John Pedersen (arms designer)

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John Pedersen (arms designer) : biography

May 21, 1881 – May 23, 1951

The Pedersens had two children, Eric and Kristi-Ray. They traveled widely, he usually on business related to his gun designing, although their "base" was the family ranch in Jackson Hole. In the early 1920s, when Eric was about 4 and Krist-Ray was about 3, they moved to England for several years, while John Douglas did some work for the Vickers company. Prior to her retirement, Reata worked as a nurse at a Goodwill Industries facility in San Diego. At some unknown point, they were divorced.

At the time of his death at age 70, Pedersen lived in Blandford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Springfield, home of the Springfield Armory and the Springfield rifle. It is not known if his residence there had any connection to the armory. Typically, though, Pedersen was traveling when he died, of a coronary, while in Cottonwood, Yavapai County, Arizona, near Prescott, where the Pedersens had lived for a time earlier in their lives. Reata Pedersen died in 1969 in San Diego, age 85. In 1946 Pedersen married Christine J. Loomis Bond, a widow, who was superintendent of nursing at a hospital where Pedersen may have been a patient receiving treatment for tuberculosis. At the time of his marriage, he was 65; his new wife was 33 years old. The marriage took place in Concord, New Hampshire.

At the start of the Korean War, his son Eric Pedersen joined the United States Marine Corps and served as a lieutenant in combat in Korea. He is memorialized in the book Reckless: Pride of the Marines. Lt. Pedersen led a recoilless rifle platoon and at his own expense purchased a racehorse for use as an ammunition carrier. The horse became famous in the 1st Marine Division.Andrew Geer, Reckless, 1955, Library of Congress Card Number 55-5642 Reckless became the first horse to participate in an Marine amphibious landing, was promoted through the ranks from private to corporal to sergeant, and at the war’s end was shipped to Camp Pendleton, California, where she lived out her retirement as a beloved mascot.

Legacy

Pedersen’s sporting designs for Remington are highly regarded today and prized by shooters and collectors alike.

Many of Pedersen’s U.S. military efforts were stymied by fate. Although the Navy recommended adoption of his .45 pistol design, the outbreak of World War I led to the design being shelved in favor of the M1911 pistol already in production for the Army. His most famous invention, the Pedersen Device, never had a chance to significantly affect the battles on the Western Front during World War I: the war ended before it could be manufactured in quantity and sent to France to equip the American Army (only 65,000 were produced out of planned production of 500,000). In the 1920s U.S. Army Ordnance selected his .276 Pedersen cartridge to replace the .30-06 in the infantry rifle and tested Pedersen’s unique toggle-linked semi-automatic rifle in competitions at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The Pedersen rifle lost out to the rifle designed by John C. Garand. General MacArthur later vetoed the adoption of .276 Pedersen as the new infantry cartridge.Julian S. Hatcher, Hatcher’s Notebook, Military Service Publishing Co., 1947.Walter H.B. Smith, Rifles, Military Service Publishing Co., 1948. General George S. Patton owned a Remington 51 and was thought to favor the weapon and is seen in many photos of the era wearing it as his personal sidearm. During World War II, John Pedersen’s attempts through the Irwin-Pedersen Arms Company to mass produce M1 Carbines for the U.S. military failed.