Infanteriegewehr 11

In addition to the 1896 infantry rifle, a small family of derivatives grew. A single-shot cadet rifle with a 23-inch barrel proved that a shortened Schmidt could work - something the cavalry, saddled with the loathed and maintenance-heavy Mannlicher-pattern Model 1893 carbine, had been asking for. The fortress artillery received the short rifle Model 1900, its use spreading to telegraphists, balloonists and cyclists, while the cavalry finally got its own Schmidt-action in the Karabiner 1905, which introduced a pistol grip stock to the platform.
By the early 1900s two problems loomed. The GP90 cartridge, once a marvel of flat shooting, had been overtaken by the spitzer revolution - France's Balle D of 1898, Germany's S Patrone of 1903, the American .30-06 of 1906. And the long rifle remained heavier than the army wished. Trials for a replacement beginning in December 1907 tested a mix of barrels, rifling, bullets and powders, and the resulting experimental cartridge was so successful that it was adopted with almost no changes as the Gewehrpatrone 1911 - a fast, flat-shooting spitzer round that made full use of the 1896 action's strength. The old 1889, by contrast, could not safely be trusted with it. Therefore, the model was excluded from the modernisation entirely.
As Swiss marksman culture forbade the shortening of the rifle to reduce weight for fear of a loss of accuracy, the full-length barrel and 2,000-metre sights stayed. Weight savings came instead from a six-round magazine (trials showed no practical difference in sustained reloading speed against the old twelve-round box), losing the magazine cutoff in the process, while the cavalry carbine's pistol grip was adopted for better handling. After trials of 900 long rifles, 100 short rifles and 100 carbines in 1909, the new pattern was officially adopted in 1911. Existing Gewehr 1896 rifles were converted, becoming the Gewehr 96/11, while some 126,700 Gewehr 1911 rifles were newly made. The short rifle and carbine patterns were merged into a single Karabiner 11, formally adopted in January 1913, with 184,250 new-made and 26,649 converted from earlier short models.
Switzerland never fought the Great War, but it was no distant observer - a neutral wedged between France and Germany, the "southern Belgium" that both powers potentially threatened. The IG11 served as part of the Swiss strategy of deterrence through the Great War, but it was the handy K11 that pointed the way to the future, when the Swiss would adopt a universal short rifle in 1931 - the K31.