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Sturgeon's House

Documents Repository: Small Arms


Collimatrix

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Alright, we've got documents threads in aerospace and tanks, we need some for small arms now too.

 

Small arms technology lags other fields by decades, by here at Sturgeon's House, it only lags by months!

 

General Design Theory Treatises:

 

First up is a link to George M Chinn's The Machine Gun.  This is the premier English-language book on automatic weapon design theory.  Also, because it was a US Government publication, it is legally available for free.  The book is mainly focused on the design of autocannons, but the theory is applicable to smaller systems as well.  If you read this book and understand it, you are ahead of 90% of the people in the industry.

 

Next is this US Army document on small arms design hosted at Forgotten Weapons.  The theoretical information in this is largely taken from Chinn, but it adds a lot of notes from experience on what does and does not work.  It also has an excellent quantitative discussion of recoil, and some notes on various concepts the US Army was playing with at the time.

 

More Specific Documents:

 

Extractor Lift in the AR-15 series.  This interesting series of tests disproves the rationale behind "improved" "lobstertail" AR-15 extractors.  In addition, it shows just how much residual blowback pressure there is in the M4 (it's more than you'd think).

 

Why Telescoped Ammunition Sucks.  It really sucks.

 

Jim Schatz on caseless ammunition.  Very interesting read from a guy who was there when it happened.

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I have found a superb, searchable copy of The Black Rifle, on Scribd. I have uploaded it to Mediafire to share.

Those who know me well will know I am not someone who is anti-piracy, but I'd like to take a moment. I am uploading TBR because I think some people will read it and find out that there is a whole rich history of the AR-15 and other weapons locked away behind the covers of great volumes like these Collector Grade books. I do not advocate supporting increasingly obsolete distribution methods often, but please, if you read and get something out of TBR, or any other electronic historical volume, buy a hard copy of one of that publisher's books that interests you.

There are absolutely priceless resources of information that are out of print because the demand isn't high enough to re-print them. In an ideal world, the publisher would find that providing a high quality, searchable scan online for a nominal fee would make them extra cash without causing these sorts of bottlenecks, but right now the best way to ensure these books continue being printed and distributed is to buy them. Some of the cheaper volumes are in the $30 range, which is highly affordable even for someone like me.

Most of my library is electronic, and unless I get a lot more wealthy, it's going to be that way for a long time. I don't expect anything more from anyone else, but please support these publishers.

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