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
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drakesdoom2 ago
Nigger we should go drinking and shoot some guns.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
i have a gun
i even have ammo
sounds like a plan
drakesdoom2 ago
Holy fuck. Who'd of thunk it.
Well look here I got a pile of guns, a pile of ammo, and a crate of beer*.
*5-10% alcohol something or rather.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
well hell im drinking a 7 percent ipa right now