CmdrSlander
Member
I was designing guns in my head, as I often do when I'm bored, and the self issued design challenge du-jour was to take a military rifle design and operating mechanism that has fallen out of favor and modify it so that is a fully modern, lightweight, multi-caliber weapons system. I started with the M1 Garand action, gave up on that, as quick, tool-less barrel and caliber changes are not really possible with that design. I contemplated the M1 Carbine design and Mini 14 as well and dismissed for similar reasons. The real problem with ultra-quick barrel and caliber changes, was, I determined, the pesky gas system which the vast majority of modern and vintage autoloading rifles employ, which, by virtue of being attached to the barrel with a degree of permanence make it impossible to remove the barrel as a single unit in one smooth unlock and remove motion.
Then I took a look at the Roller Delayed Blowback operating mechanism employed by weapons like the MG42... its perfect for a modern multicaliber rifle. No gas system means the barrel can be swapped at one's leisure with, in theory, no tools save one's hands. Simply drop in new bolt module and slide in and lock a new barrel and your caliber change is complete, all while using the same receivers, handguard, etc. (unlike an AR which has arguably the quickest caliber swap procedure if one has multiple uppers in different calibers.)
With modern Nickel Boron coatings, which allow for persistent, dry lubrication I think a roller delayed blowback modern combat rifle is quite feasible and would be highly reliable. For some reason, modern combat rifle designers have become obsessed with multicaliber rifles equipped with piston driven operating systems when the mechanism best suited for multicaliber rifle is RDB.
What are your thoughts?
Then I took a look at the Roller Delayed Blowback operating mechanism employed by weapons like the MG42... its perfect for a modern multicaliber rifle. No gas system means the barrel can be swapped at one's leisure with, in theory, no tools save one's hands. Simply drop in new bolt module and slide in and lock a new barrel and your caliber change is complete, all while using the same receivers, handguard, etc. (unlike an AR which has arguably the quickest caliber swap procedure if one has multiple uppers in different calibers.)
With modern Nickel Boron coatings, which allow for persistent, dry lubrication I think a roller delayed blowback modern combat rifle is quite feasible and would be highly reliable. For some reason, modern combat rifle designers have become obsessed with multicaliber rifles equipped with piston driven operating systems when the mechanism best suited for multicaliber rifle is RDB.
What are your thoughts?