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