which in turn lead to automatic and then semi-automatic actions Hmm, now you've got me curious. I'm not exactly a firearms history scholar, but the earliest au

which in turn lead to automatic and then semi-automatic actions Hmm, now you've got me curious. I'm not exactly a firearms history scholar, but the earliest automatic firearm I know of (not including civil war era Gatling type guns, which aren't actually automatic) is the Mannlicher 1886, which was also produced as a semi-automatic at the same time. So I was under the impression that we got fully and semi auto firearms at exactly the same time.