Hi Renrich,
>Here was a seven shot, repeating, breech loading, self contained metallic cartridge rifle which saw some service in the war which was discarded after the war for a single shot rifle and carbine.
I'm not an expert on this period, but I've heard from a friend of mine that the Spencer carbine actually was quite successful on the battlefield, which would make the step backwards you're describing all the more surprising.
Likewise, my friend mentioned that the Winchester repeaters were used with great success by the Turkish against the Russians, though only in minor engagements ... really makes one wonder why the idea didn't catch on.
>Last observation; I don't believe a full auto rifle is needed for the standard weapon in the US Army. A handy, accurate, powerful, reliable, semi auto rifle coupled with a soldier who has extensive marksmanship training is the ticket IMHO.
You might have a point there. Are you familiar with the H&K G11, though? It is capable of firing bursts of three rounds from the recoiling barrel, getting out all three rounds before the recoil is transferred to the shoulder of the soldier. Thus, the recoil has no chance of disturbing his aim and the accuracy is virtually the same as in single-shot mode. I believe there is a recent Russian weapon of more conventional construction that fires doublets in a similar way.
(The G11 might be too specialized a design to be "universally ideal", having been built for a conventional Third World War started by numerically vastly superior Warsaw Pact armies invading Western Germany. In other environments, I could imagine that you might want to compromise some rate of fire for long-range capability, for example.)
Not that I'm an expert, my hands-on experience is limited to the old H&K G3 service rifle.
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)