Nightcrawler
New member
For my story that I've been editing and re-editing for the past six months, I've had difficulty deciding exactly where I want the level of firearms design to be. I decided to take a cue from Aliens and came up with the specs for a caseless assault rifle. I also threw together some notes for caseless shotgun and handgun design.
The things that make these guns different from what we have today, aside from being caseless, are several advanced features that would make the weapons technically more complicated than what we have now, by a wide margin. However, with advanced technology, it's possible that this complexity could be made just as reliable and inexpensive to produce as what we have now.
This is not meant to be anything resembling the HK G11. The G11 and the 4.73x33mm caseless cartridge it fired were designed for each other, in order to get the desired effect of salvoing three rounds at a high enough cyclic rate to be useful. These caseless cartridges would require propellants unlike anything we have right now, in order to be clean enough to be reliable and able to have as long a shelf life as metallic catridges. I wanted, primarily, one weapon system that could function as a submachine gun and as a rifle, without switching parts.
Some features you'll notice in the weapons:
-Due to the compactness of the caseless rounds involved, handguns and rifles can interchange cartridges. Basically, you could fit the rifle cartridge into the grip of a pistol.
-Weapons have built-in recoil dampeners, eliminating muzzle rise and allowing for easy, accurate automatic fire, even with high cyclic rates.
-Thanks to the recoil dampeners, weapons can be made very powerful without sacrificing controlability or having painful recoil. This would be especially advantageous in shotguns and handguns. As to how these work, specifically, I'm not sure. If I had the specs for them, I'd patent them and start making money. I'm thinking, though a combination of thigns. First off, a recoiling barrel (delayed impulse) like the AN-94 rifle. That would be handy for bursts of automatic fire. Secondly, some kind of internal system, to absorb the felt recoil. You know, like how a gas-operated shotgun or rifle has less felt recoil than a pump or bolt gun? The spring absorbs the recoil instead of the shoulder. Well, in 200 years, I'm sure they could develop something that could cushion the recoil enough that it wouldn't throw your aim of or hurt your hand (in the case of firing one of the magnum pistols I describe).
So, here are the specs. They're just a rough sketch from my notes. They are NOT MEANT to accurately portray the advancement of technology over the next two hundred years. They are just something I cooked up. But, in order for them to be useful, they have to present an advantage over what we have now. They do so, as is seen. These are not meant to be detailed technical notes, or a ficticious manual for a ficticious weapon. I didn't do any research into ballistics or advanced propellants or anything like that. These are my personal reference notes.
*******
M2A2 ASSAULT RIFLE
The standard issue rifle of the US miltary, caliber 10x25mm. It is a compact, caseless, bullpup design. The magazine is a 60 round sealed disposable drum that feeds into the top of the stock. The weapon has a built in recoil reduction system that allows it to be fired on full auto with no noticable muzzle rise. The weapon can fire on semiauto, a 3-round burst at 2500rpm, or at full auto at 900rpm. It uses a standard holograpic sighting reticule, similar to a Bushnell Holosight, that doesn't require batteries and works in all light conditions. It can be fitted with a varity of electronic scopes, accessories, and other equipment, including a suppressor. The weapon has a 10mm bore diameter, but fires many different types of ammunition, including:
-10mm 200gr CQB rounds, MV 2000 fps
-10mm CQB tracer
-10mm 260gr light explosive, MV 1800 fps
-10mm 400gr Subsonic CQB rounds, for use with suppressor
-10mm 80gr Frangible, MV 2500fps
-5mm sabot 300gr Subsonic Tungsten Flechette, light armor piercing, for use with suppressor
-5.6mm sabot round, 40gr, MV 4100 fps
-5.6mm sabot tracer
-5.6mm sabot armor piercing round, 70gr, MV 3800 fps
-4.5mm sabot ultra high velocity round, 20gr, MV 5000 fps
SHOTGUNS
A variety of caseless shotguns are available. Most are semiautomatic or select fire, and usually fire from either a sealed, disposable box magazine or a drum. Some are belt-fed. Shotguns use the same recoil absorption system as the M2A2 rifle. The caseless shotgun round has the wad and the shot or the slug all contained in the solid propellant. The most common caliber of caseless shotgun ammo is 18x50mm. (15mm, 20mm, and even 25mm are available.) Many different types of caseless shotgun rounds are available, including:
-Shot of various sizes, from #12 birdshot to .40 caliber Buckshot.
-Slugs of various weights. Most common for the 18mm is the 1oz slug, MV, 1700fps.
-2oz heavy subsonic slugs, for use with shotgun suppressor
-Sabot slugs. Most common are the .50 caliber and the .30 caliber. Velocities vary.
-Flechette ammunition. Fires fin-stablized tungsten darts instead of shot. Higher velocity than shot, sometimes armor piercing.
-Exploding slugs
-Less Lethal (rubber slugs, rubber buckshot, flashbang rounds, etc.)
-Flares
PISTOLS
The standard US service pistol is the M5A1 10mm caseless pistol. It looks very similar in size and shape to a full size Glock (it's blocky, and made of synthetic materials...hopefully it would have a more comfortable grip than the Glock 21). It uses 15 and 20 round sealed, disposable magazines. It fires the same 10mm cartridges as the M2A2 rifle, but with its shorter 5.5" barrel the velocites are greatly reduced. It has a high visibility, low profile, adjustible target reticule, a smaller version of the holographic reflex sight used on the M2A2 rifle, for sighting. It too has a recoil absorption system. Other popular caseless cartridges for handguns are the 9x15mm, the 11x20mm, the 13x28mm, and the massive 15x32mm. For those that prefer a small, fast bullet to a bigger, slower one, sabot rounds for all these cartriges are available. This gives the shooter the versatility to have it either way.
The things that make these guns different from what we have today, aside from being caseless, are several advanced features that would make the weapons technically more complicated than what we have now, by a wide margin. However, with advanced technology, it's possible that this complexity could be made just as reliable and inexpensive to produce as what we have now.
This is not meant to be anything resembling the HK G11. The G11 and the 4.73x33mm caseless cartridge it fired were designed for each other, in order to get the desired effect of salvoing three rounds at a high enough cyclic rate to be useful. These caseless cartridges would require propellants unlike anything we have right now, in order to be clean enough to be reliable and able to have as long a shelf life as metallic catridges. I wanted, primarily, one weapon system that could function as a submachine gun and as a rifle, without switching parts.
Some features you'll notice in the weapons:
-Due to the compactness of the caseless rounds involved, handguns and rifles can interchange cartridges. Basically, you could fit the rifle cartridge into the grip of a pistol.
-Weapons have built-in recoil dampeners, eliminating muzzle rise and allowing for easy, accurate automatic fire, even with high cyclic rates.
-Thanks to the recoil dampeners, weapons can be made very powerful without sacrificing controlability or having painful recoil. This would be especially advantageous in shotguns and handguns. As to how these work, specifically, I'm not sure. If I had the specs for them, I'd patent them and start making money. I'm thinking, though a combination of thigns. First off, a recoiling barrel (delayed impulse) like the AN-94 rifle. That would be handy for bursts of automatic fire. Secondly, some kind of internal system, to absorb the felt recoil. You know, like how a gas-operated shotgun or rifle has less felt recoil than a pump or bolt gun? The spring absorbs the recoil instead of the shoulder. Well, in 200 years, I'm sure they could develop something that could cushion the recoil enough that it wouldn't throw your aim of or hurt your hand (in the case of firing one of the magnum pistols I describe).
So, here are the specs. They're just a rough sketch from my notes. They are NOT MEANT to accurately portray the advancement of technology over the next two hundred years. They are just something I cooked up. But, in order for them to be useful, they have to present an advantage over what we have now. They do so, as is seen. These are not meant to be detailed technical notes, or a ficticious manual for a ficticious weapon. I didn't do any research into ballistics or advanced propellants or anything like that. These are my personal reference notes.
*******
M2A2 ASSAULT RIFLE
The standard issue rifle of the US miltary, caliber 10x25mm. It is a compact, caseless, bullpup design. The magazine is a 60 round sealed disposable drum that feeds into the top of the stock. The weapon has a built in recoil reduction system that allows it to be fired on full auto with no noticable muzzle rise. The weapon can fire on semiauto, a 3-round burst at 2500rpm, or at full auto at 900rpm. It uses a standard holograpic sighting reticule, similar to a Bushnell Holosight, that doesn't require batteries and works in all light conditions. It can be fitted with a varity of electronic scopes, accessories, and other equipment, including a suppressor. The weapon has a 10mm bore diameter, but fires many different types of ammunition, including:
-10mm 200gr CQB rounds, MV 2000 fps
-10mm CQB tracer
-10mm 260gr light explosive, MV 1800 fps
-10mm 400gr Subsonic CQB rounds, for use with suppressor
-10mm 80gr Frangible, MV 2500fps
-5mm sabot 300gr Subsonic Tungsten Flechette, light armor piercing, for use with suppressor
-5.6mm sabot round, 40gr, MV 4100 fps
-5.6mm sabot tracer
-5.6mm sabot armor piercing round, 70gr, MV 3800 fps
-4.5mm sabot ultra high velocity round, 20gr, MV 5000 fps
SHOTGUNS
A variety of caseless shotguns are available. Most are semiautomatic or select fire, and usually fire from either a sealed, disposable box magazine or a drum. Some are belt-fed. Shotguns use the same recoil absorption system as the M2A2 rifle. The caseless shotgun round has the wad and the shot or the slug all contained in the solid propellant. The most common caliber of caseless shotgun ammo is 18x50mm. (15mm, 20mm, and even 25mm are available.) Many different types of caseless shotgun rounds are available, including:
-Shot of various sizes, from #12 birdshot to .40 caliber Buckshot.
-Slugs of various weights. Most common for the 18mm is the 1oz slug, MV, 1700fps.
-2oz heavy subsonic slugs, for use with shotgun suppressor
-Sabot slugs. Most common are the .50 caliber and the .30 caliber. Velocities vary.
-Flechette ammunition. Fires fin-stablized tungsten darts instead of shot. Higher velocity than shot, sometimes armor piercing.
-Exploding slugs
-Less Lethal (rubber slugs, rubber buckshot, flashbang rounds, etc.)
-Flares
PISTOLS
The standard US service pistol is the M5A1 10mm caseless pistol. It looks very similar in size and shape to a full size Glock (it's blocky, and made of synthetic materials...hopefully it would have a more comfortable grip than the Glock 21). It uses 15 and 20 round sealed, disposable magazines. It fires the same 10mm cartridges as the M2A2 rifle, but with its shorter 5.5" barrel the velocites are greatly reduced. It has a high visibility, low profile, adjustible target reticule, a smaller version of the holographic reflex sight used on the M2A2 rifle, for sighting. It too has a recoil absorption system. Other popular caseless cartridges for handguns are the 9x15mm, the 11x20mm, the 13x28mm, and the massive 15x32mm. For those that prefer a small, fast bullet to a bigger, slower one, sabot rounds for all these cartriges are available. This gives the shooter the versatility to have it either way.
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Interesting place.
