You ever have one of those parallel universe moments, where something you have believed—not just believed, but were certain you had documentary evidence of—turns out never to have been true? I mean, something you were so convinced of that it feels like either you jumped time streams without noticing, or somebody edited the Matrix, when you find out?

I've had one of those moments. Since the original writing of this entry, I've been sure that John Pedersen's .276 rifle won the 1924-1932 rifle trials, only to be vetoed by Douglas MacArthur on the day after its adoption. I could have sworn I had seen the events reported that way in not one but several sources, most authoritative of which was Hatcher's Book of the Garand. I wrote it up that way, having used that same book as my principal source for the article, and referred to it again in the entry about the Remington Model 51.

And it wasn't true. Pedersen's .276 cartridge won adoption at the end of that trial, but it was in Garand's rifle, not Pedersen's own. When MacArthur vetoed the adoption of .276 Pedersen and Garand had to revert to his abandoned .30-'06 prototype, the Garand operating system itself had already been deemed superior.

This is an embarrassing thing to have gotten wrong, and I am genuinely mystified by it. I wouldn't have realized it if I hadn't seen a reference to the way it really happened recently, been puzzled by the assertion, dug out my copy of Hatcher's to refute it, and discovered that it was correct, and now I am confounded. I must have seen the same thing in all the several places I still could swear I remember seeing the other version—so where the hell did it all come from? It's a very strange sensation.

Anyway, I've fixed both of the entries, here and in the fancy static version (which is why both threads are showing edited), and I am left pondering existentially exactly what the hell happened.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.