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Upon firing, gas engages the gas piston below the barrel pushing it back and compressing the mainspring. Instead of being directly connected to the bolt, the gas piston ends with a stub which acts on the bolt handle (which can be disengaged to render the gun manually operated). The bolt handle has lugs which engage the helical cams in the bolt body, so when retracted by the shooter of the gas system, it rotates and unlocks the bolt. In an effort seal gasses out of the receiver, the gas piston is fitted with a series of split rings. The 1904/1907 version of the rifle is designed to use a 6-round enbloc clip. This clip could be latched in at two different depths in the magazine housing – pushed all the way in; the clip would below the line of bolt travel and held in reserve like a magazine cutoff. A latch behind at the back of the magazine housing would release the clip upwards to where rounds would be stripped off by the bolt, allowing semiautomatic fire. This feature was removed at some point, as the clip latch is not present on most Mondragon rifles. Some variants were made to use 20-round box magazines, in addition to the German 30-round drum. The rifle used a leaf sight marked from 300-2000 yards, and it was issued with a spade-type bayonet. (Source:

Manual Mondragon, was educated at the French Military Academy at St. Cyr, and was eventually trained in the Mexican Military. He developed several new and highly advanced weapons for the Mexican Army to include some field artillery and ultimately the development of the Model 1908 semi-automatic rifle. He chose the Swiss SIG factory because they were the only company in the world at this time was the capable of producing any weapon(s) on a mass production basis with such close tolerances as required in the Mondragon design. In 1908 this gas operated semi-automatic rifle was probably the most advanced rifle in the world at that time, in an era when most countries were just starting to transition to single shot rifles to bolt action or lever action repeating rifles. It was fielded with the Mexican Army in 1908 and was the first country to issue a semi-automatic rifle to its army. The unique aspect of this weapon was the basic design itself in that it had a "10" round internal box magazine and the rifle was a semi-automatic weapon. No other weapon in the world could make this claim at this time. At the heart of this rifles design is the gas block/gas port design which is mounted on the end of the barrel. The gas block is attached to an operating rod which is mounted in forend section of the stock, which cycles the bolt mechanism, much the same as on the FN FAL, M1 Garand and M14 rifles of today. Truly revolutionary in 1908, as if you just think about the US Army which had just switched from the 1898 Krag bolt action rifle to the 1903 Springfield Mauser design, still a bolt action rifle. It would take almost another 34 years, not until WWII that the US Military would adopt a semi-automatic rifle.