Why were bolt action weapons so widely used in WW2?

>>34958868
proven tech and the assumption it would be WW1 again.

>>34958868
Because they were available in large quantities and the adoption of semi automatic rifles was slow

Because there were a lot of them in inventory and they were proven weapons.

Because converting an entire army to self-loading rifles is expensive, and there are better things to spend money and resources on than small arms.

Basically, bolt-actions were "good enough" for most armies in WWII.

>>34958868
Because if almost everyone else is using them why bother to switch to semi auto or select fire?

>>34958872
Why was it slow? They adopted planes, armored vehicles pretty fast why was small arms such a problem then?

>>34958868
>have shit tone in stock since ww1
>use them
>???

>>34958888
>why was small arms such a problem then?

Because they needed millions of them

>>34958888
Why are you so slow?

>>34958883
>why bother getting a massive small arms advantage over your enemy, who is trying to kill you?

>>34958888
>quick we need 100,000 planes but the engines are different
no problem
>quick we need 5,000,000 brand new complex rifles
wait

>>34958868

There weren't a plethora of options. "Quality" semi automatic rifles were just starting to emerge in the 20's and 30's, and only a few designs went on to be successful. Barring those, there were subguns, which were still expensive as fuck all the way through the 30's, and LMG's.

>>34959091
Because im tired from fucking ur mom so much

>>34959110
>a rifle more complex than a plane or tank or ship or sub

Sureeeee

>>34958888
planes stop working a lot faster than rifles, meaning they are cheaper to improve (since you will spend money to maintain or replace anyway). plus they were the decisive weapon of WWII. Semi auto vs bolt action doesn't mean shit when the guy carrying it is going to die to artillery, armor or a plane anyway.

Build a new small arms factory (and staff it), or build a new plane factory? air power all the way.

Guess what?

That still hasn't changed.

so there is a few reasons
1. bolt guns proved them selves in ww1
2. most countries just upgraded to newer bolt guns (france with the mas36, germany with the new 98k etc) and didn't have the money nor time nor capability to re-arm with semi autos less that 5 years after the new rifles came into service
3. unlike planes, you don't need a few hundred of them, you need a few MILLION of them.
4. the semi auto idea was still yet to be proven in battle.
5. other than the m1 garand and one or two others, there was no really good semi's out there.
6. the tooling for semi's are insane compared to bolt guns, theres a reason that really only the US used semi's as there main stay, and why the russians dropped the SVT in favor of the mosin.

theres more reasons but thats bulk idea's. hope that helps man

>>34959092
Well that's the way shit played out, in the grand scheme small arms weren't very important.

>>34959198
Best answer in the thread