Buried Moros dead wrapped in hog carcasses too. But the new M1911 pistol and Springfield Rifle’s M1903 Mauser clone (and its clumsy predecessor the Krag) were probably more responsible for success in that long and vicious guerilla war.
” ... But the new M1911 pistol and Springfield Rifle’s M1903 Mauser clone (and its clumsy predecessor the Krag) were probably more responsible for success in that long and vicious guerilla war.”
katana hasn’t described the timeline accurately.
The fight between US forces and the juramentados of Mindanao was long (ca 1900-1913) and vicious. Field reports on weapon effectiveness indicated the standard sidearm of the day - “Colt’s New Army & Navy” revolver firing 38 Long Colt ammunition (150gr lead bullet at 750 ft/sec) - fared poorly at stopping Moro opponents, prompting extensive tests by US Ordnance Corps (Thompson/LaGarde tests), which led to a War Dept policy requiring any future handgun to have a bullet diameter of 0.45 inch or greater.
What’s rarely mentioned in popular accounts, is that the issue rifle then in use - M1898 Krag - did not stop Moros all that effectively either. The only small arm providing reliable results turned out to be the shotgun at close range.
The 30-40 Krag cartridge fired a 220gr round-nose bullet to some 2000 ft/sec - more powerful than the 30-30. It was judged unsatisfactory because it lacked any capability to be rapidly reloaded; Ordnance tried to develop a charger (stripper clip) but did not succeed. Effectiveness wasn’t the issue; indeed, the commonest sporting load fires a 180gr soft point bullet at 2400 ft/sec and has taken game large and small for over a century.
The US Magazine Rifle, Model of 1903 (03 Springfield) fired the same 220gr round nose bullet at 2300 ft/sec, from the 30-03 cartridge. Owing much to Imperial Germany’s Gewehr Modell 1898 (Mauser 98), the rifle was stronger than the Krag, but offered no better accuracy. Rapid reloading was enhanced by chargers (stripper clips), then a patented Mauser innovation.
The 30-03’s higher velocity was supposed to offer better long range performance but in reality it proved little better than the 30-40. The 30-06 cartridge (150gr pointed bullet, 2700 ft/sec) was adopted in 1906 in response to German developments of 1905; the new bullet shape did do better at long ranges. Nearly all 03 Springfields
Neither 30-40 nor 30-03 were terribly effective at short ranges (often found in Philippine jungles), as the 220gr bullets, jacketed with cupronickel, tended to punch through a living human target, doing insufficient injury, only to travel far downrange.
US Ordnance spent some ten years working with numerous inventors, before adopting a self-loading pistol in March 1911. Seeking better handgun effectiveness, the War Dept adopted a version of Colt’s New Service in 1909, firing an updated version of the 45 Long Colt round, first fielded in 1873. But the new handgun played only a minor part in the Philippine Insurgency.
Many features of the M1911 pistol were added to appease the horse cavalry: bullet weight was increased from John Browning’s initial design of 1905 (200gr, 900 ft/sec) and velocity decreased; it was said to be better if the trooper was forced to shoot his own mount. Any improvement in effectiveness against Moros was incidental.
The revolvers and rifles that became obsolete in the early 20th century did not soon depart from military inventory; the Krag was issued to the National Guard, and ammunition was still being loaded for government use in the early 1930s. Revolvers firing 38 Colt went to riverine gunboats the US Navy sent to China; ammunition was still being acquired in the 1920s. 6mm Lee Navy cartridges were being acquired also; information on military issue and use in action of Winchester’s Navy M1985 straight-pull rifle is scant. The ammunition could have been obtained for the M1895 machine gun designed by John Browning and made by Colt (”Potatoe Digger”)