The Clarke carbine was a prototype carbine submitted to U.S military testing in 1944.
History[]
The Clarke carbine was presented by Howard Clarke, CEO of the Clarke Arms Corporation, to the Aberdeen proving grounds on April 12, 1944. Even though the army already adopted the Winchester M1 carbine, they still considered the Clarke for theoretical replacement. Through April 13th to the 18th of 1944, the Clarke carbine was compared in testing to the M1 carbine. While there were some advantages of the Clarke's design over the Winchester design, it was ultimately not considered for adoption.[1]
Design Details[]
The Clarke carbine is one of very few designs of firearm that uses a Primer-actuated operating system. This means the the cartridges have to be manufactured so the the primer is allowed to 'back-out' of the case. Once this happens, through the process of firing, the primer will push on a piston inside the bolt head that will unlock the system. The basic 'aesthetic' layout of the Clarke is similar to the M1 carbine, but with a few differences. Notably, the charging handle and the recoil spring were mounted inside the stock and the charging handle sticks out of a slot on the side, just above the magazine. The testing concluded that the assembly of the charging handle in the stock was poor, compared to the easy assembly of the rest of the gun. Another notable strike against the Clarke carbine is that the outside diameter of the barrel was too large to accommodate the M8 grenade launcher.[1]
Ammunition[]
The ammunition used by the Clarke carbine was a special version of the .30 caliber carbine round, were the primer can back out of its pocket.
References[]
War Baby! by Larry L. Ruth