Lot 3596: J.C. White Self-Loading Rifle 30-06
Extremely Rare One-of-a-Kind J.C. White “Experimental” Semi-Automatic Rifle Chambered in 30-06 with Unique Side Mounted Gas System
This is a fabulous example of “one of three” different J. C. White “Experimental” semi-automatic rifles that we have for sale in this auction. These three White experimental rifles remained virtually undiscovered for over 50 years in an unknown martial arms collection until discovered and purchased in 2006. This amazing discovery is discussed in the fall 2006 issue of the Garand Gun Collector Journal, on pages 3-11 with these very unique and intriguing rifles being discussed in several areas of the books “Hatcher’s Notebook” and the “Book of the M1 Garand” by Julian Hatcher. It is amazing that all three rifles were still together after all these years and all three were stored in the same wooden box. These three rifle were developed as prototype/test example for the U. S. Army in the early 1930s when the U.S. Army was looking for a new semi-automatic rifle. All three are certainly “unique” and certainly “One-of-a-Kind” rifles that represent three different approaches being developed for the U.S. Military. The White story is intriguing and sketchy at best, and began in 1929 when the War Department issued an invitation to all manufacturers for the development and submission of candidate semi-automatic rifles for testing. In August 1929, J.C. White, who was a young engineer and firearms inventor that was working for the United Shoe Machinery Company in Mass at the time, presented to the U.S. Ordnance Board his unfinished, early prototype semi-automatic rifle designed for testing and evaluation. As part of his submission, he asked that he be granted an additional six-weeks extension to complete his rifle so that a full and complete evaluation could be conducted of his weapon. His weapon was accepted, however, he was denied the extension and as such his candidate weapon was disapproved. At that time the U.S. Government already had on hand, “six” different candidates for testing and evaluation; four were rejected with the other two being approved for further testing; those being the M1 Garand and Pedersen rifles. Undaunted he continued to work and develop his candidate rifles and in so doing in May 1930, he did submit it to the board “two” other completed rifles for testing. This example was actually designed and submitted as a 30 caliber (30-06) “Light Machine Gun” for testing by the Ordnance Board, although this example only fires in a semi-automatic mode. The gas system of this design is very similar to a long-operating rod type gas system as used on the M1 Garand, FN-FAL and AK47 type rifles, where the left side of the receiver has a long tube or housing which contains the actual operating rod that is attached directly to the left side of the breech bolt. It also uses the same concept of a gas impingement system on the front left side of the barrel to bleed off gas during the firing cycle to actually drive the operating rod rearward. This rifle has been actually identified as the predecessor to the later .276 self-loading rifle, with its gas system that evolved into the M1E4 rifle. Although awkward it was innovative and very unique for the time. Some other interesting features of this design are that it fires from an open bolt, it was fitted with a detachable box magazine. Also it has unique bolt locking block that is mounted on the rear of the bolt instead of on the front end. This design although very unique, was rejected by the U.S. Ordnance Board’s and in the report it was noted that it was intended to demonstrate the gas-system on the rifle, however it went on to criticize the weapon by saying that it was too heavy, had no provisions for a quick change barrel, bipod, or tripod, the location of the gas cylinder and operating rod would adversely affect the accuracy of the rifle. It also went on to say that the rifle was sufficiently developed for military service requirements. It is fitted with a 1903 Springfield barrel that was provided by the Government for companies interested in developing rifles for service use. The barrel is marked SA 11-16/A with the rear end modified for this action. It has a full length, very heavy and robust walnut stock with cooling holes on the underside like the other two rifles, with finger grooves on the sides. The rear half of the stock (the buttstock portion) is identical to an “S” stock for a 1903 Springfield rifle. It has a high, fixed blade front sight with no provisions for a rear sight. A very unique and certainly one of kind White experimental gas operated semi-automatic rifle. It is accompanied by the noted GCA article, a short article by Anthony Williams on the history of the White rifles and copies of the various patent filings for this rifle.
Lot 3595: J.C. White Self-Loading Rifle 30-06
Extremely Rare Unique J.C. White “Experimental” 30-06 Semi-Automatic Rifle with Pedersen Type Toggle Locked Breech Mechanism and Documentation
This is a fabulous example of “one-of-three” different J. C. White “Experimental” semi-automatic rifles that we have for sale in this auction. These three White experimental rifles remained virtually undiscovered for over 50 years in an unknown martial arms collection until discovered and purchased in 2006. This amazing discovery is discussed in the fall 2006 issue of the Garand Gun Collector journal, on pages 3-11 with these very unique and intriguing rifles being discussed in several areas of the books “Hatcher’s Notebook” and the “Book of the M1 Garand” by Julian Hatcher. It is amazing that all three rifles were still together after all these years and all three were stored in the same wooden box. These three rifles were developed as prototype/test example for the U. S. Army in the early 1930s when the U.S. Army was looking for a new semi-automatic rifle. All three are certainly “unique” and certainly “One of a Kind” rifles that represent three different approaches being developed for the U.S. Military. The White story is intriguing and sketchy at best, and began in 1929 when the War Department issued an invitation to all manufacturers for the development and submission of candidate semi-automatic rifles for testing. In August 1929, J.C. White, who was a young engineer and firearms inventor that was working for the United Shoe Machinery Company in Mass at the time, presented to the U.S. Ordnance Board his unfinished, early prototype semi-automatic rifle designed for testing and evaluation. As part of his submission, he asked that he be granted an additional six-weeks extension to complete his rifle so that a full and complete evaluation could be conducted of his weapon. His weapon was accepted, however, he was denied the extension and as such his candidate weapon was disapproved. At that time the U.S. Government already had on hand, “six” different candidates for testing and evaluation; four were rejected with the other two being approved for further testing; those being the M1 Garand and Pedersen rifles. Undaunted he continued to work and develop his candidate rifles and in so doing in May 1930, he did submit it to the board “two” other completed rifles for testing. This example is actually a full sized semi-automatic rifle which fired the standard military 30-06 cartridge. It was obviously intended to compete against the Garand and Pedersen designed rifles. It has very similar handling characteristic to the M1, however it utilized a toggle-lock type breech/action mechanism that is very similar to the Pedersen design, combined with an almost blow-back recoil system very similar to the later M1941 Johnson Automatic rifle design. In this configuration the barrel and the receiver are fixed together and actually recoil rearward during the cycling of the action. Its assumed that this rearward movement, initiates the unlocking of the toggle breech mechanism. It uses an enbloc magazine design similar to the Garand and Pedersen. It has a full length one-piece walnut stock with has perforated cooling holes on the underside of the stock with a short half-length perforated steel handguard or heat shield on top of the barrel. The sides of the stock has deep finger grooves and the rear section of the stock is identical to a 1903 Springfield pistol grip stock. The front barrel band has a integral bayonet lug on the underside and doubles as a barrel band to stabilize the barrel during the recoil cycle. It has a fixed blade front sight with a fully adjustable rear also similar in design to the pedersen rifles. Although the rifle appears to be very robust and extremely well machined, it was not tested much, as it was considered way too complicated for a military service rifle. The written report on the rifle noted that it handles well, is not unduly heavy and is free from awkward projections. It also states that the method of retaining the action and barrel to the stock is totally unsatisfactory and would not be suitable for bayonet fighting. A very unique and certainly one of kind White experimental gas operated semi-automatic rifle. It is accompanied by the noted GCA article, a short article by Anthony Williams on the history of the White rifles, copies of the various patent filings for this rifle and one original enbloc magazine designed for this rifle.
Lot 3597: J.C. White Semi-Automatic Rifle 276
Extremely Rare Unique J.C. White “Experimental” Semi-Automatic Rifle Chambered in .276 Cartridge with Unique Gas System and Crate
This is a fabulous example of “one of the three” different J. C. White “Experimental” semi-automatic rifles that we have for sale in this auction. These three white experimental rifles remained virtually undiscovered for over 50 years in an unknown martial arms collection until discovered and purchased in 2006. This amazing discovery is discussed in the fall 2006 issue of the Garand Gun Collector Journal on pages 3-11 and these very unique and intriguing rifle are discussed in several areas of the books “Hatcher’s Notebook” and the “Book of the M1 Garand” by Julian Hatcher. It is amazing that all three rifles were still together in the included wooden crate after all these years. These three rifle were developed as prototype/test example for the U. S. Army in the early 1930s when the U.S. Army was looking for a new semi-automatic rifle. All three are certainly “unique” and certainly “One of a Kind” rifles that represent three different approaches being developed for the U.S. Military. The White story is intriguing and sketchy at best, and began in 1929 when the War Department issued an invitation to all manufacturers for the development and submission of candidate semi-automatic rifles for testing. In August 1929, J.C. White, who was a young engineer and firearms inventor that was working for the United Shoe Machinery Company in Mass at the time, presented to the U.S. Ordnance Board his unfinished, early prototype semi-automatic rifle designed for testing and evaluation. As part of his submission, he asked that he be granted an additional six-weeks extension to complete his rifle so that a full and complete evaluation could be conducted of his weapon. His weapon was accepted, however, he was denied the extension and as such his candidate weapon was disapproved. At that time the U.S. Government already had on hand six different candidates for testing and evaluation; four were rejected with the other two being approved for further testing; those being the M1 Garand and Pedersen rifles. Undaunted, he continued to work and develop his candidate rifles, and in May 1930, he did submit to the board two other completed rifles for testing. This rifle is the third example (for lack of a better designation) of a rare J.C. White rifle that we have the opportunity to offer for sale in this auction. This example is completely different mechanically than the first two rifles and was a dramatic improvement over the first and second rifles in that it uses a “gas piston” system to cycle the action. The action as designed was short, compact and some what squarish that was cycled using a small amount of propellant gas, which was bleed off from a small port on the underside of the barrel. The unique aspect of this system is that it used a small sliding gas piston (located inside a gas cylinder) mounted on the underside of the barrel. This concept was similar to a stream engine sliding valve that allowed only a small amount of gas to expand into a cylinder, but was limited or cut off by the sliding piston inside the cylinder. This helped control the operating cycle or port pressure of the rifle which in theory made the operating system more consistent and more robust when cycling the action. A common problem with the M1 was with the direct impingement gas system of the rifle, where in some instance the operating rods can be damage (bent) during firing if a higher pressure cartridge was fired through the rifle; usually due to using rifle powder with too slow a burning rate. This system was tested, evaluated and approved but was in reality too late to be considered a significant contender against the Garand rifle design as that rifle was too far along in actually development and production. Consequently, this White gas system lay dormant for the next 12-15 years until it was revived in late 1943, early 1944 when the U.S. Army started looking at way to redesign and improve the gas system used on the M1 Garand. These efforts finally came to fruition after WWII when Springfield Armory continued their redesign efforts on the M1 rifle and came up with the M1E4 rifle. This redesigned/new improved gas system for the M1 Garand rifle used a modified version of the original J.C. Whites gas system (which was a sliding gas piston, housed inside a gas cylinder mounted on the underside of the barrel). As we know today, this system eventually evolved in the successful M14 rifle design. Although over shadowed by the unique gas-piston system, this rifle also employed some rather unique mechanical designs, one being a short sliding (non-rotating) bolt system that had fixed locking lugs on the front end of the bolt, with the corresponding locking block in the receiver moving “up and down” to lock the bolt each time the rifle was fired. This allowed for a fixed barrel and receiver in which the barrel was just screwed into the receiver with headspace being controlled by this vertical locking block system. This would have certainly made rifle production much easier and faster in a mass production type factory but more complicated from a design stand point . This rifle design also used the “enbloc” type magazine with a recoil spring also mounted on the underside of the barrel behind the gas system similar to the M14 rifles. It is fitted with a full length walnut stock with steel perforated handguard that runs almost the full length of the barrel. It has a fixed blade front sight with a fully adjustable rear sight with a Merit Iris screw in peep sight. The front half of the stock is very similar to an original Pedersen/Vickers rifle in that it has cooling holes on the underside with finger grooves on the sides, with the rear half of the stock(buttstock area) identical to a 1903 Springfield pistol grip stock. It has a side mounted bayonet lug on the barrel. A very unique and certainly one of kind White experimental gas operated semi-automatic rifle. It is accompanied by the noted GCA article, a short article by Anthony Williams on the history of the White rifles and copies of the various patent filings for this rifle and one original White designed enbloc magazine for this rifle.
