The General Liu rifle (named for its designer – it never received an official designation that we know of) was China’s closest approach to an indigenous self-loading infantry rifle before World War II. Mechanically it used the same principles as the Danish Bang rifle – a muzzle cup captured some of the gases from firing and was pulled forward, moving a cam and lever that cycled the bolt.
The Colt company of Hartford was contracted to supply the machinery to mass-produce the rifle, and about a dozen sample rifles were built by Colt. They were tested in China and met with general approval, and the machinery was loaded up and shipped to Shanghai. Unfortunately, General Liu died before the tooling arrived, and it ended up sitting on the docks for about 2 years, as the rifle project foundered and never cam to fruition without Liu’s supervision. The tools were eventually sent to an arsenal and repurposed for producing other guns.
Videos
Manuals
(1916) Hanyang Arsenal report on the General Liu rifle (Chinese)
(1916) Hanyang Arsenal report on the General Liu rifle (English translation)
Photographs
These photos are provided courtesy of Bin Shih. Click to download high resolution copies: General Liu photos
Resources
http://www.gunboards.com/sites/mrj2003/China/LiuRifle2/LiuBin.htm#Top_LiuBin – An article on the General Liu rifle written Bin Shih
Cool demo. Do you have a link for Bin Shih’s book in the FGW library?
I was under impression the machinery never made it to China and the General died soon after the ship sank? I could be wrong however.
The machinery arrived in China, but it was repurposed. Without Liu around to run the program, none of the rifles were ever made outside Connecticut.