Federov Avtomat: The First “Assault Rifle”?

It is a well-worn descriptor, often used by shooters the world over to identify a type of gun but just where did the term “assault rifle” come from and what was the first one? Frenchie explains…

It is a demonstrable fact that the vast majority of airsofters play using some variant of an “assault rifle” - a dreadful term only used pejoratively these days by members of the media. The term, as most of you probably know, traces its origins back to a certain Herr Hitler, who coined the term for a gun which he had initially expressly rejected and then embraced; the MP43/44 – the SturmGewehr. The Stg44 defined the modern battle rifle but was it actually the first assault rifle?

The answer depends upon how you define an “assault rifle”. The generally accepted definition is that they fire an intermediate cartridge, are selective fire and are fed from a detachable magazine and there is a rifle that predates the StG44 by at least 30 years which (sort of) did all of that, the Federov M1916.

The design of the Federov was started in 1906 by Vladimir Fyodorov, assisted by Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov. By 1911, the rifle had been submitted to the Rifle Commission of the Russian army for trials, doing sufficiently well for an order for a further 150 to be placed for further testing. At the time, the Federov was chambered for a 6.5mm round of Fyodorov’s own design, which was less powerful than the currently fielded 7.62x54mm Russian round. The rifle had a fixed magazine and was fed by stripper clip. At this point in its design, it was only capable of semi-automatic fire.

NOT IMPRESSED