Quote:
|
Basically the stocks on those old military rifles are heavier and thicker than the stocks on sporting arms. That is because, besides the obvious durability benefit, they were intended for men to fight with. As in hand to hand combat fight. Bayonet lunges, block & parry beat the enemy's head in type fight.
|
Best Answer.
Without a full handguard it'd be darn hard to even attempt a bayonet lunge or a buttstroke if the barrel is sizzling hot from a "mad minute" ..... and with a 40, 60, or 80 round basic load, you might need that blade on the end of your now smoking but silent thunderstick .....
The Generals that ran these early 20th Century Armies suffered from a terrible case of institutional inertia, and were trained in Military Schools that spent much more time on Close Order Drill than investigating new ideas ..... they saw the infantry rifles as little more than much improved muskets- a pike that could soften up the enemy from a distance, just from a greater distance and faster ...... It was not the Cavalry that came up with the Blitzkrieg- Heinz Guderian was originally a Signal Officer and then trained in Military Intelligence, Transportation and Supply. New ideas did not come from the established schools - new schools were created for new technologies, and these new schools produced the leaders with the new ideas.