Monday Morning Muse, March 4, 2013

Today’s Muse, the DIYer Rifle and it’s development.  

Do we really need a crystal ball to know the future?

The time has come and this will happen, it’s only a matter of time, could it be part of your new online business?  Will there  be a Yahoo forum focused on the DIYer Rifle?  And how many followers would the development of such a project gather?  Matters not what you think, we need think about the natural evolution of ideas and machines, and have some idea when they take a new direction.    

Feinstein,  the Mother of invention?

Yes it’s just a muse, but I think the incentive is there to design small arms that could be made and maintained regardless of who might not want you to have them.  Who votes to keep an Old Senile Battle Axe  in power?  Those with their hands stretched out, and wanting your American dream?  People so focused on gifts from their Government  that they would give up any freedom in exchange?  Will they scurry across our border when the free lunch is gone? Can we learn a thing from Canada? All those free lunches they served during the Viet Nam era? I don’t suggest a right or wrong, I just wonder how many who were ‘taken in’ scampered back across the border when it was convieient for them? How many Canadian Farmers would have rather spent that money on loyal Canadians?     

As I’ve said before, whether we like guns or not, we owe much of the machining potential that we have now to the manufacturing of guns.  So much in the way of lathes, Mills and other machines were developed and refined in the pursuit of gun making, but now, with CNC, and with a new design, we may need very little in the way of machines to make a rifle that meets every need.

Many if not most DIYers have an appreciation for firearms because they are machines,  and often built with great precision and mechanical poetry.

At age 65 I’ve seen a lot of things change, the Vietnam Era brought into service  a new class of military rifles, they  looked more like toys made by Mattel.  Many asked.. who in their right mind would arm our (kids) soldiers with lowly 22 caliber munitions? If you do the research, you’ll note that these rifles were also deployed with known faults, and some of the Chief Scientists of the day who studied the situation say so.  Of course, the decision can be traced to money, power, and influence at the time.    

Today we know the AR15 is pretty much the same rifle, having both civilian and military models, both with the same wimpy little bullet. It’s an example of something many thought would never be popular… how wrong they were.   

 I’m fairly certain that recent events has caused a lot of people to rethink what a firearm should be, and how they might be redesigned for easy manufacture.  There are some key components that have been targeted in the past as things that might be controlled in one way or another by people in Government.

It was the Obama administration that attempted to have all military brass destroyed instead of putting it up for sale to be recycled  ‘reloaded’  as has been done for many years.  There’s  been other efforts to control primers or even pass laws as to how they would be made to degrade an become useless over a short period of time preventing  civilians to store ammunition for times of need.   

Now is likely the time to rethink the entire rifle, and design the DIYer model.   How easy could it be to design a rifle that  doesn’t need any proprietary components?  To make a repeating rifle that doesn’t use hard to make brass cases, no need for primers, able to fire in any mode you choose?

The rifle that comes to mind makes use of reliable electrical components, and with the risk of using these components, we ‘make simple’ the rifle.   Instead of primers, we use an igniter and an onboard lithium battery with a backup pack.  Instead of reloading cartridges, we reload round cylinders that function as magazines. The cylinders are quickly changed out when emptied, not all that different than popular magazines today.  

 An operator  would reload these cylinders by placing them on a reloading machine that would drop a measured amount of powder and a projectile into each hole and seat the bullet and seal it to the weather.  Simple hand tools would allow these cylinders to be reloaded in the field at slower rates.

The cylinders would be made up of metal tubes that hold the projectile and propellants, and the rest would be made of durable lightweight composites. The trigger would be no more than a switch, the cylinder would be advanced and locked by a redundant electrical system, rates of fire to be controlled by another lever or series of buttons on the forearm, easy to make ‘safety’  switches in series where a forearm grip and grip behind the trigger housing were necessary to fire the rifle.

What we might end up with is something as simple to reload and maintain as a modern black powder rifle, but even simpler as per the ignition system.  No percussion caps, and potentially a dozen different recipes for propellants that would be all but impossible to keep from the public.

So close your eyes and visualize the DIYer rifle of the future.  Could that cylinder hold as many as 20 rounds?  Can you see those short stubby pieces of metal slipped over locating pins in the Jig, and depending on how far underground your operation, you’ll either use a plastic injection machine, or maybe even a two-part epoxy to form this cylindrical magazine.

As for the most simple version of the DIYer rifle, if you place a smoothbore barrel in the Jig, add a half a dozen components, and sandwich it all inside a composite stock and fore arm,  who could stop you when we can make durable composites in so many ways?  

 And how does this cylinder turn?  The cylinder is also the armature of a stepper motor where full auto and three shot bursts are possible, and certainly a manual system is easily applied for back up.  And legal you ask? Imagine a strap in a recessed hole, if you insert a knife tip and cut the strap, it enables full auto and three shot bursts. You don’t turn it on till you really need it..   As I say, once you focus on these components, things begin to blur.  

For those paranoid of electrical components like batteries, one could have a magneto that worked like a ‘spring  gun’  Cocking it and pulling the trigger could produce a spark like that of a welding arc!   

I can close my eyes and see that auto re-loader now.  Why reload brass when we can reload the magazine?  Some might think there would be a lot of metal in that composite magazine, and maybe that will be the case for the first generation, but later generations might only require a thin wall to be wrapped in threads of carbon fiber and then encapsulated in lightweight plastic. We might even be able to carry more of these rotary magazines than the traditional ones now in use?

Why wait for a Government to make it hard to get certain components, and to disrupt the supply line of ammunition as will happen this summer and possibly into hunting season?  Why not get started in developing arms that will be near impossible to keep from the public. We all know the real goal of the far left.. and that is to disarm us all.

 As I write, I think of the call I got from a friend, yesterday it was the first time he got really good performance out of his new homemade gun powder, and of course he’s casting his own bullets now.  Others are resurrecting some of the same tools and methods that kept hunting and other sporting events alive during WWII.  Sportsmen made their own jacketed bullets, and even powders, today we have CNC, and far more automated tools.

Those who think about the hard to build components and propellants have the ability to work more safely than ever before.  It’s all so easy to automate processes, and work with small batches remotely.  Consider making Nitro based powders, we know the ingredients are so simple that Governments will have trouble controlling the feed stocks, but who will take the risk in making the stuff? Working remotely behind blast shields and making use of smaller batches, guided by simple robotics and measure will likely allow hunters, sportsman, and people interested in home defense to do their own thing.  Even the manufacture of black powder could be automated easily, and once we add the ingredient that makes it far less stable, the manufacture could be carried out behind a blast shield, and in small batches for safety. Yes, we know that peeing in one spot could help in the manufacture of black powder, those Sana cans of the future? Why not keep the liquid separate from the urinal? Collect it all for the manufacture of the nitrates you need if your government wishes to attempt to control  it?     

 Is it time to develop the new Freeman 50? I personally think people like Feinstein have threatened enough, and I think the president has made it clear, the game is to keep whittling away until our guns are kept in lockers down at the police station, and we are only allowed to check them out for weekend use. Sure, he says different, but we only need keep track of his deeds,  who has noticed his promises are most empty?

Making Nitro safely at home?  A new online business renting out molds to make carbon re=enforced lower receivers, stronger than steel? Lay it all up  per the instructions, and bake it till it cures?

New composite barrels made around  a thin wall insert in tension?  An inexpensive CNC machine designed to lay in the carbon fibers?  Just where is the world headed, and are we young enough in heart and mind to follow it? Will we do it from the arm chair, or the hobby shop? It’s my muse for the day…  

Added March 5:

As I say.. reading comments are of value, it helps us understand a shift in the wind direction. Check this thread, and think about the replies.

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=85455

I do note one senior at this site pointing out that electronics >IS< more reliable WHEN properly designed. I believe this is true.  The ignition system that free men need to develop is NOT a means to fire the typical primer, but a replacement for it. And I’d bet it is only a matter of time before you see a rifle where the magazine is reloaded, not a brass casing.

GB