barnbwt
member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 7,340
I'm tellin' the world! My first parts kit is now an actual, factual, functioning semi-auto rifle 
. Got back from the test fire earlier today and uploaded some footage and pictures of the project so far. Gotta say, as ugly and oddly proportioned as the gun was, my groups were about 1/4 the size they normally are with iron sights, and the gun was an absolute pussy cat to shoot despite the stout 7.5x55 chambering. The double shoulder in the chamber really dampens out the shock of the bolt returning to battery, too, and is a feature I think would be very useful in all necked cartridge semiautos; too bad it makes the brass look weird and scary to reloaders
My normal groups with irons are 4"x4" at 50yds (don't judge me; I don't practice ever, nor try very hard, and my vision ain't what it once was) with my K31, VZ58, FN49, and all others I've tried. With this rifle, they were <1" tall and 4" wide groups; very cool, and I think some of the horizontal spread is do to some side-to-side wobble in the rear sight (no vertical play). All rounds ejected properly, and the brass, surprisingly, was in very good shape for a roller-delayed design. The cases eject out the side only 4-5ft, spinning rapidly like tops on the dirt (has to do with the odd ejector mechanism), and show no visible shoulder set back, and the fluting is merely smudges on the brass (it disappears when rubbed). There is a dent from the ejection port halfway up the sides of the cases, but it's only 1/8" long, and totally harmless once I polish that edge some more (it's a bit square right now, so the creases are scored more than I'd care to tolerate)
The bolt draw weight is still north of fifteen pounds, pretty heavy for a semi rifle, but getting smoother the more I use it (was 35lbs after initial welding) with zero binding. Because of the weight and the ejector design, manually ejecting rounds is not very authoritative, and they must be shaken or plucked out of the gun.
Next step is to get the 63rnd DTM drum conversion I'm working on operational for some real fun, and get the receiver pieces painted. I'm thinking some semi-gloss black paint will go real well with the same on the aluminum shroud tube and plastic grips. I will also be working on a new set of furniture to hopefully alleviate some of the oddity, maybe something like this;
The Swiss, you see, like to compete in matches even more than we do, and customize the heck out of milsurp STGWs instead of AR15s since they only run about 300$ over there and are fantastically accurate.
Youtube of a string of fire through the Uber-mensch
DTM drum/tower modification loosely assembled
. The drum sits directly below the carry handle and is shorter than the 24rnd box mags, so from an LMG perspective, it actually makes more sense than the original design
In summary, I am very pleasantly surprised how solid a shooter this turned out, especially considering I've never had the greatest confidence in the whole "roller delayed blowback" concept to not kaboom on me. Oh, and yes, after only 20 shots, the gun is filthy filthy dirty
TCB
. Got back from the test fire earlier today and uploaded some footage and pictures of the project so far. Gotta say, as ugly and oddly proportioned as the gun was, my groups were about 1/4 the size they normally are with iron sights, and the gun was an absolute pussy cat to shoot despite the stout 7.5x55 chambering. The double shoulder in the chamber really dampens out the shock of the bolt returning to battery, too, and is a feature I think would be very useful in all necked cartridge semiautos; too bad it makes the brass look weird and scary to reloaders My normal groups with irons are 4"x4" at 50yds (don't judge me; I don't practice ever, nor try very hard, and my vision ain't what it once was
) with my K31, VZ58, FN49, and all others I've tried. With this rifle, they were <1" tall and 4" wide groups; very cool, and I think some of the horizontal spread is do to some side-to-side wobble in the rear sight (no vertical play). All rounds ejected properly, and the brass, surprisingly, was in very good shape for a roller-delayed design. The cases eject out the side only 4-5ft, spinning rapidly like tops on the dirt (has to do with the odd ejector mechanism), and show no visible shoulder set back, and the fluting is merely smudges on the brass (it disappears when rubbed). There is a dent from the ejection port halfway up the sides of the cases, but it's only 1/8" long, and totally harmless once I polish that edge some more (it's a bit square right now, so the creases are scored more than I'd care to tolerate)The bolt draw weight is still north of fifteen pounds, pretty heavy for a semi rifle, but getting smoother the more I use it (was 35lbs after initial welding
) with zero binding. Because of the weight and the ejector design, manually ejecting rounds is not very authoritative, and they must be shaken or plucked out of the gun.Next step is to get the 63rnd DTM drum conversion I'm working on operational for some real fun, and get the receiver pieces painted. I'm thinking some semi-gloss black paint will go real well with the same on the aluminum shroud tube and plastic grips. I will also be working on a new set of furniture to hopefully alleviate some of the oddity, maybe something like this;
The Swiss, you see, like to compete in matches even more than we do, and customize the heck out of milsurp STGWs instead of AR15s since they only run about 300$ over there and are fantastically accurate.
Youtube of a string of fire through the Uber-mensch
DTM drum/tower modification loosely assembled
. The drum sits directly below the carry handle and is shorter than the 24rnd box mags, so from an LMG perspective, it actually makes more sense than the original design In summary, I am very pleasantly surprised how solid a shooter this turned out, especially considering I've never had the greatest confidence in the whole "roller delayed blowback" concept to not kaboom on me. Oh, and yes, after only 20 shots, the gun is filthy filthy dirty
TCB
