Gewehr 41

The Gewehr 41 was a German semi-automatic rifle of the Second World War, built in two distinct and incompatible versions by Walther and Mauser and chambered for the 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge. Both designs used a gas-trap mechanism, sometimes called the Bang system, that diverted propellant gas to drive a piston that cycled the action, feeding from a fixed ten-round magazine. About 120,000 were produced between 1941 and 1945. The Walther version proved more practical than the Mauser, but the rifle as a whole was heavy, complex and unreliable, and it was superseded by the improved Gewehr 43.