guys were gonna talk about the rifle that started it all
granddaddy of the modern infantry weapon
the sturmgewehr
its wwii
guys a lot of big design breakthroughs happened in wwii ok
we needed to kill each other harder than ever before
so the nazis had an infantry squad system that basically like
we got a big fucking machinegun
and the entire rest of squad carries more ammo for it
and i guess well just give them the k98k bolt action rifle
now guys the k98k is a beautiful rifle but its long and slow firing as bolt actions tend to be
for paratroopers and armored troops they had the mp40 submachinegun
its half the size of a k98k and shoots automatic like the big machineguns
but it shoots a little pistol round that doesnt do much damage at all compared to a rifle
meanwhile the americans had adopted the excellent m1 garand and successfully armed the majority of its military with it
semiauto full power rifle
plus it holds 8 rounds
a definite advantage over the five round bolt actions the nazis had
the soviets were mostly using the bolt action mosin nagant
but even they had just started fielding a semi auto rifle called the svt40
this was a nasty surprise whenever the germans encountered it
ten rounds of 7.62x54r as fast as you can pull the trigger
daaang
meanwhile the nazis get one round each time they crank the bolt
or a spurt of pistol rounds that wont do jack after 50 m
lets just say im not worried about 9mm parabellum going through my brick wall ok
so the first thing the wehrmacht did was some early tinkering with semiauto rifles and eventually ended up with the gewehr 41
but it was taking a while to work out the kinks because for some reason germany hates gas ports or something stupid
meanwhile the paratroopers had their own problems
even the slow k98k was too bulky for an aircraft
and i guess their parachute harnesses sucked balls or something
because the paratroops couldnt drop with anything heavier than a friggin pistol
heavier weapons were dropped separately
and the paratroops were supposed to land and use their pistols to fight their way to the submachineguns
but the nazis would get pinned down and slaughtered before they could get to their real guns
and even if they did manage to get to the submachineguns they still just shoot pistol rounds that didnt even have enough power to hit the enemy
dude it suuuuucked
so this is where germany sits in the middle of wwii
they have some of the best machineguns ever designed but those puppies need multiple people to operate and even more to keep em fed and theyre big and heavy and you aint kickin in any doors with those bad boys
they have a modern bolt action rifle but its still kinda big and just as overpowered and slow as everybody elses
they have a semiauto design theyre workin on that if they finish fixing might end up being almost as good as stuff the allies have already been using for years by this point
and they have a cool submachinegun that goes really fast but is useless beyond street distances because of its little baby pistol round
so from all this came two important designs
the german luftwaffe controlled the paratroopers
so they made specifications for a rifle no heavier or longer than a k98k
firing the same powerful 8mm mauser round to put long range hurt on people
but that could fire semiauto from a closed bolt or full auto from an open bolt
the result was the fg42
it was pretty radical
firing from a closed bolt means the bolt goes forward and chambers a round like most guns tend to do and waits for you to pull the trigger
this means there are very few moving parts and very little delay between pulling the trigger and getting a shot off
this makes it accurate
meanwhile open bolt means the bolt stays locked back until you pull the trigger and the bolt has to slide forward pick up a round chamber it and fire
it takes longer to move all those extra parts and the heavier mass jostling about makes it more prone to inaccuracy
but the advantage is you dont have a round sitting in a hot chamber
this is real good for machineguns because full auto heats things up quick and if things get too hot the rounds start firing themselves at random without asking you for permission
so open bolt keeps the chamber cooler by letting air circulate through it
and leaves the cartridge in the magazine away from the hot chamber
to have open bolt and closed bolt in the same weapon is super fancy
so now we got a powerful rifle that can shoot accurate semi auto at much longer ranges than a submachinegun
and also shoot full power rounds on automatic like a heavy machinegun
guys this sounds great
but in reality we still have the problem of how
unless youre a heavy machinegun
firing full power rounds on automatic is a retarded and impractical idea that makes all the rounds fly over the enemys heads
the recoil is just unmanageable guys
the germans tried mitigating this by designing the fg42 to recoil farther down on the shooters shoulder
if you have the recoil hit lower on the shooters body it reduces the tendency of the rifle to rotate upwards with recoil
thats why the front sight is so tall
the k98 has much shorter sights
but 8 mm mauser kicks a lot so that trick only helps so much
so yeah the paratroopers liked the fg42 but nobody else adopted it
meanwhile the wehrmacht had a different strategy
theyd been doing studies and theyre like bro seriously a round capable of shooting 2000 m away is crazy
nobody is even shooting more than like 300 m away because everybody is taking cover and unless you have a scope you cant see jack until youre that close anyway
so lets shorten our 8mm mauser round and give it less powder
that way itll have less recoil and maybe actually be controllable on full auto like the submachineguns
but itll still be more powerful than a fucking pistol round and might actually go through a wall or hit something farther away
plus ammo will be lighter
so you dont need five more guys carrying ammo for you
lets try it
so they ended up with the 8 mm kurz round
kurz is german for short
and 8 mm kurz is basically a cut down 8 mm mauser
same caliber bullet as their other rifles and machineguns
but shorter and lighter case
plus they made it more tapered for easier feeding
and made the case out of steel instead of precious brass
it worked out really well
then they put out a specification for a rifle to shoot it
and two companies made prototypes going through several stages until we ended up with the final design
but the history is particularly convoluted
so
ill continue below
view the rest of the comments →
clamhurt_legbeard ago
ok so
the companies were asked to create a maschinenkarabiner
or machine carbine
so the first prototypes were called mkb42
but then hitler suspended all research on new rifles
and told everybody to just make the submachineguns already we got
like the mp40
best we can figure
hitler wasnt super sold on an untested intermediate round
and he didnt like the piecemeal weapons releases happening and the resultant logistical problems
its not like you just build the rifle and youre done
the rifle would be useless without things like
spare parts
magazines
ammunition
slings
pouches
cleaning kits
training
and so on
so hitler is like bro stop designing new rifles this shit is getting crazy
that is a direct verbatim quote
but the guys working on the mkb42s were like aw daaaaang these are probably gonna be really good tho
so they pulled a fast one on der fuerher
and theyre like oh this
this is a maschinenpistole
the mp43
its a new submachinegun
lets keep working on it
he wont even know shhh
but the change was entirely on paper and the design continued as normal
intermediate cartridge and all that
so 10 minutes later hitler discovered it and was like hey whoa wtf is this i said dont design stuff
and theyre like um its a new maschinenpistolepleasedontkillme
and hes like well you got a few of them so i guess you can try them out in combat for like six months but this isnt like an actual deployment where we have factory lines making this shit 24 7
so they gave what they had to some waffen ss units to try out
then after a few months hitler renamed it the mp44
because this is apparently a fucking sedan and we rename it with every model year
and then hitlers like hey so how you guys doin can i get you anything im hitler im a waiter apparently
and all the waffen ss guys are like holy shit
can we get a refill on these kickass new rifles
then hitlers like
what new rifles
guys you said this was a maschinenpistole wtf
and the weapon designers are all about to shit their hugo boss
uhhhh ohhhh
continued below
guys the 10000 character limit is not enough for the sturngewehr
god voat is going to crash when i do the ak lol
so anyway hitler just caught the weapons designers red handed
but then they demonstrated the rifle for him and hitlers like whoa
sick
so then they named it the sturmgewehr 44
the storm rifle
like storming a fortress
assaulting it
the assault rifle
so yeah the sturmgewehr finally got officially adopted as the stg44 and they made over 420 thousand of them before wars end
but hitlers concerns were well founded
and the logistical problems of a new round and new equipment werent solved before germany surrendered
although the wars end put an end to its service life
german engineers werent done with the design
but well talk about what they did later
as for technical stuff
i already talked about a short stroke gas system like on the sks and the fal
but the sturmgewehr uses a long stroke gas system
so check out these technical drawings
a gun fires
in the short stroke gas system we bleed some of the the rapidly expanding gasses into the pink gas cylinder through a tiny hole in the top of the barrel called a gas port
this pushes back on the purple gas piston which kicks the blue bolt back
the purple piston only goes back so far before getting pushed back forward by the yellow spring
but the blue bolt keeps going back and ejects the spent case and all the remaining gas vents out through the muzzle and chamber
in the long stroke gas system things are very similar
except the piston and bolt are connected
so the piston goes back all the way with the bolt
it travels a longer distance so its a longer stroke
so the short stroke system has less mass moving at once because the gas piston goes back a short distance then goes forward and then stops
this gives the advantage of less moving around to jostle your aim
but the downside is it has to be very abrupt when it kicks the bolt back because it only has a tiny fraction of a second to do it
so its kinda like the difference between me slapping you on the ass with a short recoil impulse vs pushing you from behind with a long recoil impulse
short stroke gas systems can be hard on guns and cause lots of wear
the long stroke gas system used in the sturmgewehr has more mass moving with recoil
this can make it less accurate
but by having more mass it makes the recoil less harsh on the components
and it gives more inertia to use in extracting the spent case and slamming the new cartridge in
this means its better able to push through fouling from carbon or dust
so a long stroke gas system is potentially more reliable and lasts longer but with poorer accuracy
and a short stroke gas system is potentially more accurate but more complex to build and have last
these are broad generalizations though
another design element was taken from the fg42
when the designers of the sturmgewehr looked at the fg42 they saw some things they liked
remember how the fg42 recoils straight back into your shoulder to make full auto more controllable
and it has that really tall front sight
well the sturmgewehr has a pretty tall front sight too
so that trick didnt work super well with the fg42s full power 8 mm mauser round
but in combination with the sturmgewehrs more moderate 8 mm kurz round
we get a weapon that is actually controllable on sustained automatic fire like a submachinegun but shoots a round more powerful than stupid pistol rounds
overall the sturmgewehr is a pretty simple weapon
its easy to disassemble too which is nice
you pop a pin
remove the buttstock
and the receiver hinges down
so you can pull the piston and bolt out the back
easy
in the end the design goals of the sturmgewehr were a total success
controllable fully automatic fire like a submachinegun
but with a round almost as powerful as a rifle out to 300 m
compact enough for paratroopers and mechanized troops
nothing before had ever done this
and the sturmgewehr excelled
it invented an entitely new class of weapon
thats why over the next 30 years basically everybody switched to an assault rifle
weve talked some about battle rifles
but nobody uses them anymore
everybody is all about dat assault rifle
the sturmgewehr
pewpew
BUTTHOLE__EMPRESS ago
U are a good writer
ExpertShitposter ago
those paint drawings are worthy of an individual post to the shitty verse!
nice write up! too long DID read.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
ya i thought i had the post separated ahead of time but voat decided to fuck me over
oh well
it worked in the end
im glad you liked it
i made the drawings while not flying lol
thedirtypuma ago
It's times like these when I wish we could stick comments.
Did you draw the short and long stroke piston diagrams?
clamhurt_legbeard ago
upvote it to the top
of course i drew those lol
thedirtypuma ago
You are a true renaissance man.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
i was supposed to be paying attention at work lol
thedirtypuma ago
That was my favorite so far. Thank you for sharing it. I really like the writing style. It's a super easy and funny read while being extremely informative.
These guys are reproducing these rifles at a fraction of the price ($1800) of an original(~$20,000). It looks like you can preorder it now and it will ship soon whenever that is.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
true stuff
there are reviews of that on some youtubes
worth checking out
im glad you like the posts too
cuz u/nadesdha signed me up for like a year of these lol