Despite attempts to replace the 6.5mm cartridge that had been deemed obsolete after the Great War, the improved short rifle pattern of the Carcano rifle would service as the official standard issue of the Regio Esercito in the Second World War.

Despite initially looking to replace the entire system after the Boer War, the British Short, Magazine, Lee Enfield really came into its own during the Great War, cementing itself as one of the most iconic weapons of the conflict.

The Gewehr 98 had served the Imperial Army well in the Great War, but was showing its age by the 1930s. This would lead to a program of modernization, and its product would become the standard service weapon of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War.

Despite victory in the Spanish-American War of 1898, it was clear that the Krag rifles in American service were inferior to the Mausers used by their enemies. This prompt would lead to the development of a new universal short rifle that would serve in two world wars and beyond.

Faced with a decision between the Mauser and Mannlicher rifles to replace their black powder Kropatscheks, the Portuguese would instead choose a locally designed hybrid rifle for their forces.

As the Second World War loomed, a need to update the venerable Lee Enfield rifle in British service saw the design modernized into the new #4 Rifle, with a series of improvements on the same core principals.

The iconic standard issue rifle of the United States during the Second World War, famously deemed by no less a figure than General George Patton as “The Greatest Implement of Battle Ever Devised”.

Despite adopting a new Mauser 98 pattern rifle, as the Second World War loomed Belgium also undertook a program to upgrade existing stocks of the older Model 1889 rifles to the same pattern.

The French MAS36 was intended as a stopgap until a suitable semi-automatic rifle could be developed, but this was not to be. The Fall of France in 1940 led to it being the final rifle adopted by the Third Republic, as well as the last bolt action rifle standardized by a major power.

The Japanese Type 99 rifle was intended to replace the Type 38 as the standard issue weapon to the Imperial Japanese Military during World War Two, but was never able to supplant its older brother.