Colt-Browning Automatic Machine Gun
"The machine-gun, with Pokey Powell in charge, was carried on our backs."
Lt Smedley D Butler, USMC
The Marine Battalion had the more modern automatic Colt machine gun. They were not without their problems. According to the official reports, in one action "The Colt gun having jammed several times… was disabled and abandoned." (Daggett).
Colt M1895 Automatic Machine Gun
Calibre: 6mm USN Feed system: 250 round canvas belt
Overall length: 41" Sights: Front: hooded blade
Barrel length: 28" Rear: aperture, 200-2000 yds
Weight: Gun: 35-40lbs Tripod: 28-56lbs
Light Landing Carriage: 146lbs
Light Landing Carriage, 1,920 rounds of boxed ammo: 290lb
Mount 28.5 lb
Light Landing Carriage, 1,920 rounds of ammo, gun & mount 353lb
Rate of fire: 450 rounds per minute
The Colt's operating action, whilst not completely reliable, was relatively robust. Gas operated an exposed lever under the barrel in an arc downward then upward & forward to chambered a cartridge. The action gave the gun its nickname, ‘Potato Digger', from the dirt kicked up by the lever by a gun placed too close to the ground.
The rate of fire was slow compared to the Maxim, its main design competitor. The Colt was meant to be fired in bursts rather than in continual and extended firing, but was simpler, lighter and therefore easier to handle, important factors for naval service.
Although there are numerous reports of action stoppages in combat in China, most could be fixed, but they did further slow the already slow effective rate of fire. The slower rate of fire lessened the chances of overheating, however, a common problem with non-water cooled guns.
A detachable exchangeable very heavy barrel absorbed and dispelled the heat of firing, and connected to a breach casing containing the charging, firing and ejecting mechanism. The cartridge belt was in a quick-attachment box which fitted to the left side of the gun to maintain supply when traversing, up-and-down 39° & horizontally 360°.
On ships the USN used the guns as anti-torpedo weapons. For landing duties they were mounted on a 2 wheeled light landing carriage or a tripod. The carriage had wooden wheels, axle washers with eyes for haulage ropes, 2 axle arms connected together by the axle body, to the middle of which was a socket which took the steel tubing trail, which had a wooden cross piece for moving the carriage.
The trail had a seat for the operator. Two removable ammo chests on the carriage held 8 feed boxes and a box of spare parts. The gun with the Peking defenders was on a wheeled mount.
Carriages were painted grey (from the Spanish-American War onwards it appears everything in the USN was). Carriage mount was unpainted brass; gun and ammo feed box were painted black.
Tripods were steel tubing, painted black, with brass shoes to prevent them sinking into the ground during firing. A seat was attached to the rear leg by an adjustable clamp. The rear leg also had a leather tool bag for spare parts and accessories attached.
Given the quote by Lt Butler about his men carrying the gun on their backs, theirs was clearly tripod mounted. This is also supported by USN Cadet Taussig's diary, where he records the USN force at Tientsin's Colt machine gun was ‘…mounted on a tripod.'
ponders nirvana.
