in the midst of adopting a .276 (7mm) cartridge for use the the Enfield Pattern 14 rifle, got caught by WWI and held on to their old Smelly's (SMLEs) with the formerly black powder .303 updated with cordite powder. Japan developed a Mauser derivitative Arisaka Type 38 in 1905 chambered for the 6.5x50 SR which they held onto until 1938 when they adopted a 7.7 mm cartridge to allow the use of tracer, armor piercing and other speciality rounds, not able to fit in the 6.5 bullet. Most other European countries used some version of Mannlichers models mostly in 6.5 or 7mm cartridges. The Russians developed their own rifle the Moison-Nagant based on patents of a Belgian named Nagant. Like the US they used a 7.62 caliber cartridge although theirs is rimmed. All of these countries held on to what they had through the outbreak of WWII except the US which developed the self loading Garand in the short span of peice time. Since then firepower has reigned supreme. :roll:
