4-22-2016 1500 hours: Longtime machine gun aficionado and gun culture personality James Lester Ballou died today at the age of 75. He was pre-deceased by his wife Pat, whom he married at the North Country Shoot in Stratford Hollow, NH. They were married during the machine gun shoot, sealed the nuptials by firing twin Thompson Submachine Guns, and then rode off for their honeymoon atop a live Sherman tank.

Jim was a regular at machine gun shoots around the country from the mid-1980s on, and he wrote articles for Machine Gun News and was a regular contributor to Small Arms Review among other magazines. His passion was for any John Browning invention, but in particular it was the 1918 series Browning Automatic Rifle. His pride and joy was a genuine, original transferable Colt Monitor, one of 150 or so made, the FBI’s first “Fighting Rifle” from the 1930s. Jim was extremely proud of this and the trip to Idaho he took to see his friend, the late Kent Lomont, when his transfer came in.

Jim may hold a world’s record of sorts, his personal hobby was to fire every known machine gun, have his picture taken doing so, and he would only top that if he could fire one in each hand. The count was well into the high 300s
when last reported.

He donated his excellent collection of 1911 series pistols to the NRA Museum, where they are on display.

Many who knew him will remember his kindness, and the time he would take to teach, explain, and demonstrate various firearms, interspersing the discussions with historic tidbits.

Jim considered his magnum opus to be the BAR book: Rock in a Hard Place: The Browning Automatic Rifle, with 500 pages and 751 illustrations. This has always been “The” book on the BAR, published by Collector Grade Publications.

Many of Jim’s articles from SAR are available online at www.smallarmsreview.com and we continue to post more there in The Archives on a monthly basis. Jim requested that we include his articles from the old “Machine Gun News” and we will do so in the future.

The saga of this most innovative rifle begins in late 1990 when the noted firearms editor, William B. Edwards, found a rifle shoved behind a divider in the museum section of the engineering department at Winchester. The museum curator, Tom Hall, allowed Mr. Edwards to research the then “unknown” piece. What they discovered leads to a most interesting story of secret weapons and lost opportunities. The research led to an article published in the NRA Journal for the American Arms Collector, Man at Arms, (Vol. 13, No. 1, January/February 1991), titled The Burton Balloon Buster by William B. Edwards. Mr. Edwards emphatically asserted that this was indeed the first true assault rifle; developed in 1917. The father of this remarkable weapon was none other than Frank B. Burton, the noted engineer who worked with John Browning on the first BAR.

By definition, an assault rifle should be an in-line stock, with selective fire, and be chambered for an intermediate round. The Winchester Machine Rifle, hereafter referred to as WMR, fits all the parameters for an assault rifle, though designed in 1916, according to Konrad F. Schreier, Jr. as he wrote about it in ARMAX, The Journal of the Cody Firearms Museum (Vol. III, No. 1, 1990). It came about as an effort to defeat German observation balloons in World War I. The deadly weakness of these balloons was the Germans were forced to use flammable hydrogen to lift them into the air and all it would take is one tracer round to ignite the hydrogen. This is the reason Mr. Burton developed his machine rifle. He had developed the whole line of semiautomatic rifles that Winchester marketed, known as the 1907 Self Loading Rifles. The cartridge he chose was the .351 SLR – it was not a pistol cartridge, nor a rifle round: it was a true intermediate cartridge. He built his weapon based upon a .345 SLR with a 173 grain bullet as the projectile was large enough to contain an incendiary charge.

Description of the Self Loading Rifle by Mr. Burton

The rifle was designed with an in-line stock that required a high front sight. It fired from an open bolt, for cooling. It came with two barrels; one for aircraft use and another for assault purposes, after it had been removed from the Scarff mount in the back seat of the plane. The latter had a bayonet lug. The most unusual feature of the design was two vertical forty round magazines that entered the receiver at a 60 degree angle. The magazines would feed one at a time, and then pulled upward a short distance to allow the second magazine to be pushed down into a feeding position in the weapon. Due to the fact that it is an in-line rifle that recoils straight into the shoulder, it requires a pistol grip to counteract the torqueing motion caused by the twist of the projectile. The grip is quite ample that contains a conventional trigger and a second trigger that protrudes below the guard that is the safety. This lower trigger must be pulled at the same time as the upper trigger and is the only safety.

The concept of a straight blowback weapon firing from an open bolt was relatively new in 1916, and so was the idea of an automatic weapon. Mr. Burton seemed to have a handle on the concept, for he utilized a large recoil spring that went all the way into the rear of the stock. A cocking handle protrudes beneath the receiver. The whole gun is reminiscent of a German MG 15. There is a distinct ring around the receiver to fit in the Scarff mount of the observer’s seat in an airplane. Once removed from the mount there is a special barrel equipped with a sling swivel and bayonet lug for assault use. Burton must have given careful thought for its application. There is a horizontal foregrip to protect the fingers of the shooter, very much like the BAR.

The Winchester .345 Machine Rifle Cartridge

What is so remarkable is the cartridge Mr. Burton designed for his unique rifle. It is almost as if he could see into the future for the need of an assault rifle round. He took a bullet and shell combination that he had designed, the .351 SLR, and made it a vehicle for an incendiary or tracer round. He took a brass case of 1.375 inch length and .375 inch neck diameter. To this he added 18 grains of 1908 Bear powder, and he topped it with a .348 inch, 173 grain, pointed, cupronickel-jacketed bullet to produce a “Balloon Busting” package that would move out at 1,849 fps. It reminds one of the new Hornady “Thumper”.450 Bushmaster.

One wonders why this advanced weapon was never produced. It was tested at the Springfield Armory but no results have been found. Perhaps it was ahead of its time and the tactics of the day could not see a use for it.

(The author would like to thank Donald G. Thomas of Marietta, Georgia for his efforts in assisting in research on this gun and its ammunition.)

Specifications
Caliber: .345 WSLR
Length: 45.5 inches
Weight: 10 pounds
Barrel length: 25 inches
Magazine: 80-rounds, dual 40-round box
Muzzle vel.: 1,849 fps
Action: Blowback
Ejection: Through bottom
Cyclic Rate: 800 rpm

“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” of the Londonderry, New Hampshire Fish and Game Club. Though late October and Fall in the North Country, the day is clear and warm. A group of dedicated shooters lie in wait in a sincere pumpkin patch waiting for the “Great Pumpkin” to rise so that a half dozen belt feds and an equal amount of assault weapons can create pumpkin puree of the assorted targets placed strategically down range.

Linus, our range officer, looks up and down the line to be sure we are all sincere about safety before he unleashes a hail of fire on our whimsical but strictly biodegradable targets.

This is the Second Annual Shoot that Jim McLoud has invited us to. There are more than fifty or sixty spectators gathered on this beautiful Fall day to see us exercise our Second Amendment rights.

On the line you will find many veterans of the North Country and Sir Hiram Maxim shoots. Stan Andrewski is there to lend his expertise to ailing MG’s. Bob “Bubba” Naess is there with several exotic belt feds including his 1910 Russian Maxim and a rare post war MG 42 in 7.62 x 51mm. Speaking of Russians, a new face is in evidence, Alexi, affectionately called the “Mad Russian”, with an RPD and PPSh-41.

Also new to the shoot was Joe Kasparian, who had a 1919 A4 that proved John Browning is still King of the Line. It is rare today to find a club that will host a shoot like this and offer such luxurious shooting facilities. We shot from a clean enclosed position, from benches that were not bullet riddled nor was the area littered with junk or hazardous materials. This was still a pristine area deep in the woods of New Hampshire where the air was clear and crisp, and we left it that way at the end of the shoot.

My amiable companions were Jim Crump, who supplied the photos for this tome and Vic Duphily whose mechanical skills are phenomenal and last but not least Maria Giannette who supplied the food and drink and also added beauty to the van load of beasts.

It is imperative that we support generous clubs like these and leave a good impression upon all who watch, that we are not a threat to their safety, nor do we bear harm to anyone.

We are excersizing our Second Amendment rights, and having a ball doing it, despite the gun grabbers who wish to disarm us.

May you too find a sincere pumpkin patch.