The Huot automatic rifle was a Canadian automatic rifle adaptation of the Ross Mark III designed by Joseph Alphonse Huot in 1916 and produced by the Dominion Rifle Factory in prototype form only. The weapon was intended for a light machine gun role and was intended to be adopted; the end of the war ultimately prevented this.
History[]
During the mid-1910s, the Canadian Army was in short supply of machine guns, but a large supply of surplus rifles as the Ross rifle had recently been withdrawn from service.[1] An inventor from Quebec, Joseph Huot, decided to take the Ross and modify it as such; his first prototype shared numerous parts with the Ross Mark III and subsequently filed patents for the design, and would approach the government to license produce the design.[2]
A polished version of the weapon was manufactured by the Dominion Rifle Factory which was subsequently submitted for various tests. Numerous tests of the rifle were conducted, leading to further tests and eventually culminating in Minister of Militia Sydney Mewburn recommending that the rifle be adopted by the British Army; to achieve this, Huot and a number of officers sailed to the United Kingdom to submit the rifle to RSAF Enfield, and thus began an extensive test of the weapon.[2]
The Huot was tested against various other machine guns and automatic weapons of the time, namely the Lewis gun, Hotchkiss M1909 and the Farquhar-Hill. Results were highly favorable, with the Huot being much better than its competitors in most regards; despite the Huot coming across some issues, those were regarded as being able to be addressed through simple fixes.[2]
The weapon was also field-tested in France; those who used the Huot were highly impressed, with LtGen Arthur Currie requesting that 5,000 be purchased, arguing casualties required the increased firepower of the remaining man in a squad, in addition to allowing their men to counter the increasing number of German machine guns. The weapon was also considerably cheaper when compared to the Lewis.[3] Maj. Robert Blair claimed that tooling was available in Canada and that the Dominion Rifle Factory was ready to manufacture Huot rifles en masse, using parts from Rosses slated to be scrapped.[2]
Enfield was still invested in the design, requesting Huot to enact a number of design changes to the weapon to make it suitable for use by the British Army. As Huot was busy improving the design, World War I came to its close and the idea was swiftly dropped as there was no longer a demand for additional weapons.[4] At this stage, Huot was some CA$30,000 out of pocket (about CA$461,326 in 2020 dollars).[2]
A total of four Huot rifles are known to survive, although it is unclear as to how many were produced. Maj. Blair is said to have taken one of the rifles as a personal souvenir.
Design Details[]
The Huot in essence is a heavily modified Ross rifle. It featured a gas piston off to the left side of the weapon, a buffer system to cushion recoil adapted into the bolt and a modified stock used to accommodate a steel barrel shroud which appears to have been inspired by what was on the Lewis.[4]
The weapons fed from 25-round detachable drum magazines; to reload the drum, a special 25-round stripper clip was used.[5] The weapons were also shipped in a heavy leather carrying case. The weapon was mostly made of sheet metal. The price to rebuild a Ross Mark III into a Huot rifle was said to be CA$50 (CA$769 in 2020 dollars).
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare (London: Phoebus, 1978), Volume 13, p.1385, "Huot".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Phillips, Roger F. The Ross Rifle Story (Sydney, NS: James A. Chadwick, 1984)
- ↑ Public Archives of Canada, Record Group 24
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://forgottenfirearms.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-huot-light-machine-gun-that-almost.html
- ↑ https://youtu.be/ZYJsr74ABXU