Not a Giffard, suspiciously like a Greener though

[chieffool]

This is amazing:
http://www.hegmans.de/theo/flycatcher.htm

The design is just something else...

Lovely ... isn't it? I really like the approach he took to 'reverse' the use of the apparent 'barrel' and 'ejector' so that the former is the tank, and the under barrel ejector becomes the actual pellet barrel.

He uses the same approach in some of the 'Winchester' and 'Henry' rifles as well as own evolutionary designs along the same theme, with the actual pellet barrel hidden into the equivalent tube magazine the original namesakes would have had. As a gunsmith, he is an absolute artist. Its hard enough making a 'replica' ....
...but then to adapt the whole approach in this way is bordering on the extraordinary.

Of course 'replica' is the wrong term to use. Homage? Inspirational concept? Can't think of any term to apply to his work other than just extraordinarily beautiful.

I also like all the ballistic data he supplies along with his engineering drawings to illustrate and explain. Clearly every one he produces is produced and functioning to the highest standards.

[ccdjg]

[QUOTE although he does include one called The CHIPMUNK which is one of the few 'springers' he has shown here. Two springs... innovative design... just gorgeous:
http://www.hegmans.de/theo/munk.htm[/QUOTE]


Can it really be a springer? His cross section is not very informative, and I just can't see how you can get 50 joules energy from a springer with such a short cocking lever and cocking stroke.

[chieffool]

My bad... it is NOT a Springer, and if you scroll back you can see I corrected myself immediately after stating it was, at #23. His drawings are very clear... I think I was just a bit 'bleary' from Winter Olympics jetlag.

His power output on that particular rifle is 50+ joules on a .22.
But that's peanuts compared to some of his designs.
Check out this one:
http://www.hegmans.de/theo/donnerbuechse.htm

He's chucking out a 250 grain 12mm slug at 220+ m/s, generating an insane 431 joules!!!!!!

That's c.320 ft lbs from a hand engineered air rifle with a finish worthy of Purdey.

[ccdjg]

Sorry, didn't notice your follow up post. He really is amazing. The wood on that stock is to die for.

[Hsing-ee]

Minor point of gunspotter trivia.

There were a lot more Martini-Enfields than most people think. At least a couple of hundred thousand, probably more, mostly converted from M-Hs. They did unglamorous duty in non-infantry roles, reserve units, Cadet forces, etc. Some bits of the Indian armed forces were still issued them in WW2.

The Martini-Enfield (and its rarer first iteration, the Martini-Metford) is Britain's forgotten service rifle.

Of course, everyone wants the M-H, not the Enfield variant. No licence now required, and if you are like me you watched Zulu on TV every Boxing Day growing up. "Front rank, FIRE! ......"

The Martini is a brilliant design for a military rifle for raw recruits. Single shot, so deliberate fire only, and so much safer than a semi-auto, a simple mechanism for jam-free firing, and takes about 5 minutes to train in its basic use. Strong and sturdy for use in hand-to-hand.

If there is an 'emergency' and the population must be quickly armed to drive off invading hordes this rifle would be the best thing, not a modern assault rifle, to issue to the local militias. I think it would be great in 7.62x39 for cheapness, knockdown power and the tapered case would make extraction certain. Grannies and schoolboys could wield it to great effect.

[Geezer]

The Martini is a brilliant design for a military rifle for raw recruits. Single shot, so deliberate fire only, and so much safer than a semi-auto, a simple mechanism for jam-free firing, and takes about 5 minutes to train in its basic use. Strong and sturdy for use in hand-to-hand.

If there is an 'emergency' and the population must be quickly armed to drive off invading hordes this rifle would be the best thing, not a modern assault rifle, to issue to the local militias. I think it would be great in 7.62x39 for cheapness, knockdown power and the tapered case would make extraction certain. Grannies and schoolboys could wield it to great effect.

The experience of the Volkssturm suggests that untrained personnel with rubbish weapons are at most a minor irritant to a professional army. Their most effective weapon was not even a gun - the Panzerfaust.

If you need to arm folks quickly with a vaguely useful weapon, in the absence of an established mass-production arms industry, you want something like a Sten. Witness the various SMGs turned out during the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s.

AKs would be better.

[Hsing-ee]

The experience of the Volkssturm suggests that untrained personnel with rubbish weapons are at most a minor irritant to a professional army. Their most effective weapon was not even a gun - the Panzerfaust.

If you need to arm folks quickly with a vaguely useful weapon, in the absence of an established mass-production arms industry, you want something like a Sten. Witness the various SMGs turned out during the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s.

AKs would be better.

Yes but that presumes the militia do not turn on the Authorities once hostilities cease ...

[Benelli B76]

The experience of the Volkssturm suggests that untrained personnel with rubbish weapons are at most a minor irritant to a professional army. Their most effective weapon was not even a gun - the Panzerfaust.

If you need to arm folks quickly with a vaguely useful weapon, in the absence of an established mass-production arms industry, you want something like a Sten. Witness the various SMGs turned out during the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s.

AKs would be better.

As you say an SMG that fires from an open bolt is the easiest to produce from a bit of pipe a couple of springs and sheet metal. The mag is the probably the most complicated part to get right. That is why most Sten MK 111's were made by Tri-ang Toys ( Lines Brothers) in London. You do not need a lot of complicated production tooling as for a standard rifle. After the war they were mostly destroyed.

Baz

[chieffool]

As you say an SMG that fires from an open bolt is the easiest to produce from a bit of pipe a couple of springs and sheet metal. The mag is the probably the most complicated part to get right. That is why most Sten MK 111's were made by Tri-ang Toys ( Lines Brothers) in London. You do not need a lot of complicated production tooling as for a standard rifle. After the war they were mostly destroyed.

Baz

Another earlier example following pretty much the same approach is the genesis of the German 'Schmeisser', though the MP40 (and its final iteration the MP41 - which basically had a wooden stock) was actually designed by someone else (Heinrich Vollmer). Schmeisser designed the much earlier MP18.

Anyway - my point is that at the time the allies were touting the more-or-less unchanged 1921 and 1928 designed Thompson, Germany was knocking out well over a million MP40s between 1940 and 1945 because of its inherent simpler design. Whereas the Thompson was largely composed of machined metal requiring a more involved (and slower) manufacturing process, the MP40 was knocked out mostly from pressed steel and welded parts. Even the 'cladding' on the grip areas was 'bakelite' over metal with a folding frame stock, rather than the more involved staged fabrication of wooden grip and stock.

We wake up to this whole approach with the Sten, and the USA doesn't find a similar mass-production solution until the advent of the M3 - or 'Grease Gun' introduced 1942'ish?. And if I remember correctly, the Sten only rushes into production from 1940/41 because of the acute weapon shortage following on from Dunkirk, and the fact we couldn't get enough Thompsons from the US. Mind you, we then proceed to churn out over 4 million of them up to the end of the war and beyond.

Needless to say - the greatest exponent of this whole 'genre' is - of course - the AK/Kalashnikov.

Depressing ... isn't it! Our ability to simplify and 'improve' the art of war.

Richard