Atomic Age bolt-gun: the Madsen M47
Just after World War II, with the world awash in new semi-auto and select-fire rifles and submachine guns, one European company decided it was a good idea to attempt to sell a dated, but excellent, bolt-action infantry rifle.
Who was Madsen?
In the 1890s one Captain Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen, (who later became the Danish Minister of War) founded the Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat A/S, or Danish Royal Rifle Company in Herlev near Copenhagen, which more commonly carried his name, Madsen. The company’s signature product was the M1896/03/21/50 Madsen light machine gun, which still sees use around the (third) world today.
We’ve talked about this bad boy before…
On top of this, the company made a line of Schouboe pistols in numerous calibers– some of which in .45ACP even competed against the Colt M1911 in the U.S. Army pistol trials. Speaking of which, Madsen even submitted a novel .30-06 recoil operated infantry rifle to the U.S. Army for testing in 1903, though the five prototypes, still in Springfield Armory’s museum, were prone to jam with the big aught-six.
Then came the more successful 20 mm AA Machine Cannon M/38– which zapped a number of hapless German Panzers in the country’s one-morning’s combat against the Nazi invaders in 1940 and then was captured and used by the Germans themselves on the Eastern Front.
These big truck-mounted 20mm guns were among the first “Technicals” and caught the Germans by surprise.
Although the good Mr. Madsen passed on in 1917, his company survived through both World Wars in 1946, rising from the ashes of German occupation, attempted to rechristen their line with an updated version of their famous light machine gun (which was bought in small numbers by Portugal) as well as three new weapons.
The first of these was the 9mm M/45 submachine gun. This open-bolt burp gun ripped out 9mm at 850 rounds per minute. Using the same standard 50-round magazine as the Finnish Suomi, they were not successful.
Then came the simpler M46/50/53 series of 9mm submachine guns that garnered a number of international sales across Central America and Southeast Asia and is still produced under license as the INA Model 953 in Brazil.
While the first two new entries were forward thinking, the third gun was something of a throwback to an earlier time.
Enter the M47…
Read more in my column at Firearms Talk