Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW
If you allow "rapid fire" to include "several accurate shots per trooper before the enemy can close to contact" the idea goes back at least to ACW .
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It would probably go back rather farher than that as it would include bows.
The defintion would probably need to be something like "an effective battlefield weapon with a ROF of 2+ and a magazine of at least 10 shots". Without the "effective" you'd have to count the Volcanic. With it the first applicable weapon is the Winchester 1866 with the 1873 in 44-40 being somewhat more effective in terms of range and damage.
Ideally I'd want a detachable magazine and if I don't lower the mag-size number I've excluded the M-1 Garand.
Probably we're talking about the Maxim gun as the first effective rapidfire weapon if we don't include "portable".