Modern samples of hand-held firearms very rarely can boast of something fundamentally new in their design, mostly of the same type of product, the characteristics of which differ only due to the quality of production when using the same ammunition. Of course, no one will argue with the fact that the peak of the variety of ideas in hand-held firearms falls on the first half of the twentieth century, but gunsmiths even now delight with interesting solutions, however, very rarely, and even less often these ideas reach mass application.
Despite the fact that the main classes of hand-held firearms have long been formed and are being promptly adjusted to the new requirements of the military, law enforcement agencies and the civilian market, there are still a lot of negative aspects that need to be eliminated. These can be general disadvantages for hand-held firearms, for example, such as recoil when firing, or inherent in a particular class, for example, the low capacity of smooth-bore magazines, without a significant increase in size. Just the last example will concern the individual models of guns described below.
Of course, it is impossible to cover all the solutions that were proposed by the designers in one article, since either it will be a very long article or too concise, therefore we will focus on three models of guns that are united by the country where they were developed - South Africa. These models are interesting not only for their homeland, but also for the fact that they became widespread, and the ideas that were applied in them formed the basis for other guns. But let's not stagnate, but let's get to know the weapon.
Drum Magazine Shotgun Striker
The first shotgun we'll start with is the Striker shotgun. This unit was developed by the light-hearted designer Hilton Walker. Walker began work on his gun in 1980, the very idea was to create an ideal gun for law enforcement, that is, initially the weapon was not focused on the civilian market, which is noticeable even in appearance. The main drawback, which was noted by the designer for the guns and which was eliminated by him, was the small capacity of the weapon magazine. Box magazines held 6-8 cartridges of 12 gauge, which, according to Walker, was not enough.
The designer considered the use of a drum magazine to be the solution to this problem. We will consider the design of the store itself a little below, but to consider it simply from the point of view of practical application, such a device is already possible now. So, the Walker's rifle store held 12 rounds, while it had considerable dimensions and since it was metal, so did the mass.
The pluses include the fact that the owner of such a gun could make 12 shots with a very high rate of fire, which is important when a crowd of zombies in movies is attacked, but not during a police operation, when, in addition to your weapon, you can still count on fire support from your colleagues … It turns out that the need for twelve consecutive shots is not so urgent. But further downsides already begin.
The total weight and dimensions significantly limit the ability to take several additional magazines for quick reloading, and the equipment of the magazine itself will take a fairly long period of time. If we take into account the weight, dimensions and the total number of cartridges, it turns out that there are 6-8 box magazines for 2 magazines from a Striker rifle. In other words, against 24 rounds, we have 36 rounds, if we take into account 6 magazines with a capacity of 6 rounds each. Hardly anyone will argue that replacing a box magazine, with an adequate weapon design, takes very little time, which is not at all critical if there is support from colleagues. Separately, it is worth noting that in order to change the magazine in the Striker gun, you will have to actually disassemble the weapon, that is, the process is not the fastest, from which it is traditionally believed that the magazine is integral.
But at the same time we must not forget that in addition to this, there are double-barreled guns, as well as with a tubular magazine, over such weapon options, Walker's development has a clear advantage. However, you can find fault with such a comparison, since there are some nuances, which we will analyze in more detail when considering the design of the Striker rifle.
The first version of the weapon, in fact, was a large revolver with a double-action trigger mechanism with a hidden trigger. Behind the aluminum casing was a drum with 12 chambers in which cartridges were placed; when the trigger was pressed, the drum turned 30 degrees and the trigger was disengaged. Obviously, such a system could not be viable, since the mass of the drum was too large for the trigger pull to be acceptable. It was necessary to get out of the position and the way out was the use of a spring, which was cocked when the key located in the front of the store was turned, after the weapon was loaded with cartridges.
When the trigger was pressed, the magazine was briefly released, which led to its rotation, in parallel with this, the trigger was cocked and its subsequent disruption. However, the design turned out to be insufficiently reliable, even a slight wear of the parts led to the fact that the store rotated not by 30 degrees, but by 60, or even 90, which naturally made it impossible to use the ammunition missed in the drum, without additional manipulations and nullified everything the advantage of a large store capacity.
Objectively speaking, it would not be entirely correct to call the Striker rifle the most uncomfortable, however, it is certainly not ideal either. Yes, indeed, this weapon has a mass of 4, 2 kilograms with a barrel longer than 304 millimeters, it seems excessive, especially if the weapon, although it has all the advantages of self-loading, but its design does not have a movable bolt and a piston gas exhaust unit, which in theory, it should have a positive effect on weight. But it is rather a matter of comparing similar designs or comparing weapon models with similar characteristics.
The only significant drawback in ease of use that is worth noting is the process of reloading the drum. If you do not change it to a pre-loaded one, and this, as noted earlier, leads to partial disassembly of the weapon, then you will have to first remove the spent cartridge case one by one, and then insert a new cartridge into it, and so on 12 times. The process is slightly facilitated by a spring-loaded rod, placed on the right side of the barrel casing, with which the spent cartridge case is pushed out. To complete the reloading process, you must also remember to charge the spring, which turns the drum, having previously blocked it. In other words, it will be very difficult to meet even in one minute.
As mentioned above, with a barrel length of 304 millimeters, the mass of the weapon without cartridges was 4.2 kilograms. The total length of the rifle with the butt unfolded was 792 millimeters, with the stock folded, the length was reduced to 508 millimeters. In addition, a model with a barrel length of 457 millimeters was produced. It should be noted separately that you can often find information about the possibility of using this weapon without a barrel. Yes, indeed, the weapon will work even if the barrel is completely dismantled from it, but to say that such an application will be effective is somehow silly.
Summing up the mini-review of the Striker rifle, one cannot fail to notice that this weapon has all the advantages of self-loading rifles with a similar weight, however, the use of an extended capacity drum in this case is unjustified in view of the slow reloading process. It would be possible to counterbalance the high reliability of the revolving system, but in this case it was changed and the mechanism itself turned out to be not the most successful to talk about reliability in general, so, alas, but this gun cannot be called successful.
Despite this, the weapon received, albeit minimal, but spread and even became known in the United States, where it became known under the designation Streetsweeper. This gun differs from the original Striker in a longer barrel, as well as two sealed drum chambers, which were quite successfully drilled out even at home, which is noteworthy, the folding butt of the original design was retained.
Despite the fact that the first pancake came out lumpy, the idea itself was further developed by the designer, so in the late 80s a logical continuation of the improved Protecta rifle appeared, the design of which became the basis for many other weapon models, but more on that below.
Protecta shotgun
To be objective, a person who is far from firearms is unlikely to distinguish Striker from Protecta, and indeed, externally, the weapon has changed little, but there are still differences. First of all, you need to pay attention to the fact that the "key" with which the drum was turned after being loaded with cartridges has disappeared. On the back of the store, there were also changes, namely, an additional 12 holes appeared, smaller in diameter than the hole for reloading. Their appearance is explained by the need to control the amount of ammunition in the drum. Here it would be to argue about how difficult it is to count to 12, but the ability to visually see how many cartridges are left is really needed, at least from the point of view of the safety of handling weapons. After all, when the drum is discharged, you can simply remove the ammunition to the first empty chamber, but whether there are cartridges further, it is unlikely that someone will constantly check, but there is such a possibility.
Despite the fact that the main drawback of the weapon was the fact that it was virtually impossible to replace the magazine, this drawback was not eliminated, although something was nevertheless improved, therefore we will consider in more detail the design of the gun.
First of all, let's figure out the design of the drum. It has not been radically changed, the drum is still driven by the spring compressed during reloading, the drum itself is briefly released when the trigger is pulled. To prevent "overshoots" of the chambers, the mechanism received thicker parts, which provided a larger working area and, as a result, increased the durability of the mechanism. That is, they solved one problem.
Cocking of the spring of the drum and its rotation during reloading is now carried out not with the key located in front, but with the help of the swinging lever under the barrel, roughly speaking, all this disgrace is a ratchet mechanism. That is, now the procedure for equipping the drum is as follows, a cartridge is inserted into the chamber through the hole in the rear of the protective casing of the drum, the lever is pulled back once, which leads to the rotation of the drum, the next cartridge is inserted, and the lever is pulled back again. The question of where the point with the extraction of the spent cartridge case went from the reloading process will be quite natural, and it is really now absent in the Protecta rifle, and that's why.
In order for the reloading process to become faster, a gas outlet unit appeared in the weapon, which is connected to a spring-loaded rod for extracting spent cartridges. Thus, at the moment of firing, the rod moves back, pushed by the powder gases discharged from the barrel bore, and ejects the spent cartridge case from the previous chamber of the drum.
The most attentive have already noticed that there are only 13 holes on the back of the drum - one for reloading and 12 for controlling the amount of ammunition. This is explained by the fact that now there are not 12, but 13 chambers in the drum, one of which is not used. Or rather, this is not even a chamber, but simply unused space. It is necessary for the following reason. Suppose that the drum consists of 12 chambers, evenly spaced around a circle. When the trigger is pressed, a 30-degree turn occurs and a chamber with a cartridge appears opposite the window for ejecting spent cartridges; when fired, the rod simply pushes out the ammunition that has not yet been consumed, destroying it, which is clearly not a very good solution. It is for this reason that one more chamber had to be added, which is not used.
There is one more nuance in the recharging process. After the last cartridge is used up, the next shot, for obvious reasons, will not occur, which means that the last spent cartridge case will have to be removed the old fashioned way, manually.
The mass of the weapon remained unchanged 4, 2 kilograms with a barrel length of 304 millimeters. The length with the stock folded down was slightly reduced to 500 millimeters, but with the stock unfolded it increased to 900 millimeters. Just like last time, there is a model with a barrel length of 457 millimeters.
What did we get in the end? And in the end, we got a gun with not the most successful modernization of the revolving design, with the removal of powder gases for ejection of spent cartridges, and the procedure turned out to have its own nuances. Remained unsolved questions about why it was impossible to abandon the spring in the design of the drum and not to tie its turn back to the removal of powder gases? Why make a difficult removable casing around the side of the drum to make reloading easier? How justified is this design as a whole, given that the drum significantly increases the thickness of the weapon, and if all this disgrace already has a gas outlet, then what is the advantage over self-loading rifles powered by detachable double-row box magazines? In general, there are a lot of questions and not a single answer.
However, despite this, one cannot fail to notice that the design turned out to be interesting. And even if in its original form it is, let's say, so as not to offend anyone, specific, this design has found application in other models of weapons, albeit with modifications. The most striking example of this can be our domestic hand-held grenade launcher RG-6, which, although it has a number of significant differences, is undeniably similar to the idea itself.
Shotgun with two Neostead tube magazines
If you think that the previous weapon model from the article was original in its design and that there were no more designers in South Africa who thought outside the box, then you are wrong. In 1990, two designers, Tony Neophyte and Wilmore Stead, set themselves a task similar to that of Hilton Walker - creating the ideal combat rifle for the police and the military. It took a long time to realize our plans. The basic concept was formed only by 1993, and it was only at the beginning of 2001 that the design was brought to acceptable indicators in terms of reliability and serial production was started. The emphasis was again on the capacity of the weapons store, and again the implementation turned out to be quite original, but first things first.
The appearance of the weapon turned out to be really very unusual, rather resembling something from Hollywood science fiction films, nevertheless, the weapon has received a good distribution, including in the civilian market, largely thanks to the efforts of Truvelo Armory. The main feature of the Neostead shotgun, which makes the appearance of the weapon more unusual, is the layout. Moreover, the weapon itself is made in a bullpup layout, which makes it very compact while maintaining the normal barrel length, so also the ammunition supply is implemented according to a very interesting scheme.
The Neostead rifle is powered by two tubular magazines located above the barrel of the weapon. This feature creates the impression that we have in front of us a double-barreled gun, to which for some reason a tubular magazine was attached. Since there are two stores, the designers had to deal with the issue of supplying power both from one store and from another, which was done in the simplest way, using a switch located in front of the trigger. It is with this switch that the shooter selects from which magazine the next cartridge will be sent when reloading.
This design feature is often positioned as the main "plus" of the gun, and indeed, the ability to choose the type of ammunition seems to be very useful both for the police and for the civilian market. Well, the choice can be very diverse, from "rubber bullet / shot charge" to "bullet cartridge / shot". The location of the switch seems also very convenient, since, firstly, its position can be easily controlled tactilely, and secondly, switching is carried out without unnecessary passes with your hands, which is especially important for military weapons. The question of the reliability of the operation of this mechanism remains, but we will analyze this moment in more detail in the description of the design of the gun.
As you might guess from the appearance of the weapon, the Neostead is a non-self-loading rifle, that is, reloading is carried out manually with the fore-end longitudinal movement back and forth. The sights are located on the rack, which also serves as a carrying handle. The distance between the entire front sight and the front sight is minimal, due to the dimensions of the handle. For the civilian market, such sights are unlikely to be satisfactory, but if you consider the Neostead gun as a police gun, then, given the extremely short ranges of use, this will no longer be so significant. In circulation, the weapon as a whole is completely analogous to the so-called pump-action shotguns, to which it belongs.
Let's move on to the design of the weapon. You need to start with the fact that the forend is connected to the barrel, that is, during the reloading process, the barrel will move, and not the bolt. When the forearm begins to move forward, the bolt and the breech of the barrel are disengaged, after which the barrel of the weapon begins to move. A spent cartridge case is removed from the chamber, held by the ejector by the rim and, after the cartridge case is completely removed from the barrel, a spring-loaded reflector pushes it down. After the space for the new cartridge has become free, ammunition is fed from the preselected magazine. When the fore-end moves back, the breech rolls onto the new cartridge, at the same time aligning it in one axis with the barrel and bolt.
An interesting feature is that the supply of ammunition from the store has nothing to do with the movement of the forearm. However, it must be borne in mind that the choice of which store will be powered must be made before reloading, since after the extraction of the spent cartridge case, the place will be occupied by a cartridge from the tube that was previously selected. If one of the magazines ran out of cartridges, then you can switch to the second magazine in any position of the forearm.
The equipment of the magazines is made by opening them when lifting the back of the tubes up, for which you need to press the locking lever at the top of the weapon.
Actually, this is the whole description of the design of the gun. To be objective, it is no different from what Christopher Spencer once proposed, except that the feed mechanism for the new ammunition is rotary, for the possibility of feeding from two stores.
Due to the fact that the Neostead shotgun uses a bullpup layout, it turned out to use a barrel length of 571 millimeters, while maintaining a more than compact overall dimensions - 686 millimeters. The capacity of each magazine tube is 6 rounds, that is, the total capacity is 12 rounds, while one more ammunition can be placed in the chamber. Caliber, as it is not difficult to guess, is twelfth, chamber length is 70 millimeters. The weight of the weapon without cartridges is 3, 9 kilograms, which, together with the handle located actually in the center for holding, makes the gun very convenient.
The main advantage of the weapon, which the manufacturer notes, is two magazines with a total capacity of 12 rounds, and, given the overall small size, it is difficult to disagree with this. The overall simplicity of the design has a positive effect on reliability, although a lot will depend on the cartridge case at the base of the ammunition. In my opinion, the main positive quality of a weapon is the ability to choose ammunition, although this choice is limited to only two options, in most cases this is more than enough. The choice between lethal and non-lethal type of patron is really necessary for law enforcement agencies, but it must be borne in mind that with such a choice there is a risk of error, which can lead to disastrous consequences. For the civilian market, the ability to choose the type of ammunition is also a useful thing, both for hunting and in the case of using a gun for protection, but, conversely, you need to remember in which store which type of ammunition.
The disadvantages of weapons can only be attributed to the sighting devices, which are located too close to each other. But it must be borne in mind that such a class of weapons as a gun does not belong to long-range, and if you also take into account the fact that the weapon is designed for use at very short distances, then you can close your eyes to this drawback.
In general, one cannot fail to notice that the long time between the development of the general concept and the first production model was not wasted. It is enough to pay attention at least to the fact that there are no protruding parts in the gun that can catch on clothing or impede the shooter's maneuvering with the weapon. And with a more detailed study, it comes to the understanding that the unusual appearance of the gun is not due to the desire to do something unusual and catchy, but the result of long and thoughtful work on the task at hand.
Summarizing what was written above, it should be noted that among all combat rifles from South Africa, this sample can be considered one of the best in terms of the combination of characteristics and ease of use. It should also be noted that the design was further developed. This is how the Kel-Tec self-loading shotgun - KGS - has been produced and sold for several years now. The main feature of this weapon is that it is powered by two box magazines located under the barrel, in addition, the weapon has already become self-loading. However, it should be noted that the owners often complain about the capriciousness of this gun to the ammunition and the frequent delays associated with sticking the cartridge, but this is a completely different story.
Shotgun-pistol MAG-7
This model of weapon is known among the masses, but not because of its high fighting qualities, but because of its widespread use in cinema and computer games, where the characteristics are greatly overestimated and differ from the real ones. In general, in my humble opinion, from the totality of its characteristics and ease of use, the MAG-7 rifle can be safely called one of the worst combat rifles, and not only in South Africa, but in general the harm of all the ugliness that has ever got into mass production. A little below such a low rating will be disclosed in more detail, for now let's try to understand how this weapon appeared in general.
The weapon owes its appearance to the designers of Techno Arms Pty. The task before the designers was the same as that set before the gunsmiths who developed the guns described above - the creation of an ideal combat gun. First of all, efforts were aimed at reducing the size of the weapon, since the pump-action shotguns were bulky enough for the shooter to maneuver freely in cramped conditions. Separately, it was noted that the weapons store should be quite capacious, but as we can observe now, something went wrong with this. One way or another, but in two years work on the project was completed and the gun went on sale in 1995.
There are many opinions about the appearance of the MAG-7 gun, some people like it, some do not cause much enthusiasm, personally, this sample reminds me of something Israeli Uzi, which adds dissonance - a gun in the form factor of a submachine gun … But the appearance, although important, does not in any way determine the characteristics of the weapon, but ergonomics can already significantly affect the effectiveness of the use of the gun.
You need to start with the most obvious and conspicuous drawback - the handle for holding. As you can see, the desire to shove in something unstoppable arises in people not only when collecting suitcases. The designers tried to place the weapon magazine in the handle for holding, similar to pistols and submachine guns. Obviously, this decision was dictated by the desire to reduce the size of the gun, and they really were slightly reduced due to this. But another problem arose, the length of the 12-gauge cartridge case is 70 or 76 millimeters, add to this the dimensions of the store, plus the dimensions of the handle itself for holding, and we will get a far from the most ergonomic handle that units can grab. It should be noted that domestic designers also tried to crank something similar, as an example can be called a small-sized automatic machine AO-27, where the store was used as a handle for holding. You just need to take into account that it was more of an experiment and the weapon did not go into mass production, plus to everything, domestic designers had more space for Mnevra thanks to the shape of cartridge 5, 45x39, which could be rotated at a sufficiently large angle in the store to reduce its width … However, this did not give a significant result … But back to the MAG-7 gun.
So, it was decided to place the magazine in the handle, which made the handle completely uncomfortable to hold. The shape, dimensions and material of the ammunition did not allow them to be positioned at a significant angle in relation to the barrel, and in general this would not have the desired effect. The most unexpected solution was found, but the simplest - it was decided to reduce the length of the sleeve, which was done. That is, the MAG-7 gun for power requires special ammunition with a sleeve length of 60 millimeters, which still did not make the gun convenient to hold, but at least made this very hold possible.
There is a safety switch on the left side of the weapon, which may seem convenient to switch with the thumb of the holding hand. In fact, switching with the thumb will be possible only if the size of the shooter's palm is one and a half times the size of a normal person's palm, which of course occurs, but rarely.
Reloading is carried out using a movable fore-end, which opens the shutter when moving back.
Separately, it should be mentioned that for those countries where the MAG-7 did not fit into the strict requirements for civilian weapons, a version with a long barrel and a fixed butt was developed, which made the appearance of the gun at least strange.
By its design, the MAG-7 is a fairly simple and ordinary gun, there is nothing in the design that could be considered something interesting. In fact, this is all the same pump-action shotgun, which is powered not from a tubular magazine, but from a box magazine. The barrel bore is locked using a swinging lever that goes into the slot in the receiver; the spent cartridge case is ejected to the right.
An interesting point was that the capacity of the box magazine is only 5 rounds. If we close our eyes to the fact that the box magazine can be changed quite easily and quickly, then it becomes incomprehensible what was the general benefit of using such an arrangement with a gun. And it is completely incomprehensible why the designers abandoned the bullpup layout, which would preserve the barrel length and make it possible to make the weapon compact, not to mention a comfortable grip for holding.
Despite the fact that the designers are striving to make the weapon compact, it came out as such conditionally. With a barrel length of 320 millimeters, the total length of the gun is 550 millimeters with the stock folded. In this case, the mass of the weapon is equal to 4 kilograms without ammunition. As mentioned above, the device is powered from box magazines with a capacity of 5 cartridges of 12 gauge with a sleeve length of 60 millimeters.
To be objective, the MAG-7 rifle is the very rare case when the weapon has absolutely no positive qualities. But the disadvantages are enough for a dozen models at once. The absolutely ill-conceived design of the gun makes it very poorly suited for shooting, and perhaps the appearance may seem attractive and unusual to someone, tastes are not judged, but the ease of use is absent as such. If we add to this not the most standard cartridge, then the picture becomes even more colorful.
Separately, it must be said about reliability. Quite often you can find information that the cartridges are stuck when feeding. Consumers nod at the manufacturer, the manufacturer nods at the consumer, blaming the use of self-cut ammunition. That is, a question mark can still be placed opposite the reliability of the weapon.
Despite everything written above, this gun has been produced and sold since 1995 until now, there are even fans of this weapon, although it is obvious that this model, to put it mildly, is not the best. Cinematography and computer games can be blamed for this phenomenon, and it would be ideal if MAG-7 was distributed only there.
This concludes the review of South African combat rifles. It is interesting that of all the three described designs, only one turned out to be successful, although all were mass-produced. In any case, it should be noted not the most standard thinking of designers when creating weapons, as well as the fact that they managed to find an opportunity not only to realize their ideas in metal, but also to bring them to mass production, although, judging by the MAG-7, this is not always good.
