Editing Pedersen device (section)

==Post-war==
After the war, the semi-automatic concept started to gain currency in the U.S. Army. By the late 1920s, the Army was experimenting with several new semi-automatic rifle designs, including the [[Pedersen rifle]] firing a new .276 (7&nbsp;mm) rifle cartridge. However, the Pedersen rifle lost to a new semi-automatic rifle designed by [[John Garand|John C. Garand]]. The Garand was originally developed for .30-06 cartridge and converted to the new .276 cartridge. After the .276 Garand rifle was selected over the Pedersen rifle, General [[Douglas MacArthur]] came out against changing rifle cartridges, since the Army had vast stockpiles of .30–06 ammunition left over from World War I, the .30-06 would have to be retained for machine gun use, and one cartridge simplified wartime logistics. Garand reverted his design back to the standard .30-06 Springfield cartridge in 1932; the result became the [[M1 Garand rifle|M1 Garand]].<ref>Bruce N. Canfield, "Garand Vs. Pedersen", American Rifleman, July 2009, pages 52–55, 60, 62.</ref>

The Pedersen device was declared surplus in 1931, five years before the Garand had even started serial production. Mark I rifles were altered to M1903 standard in 1937 (except for, curiously, an ejection slot that remained in the receiver side wall) and were used alongside standard M1903 and M1903A1 Springfields. Nearly all of the stored devices were destroyed by the Army except for a few [[Ordnance Department]] examples, when it was decided they did not want to pay the cost of storing. They were burned in a large bonfire, though some were taken during the process. Following their destruction, noted writer [[Julian Hatcher]] wrote an authoritative article for the May 1932 issue of [[American Rifleman]] magazine describing the device in detail.<ref name="Julian S. Hatcher 1947, pp. 361-372"/>