After the weapon's bureau of the army nullified their requirement that there be no holes drilled into the barrel itself for the gas-mechansim to work for the automatic rifle system, the company Walther went on to develop the Gewehr 43. This new semi-automatic rifle had the extraction nozzle drilled into the barrel and featured a removable 10-round magazine. The G 43 was a beautiful design which was much cheaper and faster to produce. The weapon's designation was later changed to Karabiner 43, abbreviated K 43, although the weapon really wasn't a carbine; it was envisioned to replace the Mauser Karabiner 98k as the standard infantry rifle. Production started in October 1943; total production until the end of the war was 402,713 including at least 53,435 sniper rifles: the well-designed and well-machined K 43 was a preferred sniper weapon and was fitted with the Zielfernrohr 43, also called ZF 4, scope with a magnification of 4x. The weapon could use the Schiessbecher device for firing rifle grenades and could use a Schalld