The First Repeating Bullpup

The latest episode of The Armourer’s Bench is a very special one. I examine what is probably the first repeating bullpup rifle - the Curtis. Designed by a British inventor, William Joseph Curtis, in 1866 it predates all other known repeating, magazine-fed bullpup rifle designs.

The Curtis Rifle has a fascinating story, the original design never left the prototype stage but gained notoriety in 1895, when it was used by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to defend against a lawsuit over pump action shotguns - I explain this interesting story in the video.

The Curtis Rifle is not only the first repeating bullpup, but it is also an early example of a striker fired weapon, uses an advanced drum magazine and even has a folding stock - all patented in 1866!

In this episode I discuss some of the earliest bullpup designs (which followed after the Curtis), the Winchester vs Francis Bannerman shotgun court case and the intriguing Curtis Rifle itself. Using contemporary news reports, engineering and patent drawings and illustrations I try to explain the history of a firearm that was well ahead of its time!

This episode was a big one to pull together, I did a lot of research and checking various patents. Editing it all together so the story made sense was also a big task but I am so happy to finally share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it and find it as intriguing as I do.

You can also check out my accompanying in-depth blog for more photos and information over on TAB’s site here.  

The Curtis Rifle - The First Repeating Bullpup

The latest episode of The Armourer’s Bench is a very special one. I examine what is probably the first repeating bullpup rifle - the Curtis. Designed by a British inventor, William Joseph Curtis, in 1866 it predates all other known repeating, magazine-fed bullpup rifle designs.

The Curtis Rifle has a fascinating story, the original design never left the prototype stage but gained notoriety in 1895, when it was used by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to defend against a lawsuit over pump action shotguns - I explain this interesting story in the video.

The Curtis Rifle is not only the first repeating bullpup, but it is also an early example of a striker fired weapon, uses an advanced drum magazine and even has a folding stock - all patented in 1866!

In this episode I discuss some of the earliest bullpup designs (which followed after the Curtis), the Winchester vs Francis Bannerman shotgun court case and the intriguing Curtis Rifle itself. Using contemporary news reports, engineering and patent drawings and illustrations I try to explain the history of a firearm that was well ahead of its time!

This episode was a big one to pull together, I did a lot of research and checking various patents. Editing it all together so the story made sense was also a big task but I am so happy to finally share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it and find it as intriguing as I do. 

You can also check out my accompanying in-depth blog for more photos and information over on TAB’s site here.   

FAMAS

I’ve uploaded an album of photographs of the French FAMAS in action over on the Historical Firearms facebook page. The photographs span from the factory to the field with photographs of FAMAS being assembled and used in the field over the last 40 years. Check them out here!

You can also find my in-depth post on the development and history of the FAMAS here.

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

FAMAS 

By the mid-1960s the French military had been in search of an assault rifle for a number of years with many of the major French state arsenals developing designs. In 1967, the French Army requested a new infantry rifle to replace both the MAS 49/56 rifle and MAT-49 submachine gun.

Under the direction of Paul Tellie Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS) began work developing a new rifle in 1969. A year later, following ballistic testing the French military selected the new new 5.56x45mm cartridge. MAS carried out an ergonomic study and decided to develop a bullpup rifle.

MAS chose a lever-delayed blowback action which removed the need for a gas system and theoretically made for a simpler, more reliable weapon. MAS built the first prototypes, designated the MAS A1, in 1971. A series of development prototypes followed until the French governent halted the programme in 1974, to test foreign rifles including the HK 33 and the FN CAL. The A4 prototypes struggled with reliability issues during testing and the MAS programme was placed on hiatus for further testing of other designs. The foreign designs, however, also failed to meet the French Army’s requirements. As a result the MAS development programme resumed in the summer of 1975.

MAS continued to develop prototypes with the A5 and A6 attempting to fix problems with reliability and barrel wear. In 1977, a decade after the French military had called for a new rifle, the army tested the new the A7 prototype. The army solved the problem of the MAS prototypes' continued failure to have a reliable 3-round burst capability by abandoning the requirement. Despite this MAS continued to experiment with the 3-round burst system.

In August 1977, the French Army adopted the MAS A7 as the Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne 5.56 Modele F1 - or FA MAS F1. By 1979, MAS had developed a reliable burst system and incorporated this into the F1, with the rifles already produced retrofitted. The FAMAS first saw action in 1983 in Chad during Operation Manta.

The FAMAS has a steel alloy receiver inside a plastic-fibreglass shell. Its unusual lever-delayed blowback action stems from designs by John Pedersen and Pál Király. The bolt is not conventionally locked during firing, instead, it begins to move rearward and an H-shaped lever at the centre of the bolt slows the travel of the bolt. This allows pressure in the chamber to drip to safe levels before the action opens enough to extract the spent case and load a fresh cartridge. The FAMAS isn't the only French weapon to use the lever-delayed blowback action, the earlier AA-52 also used this system.  

The lever-delayed system has its positive and negative characteristics, it makes the weapon relatively simple but it also introduces issues with variation in ammunition with the initial F1 designed to fire 55grain 5.56 ammunition. Additionally the FAMAS favoured steel-cased ammunition as this removes the threat of burst cases due to over pressure. The F1 also uses a proprietary 25-round magazine, as France left NATO in 1966, they cannot use the standardised 30-round STANAG magazines. The G2, however, can use NATO-spec magazines. Unlike the British SA80, the FAMAS can be set up for left-handed users. The charging handle, located on top of the receiver inside the carrying handle/sight mount, can be easily cycled from either side. The direction of ejection can also be altered as the ejector can mount on either side of the bolt. Ergonomically, the ejection port can be covered on either side by a detachable cheek rest.

The F1, unlike its contemporary the Steyr AUG, uses iron sights mounted on its carrying handle. The FAMAS also has an integral bipod and the ability to fire the AC58 and APAV40 rifle grenades. These can be used against both enemy infantry positions and armoured vehicles, able to penetrate the side and rear armour of a T55. It’s bayonet fits onto the top of the barrel so it doesn't project beneath the rifle. MAS assembled the FAMAS from parts made by a variety of state and private manufacturers. 

In 1995 the French Navy adopted the improved G2 variant of the FAMAS (see image #2). This rifle feeds from standard STANAG magazines, has a larger AUG-style trigger guard, a slightly different stock profile and 1/9 rather than 1/12 rifling. 

The FAMAS has seen action with French forces around the world in a number of African interventions, the Gulf War and in Afghanistan. MAS, and later GIAT, produced approximately 500,000 FAMAS rifles during the course of production. Over the year the French military attempted to update the rifle with the retrofitting of optics rails on the carrying handle and the more elaborate FELIN programme which incorporates sights, sensors and communications equipment. Approximately 30,000 rifles have been retrofitted with the FELIN system since 2009. 

In 2016, the French government announced that the French Army would replace its F1s with the Heckler and Koch's HK416F. Placing an order for up to 100,000 416Fs with HK to deliver 16,000 annually. The replacement of the FAMAS will take some years as this initial contract will not entirely replace the 400,000 rifles currently in service.        

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

In Action: Australian F88 

The collection of photographs featured above show men of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) while deployed to Somalia in 1993. They were part of the Australian element of the United Nations peacekeeping force which included personnel from over a dozen countries. They were part of the US-led Unified Task Force and the UN-led initiatives United Nations Operation in Somalia I & II. The photographs show Australian troops on patrol in rural parts of Somalia as well as in Mogadishu. The UN operations continued from April 1992 to March 1995. 

The troops in the photographs are armed with the a short stroke gas-operated bullpup ‘F88 Austeyr’, the first iteration of the Australian Army’s F88 series. In 1988, the Australian Army replaced it’s 7.62x51mm L1A1 (FALs) with the 5.56x45mm F88, a licensed version of the Steyr AUG made in Australia at the Thales owned Lithgow Small Arms Factory. The F88 has a number of changes from the original AUG. These include the ability to fix a bayonet, a disabling mechanism for the AUG’s two-stage fire selector trigger and M16A2-pattern rifling. 

It is interesting to note that the troops in the photographs are invariably carrying the rifle with the folding foregrip up. The F88 remains in Australian service with a number of modular upgrades throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. In 2015 the Australian Army began issuing the Enhanced F88 (EF88) which features a raft of improvements to the original rifle. 

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

Faucon ‘Balanced’ Rifle

Lieutenant-colonel Armand-Frédéric Faucon of the Troupes coloniales (French Colonial Infantry) was an early proponent of the bullpup concept. In 1908 he developed what he described as a ‘Fusil Équilibré’ (balanced rifle), in January 1910 he submitted a patent application for his concept which was granted a year later (see image #2). 

Faucon claimed that his configuration was “adaptable to any existing weapon and capable of bettering its performance.” The concept was intended to allow the rifleman to show a smaller profile when firing from cover and reduce the effort needed to fire from a number of positions. His ungainly looking concept brought the rifle out of the shoulder instead placing it on top instead. This placed the rifle’s action next to the rifleman’s face. A pistol grip (which in photographs appears to be from a Chauchat) and a brace for the shoulder were added and the rifle was sighted through a collimator sight mounted on the left side of the rifle. There was also an articulating rear grip for bayonet fighting which can be seen in the photographs above. 

The first official testing of the concept took place in 1909 and 1911 with a wooden mock-up rifle. The evaluating officers at the musketry school at Vincennes were less than enthusiastic.  The rifle’s overall length was approximately 41 inches, while still extremely long it was 10 inches shorter than the Lebel M1886 but weighed significantly more at 12 lbs.

In 1918, Faucon took two Meunier A5 self-loading rifles and adapted them to his balanced rifle configuration. The A5 had been developed in 1908 as part of France’s first attempts at developing a semi-automatic infantry rifle. It was chambered in a 6.5x61mm cartridge and had a six round magazine. The Faucon-Meunier rifles (see image #1) were presented for testing at Versailles in July 1918 and Chalons in May/June 1920. At some point during the testing the original stock seen in the posed photographs was replaced by a more rectangular stock seen in the first image. 

Interestingly it was found that the riflemen testing the rifles were less tired after a long session shooting than they were with more conventional rifles. Despite this the rifles suffered issues with the trigger mechanism which had been shifted well forward and was linked by a long rod. This is now recognised as a perennial problem for bullpup rifles. Evaluating officers declined to continue the Faucon-Meunier rifle’s testing probably due to its unconventional configuration. 

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

Garand’s Bullpup

In late 1945 the US Army’s Light Rifle Program began its search for a new rifle weighing less than 7 lbs. The first of these designs was the T-25 developed by Earle Harvey with the backing of Colonel Rene Studler, the chief of the Small Arms Division of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance. In 1946 two other designs began to be developed: the T-28, designed by Cyril A. Moore which used a German-inspired roller locking action and John Garand’s innovative but unorthodox T-31.

Garand was eager to maximise the length of the weapon’s barrel and decided to use a bullpup layout. While not weighing less than 7 lbs the T-31 was the lightest of the Light Rifle program weapons weighing 8.7 lbs. The rifle used a gas trap system, similar to Garand’s earlier designs, to cycle its action. Almost the full length of the barrel was shrouded by a gas cylinder. Once fired the propellant gases of an ignited round were directed down the cylinder to push a short stroke tappet piston which pushed the bolt rearward. 

While there are no diagrams of the rifle’s action available to show how enclosed the cylinder was early prototypes (namely the first and second made) have been described as using a Lewis Gun-like vacuum system where gases leaving the muzzle break were sucked back into the cylinder to the piston both cycling the weapon and helping to cool the barrel. While a later prototype has an entirely enclosed gas cylinder which had a gas port near the muzzle where the cylinder ends and a more conventional piston system. 

The problem with this system is the large amount of surface area the gases have to cool, condense and deposit carbon. This was the issue which doomed the early German semi-automatic rifles the G41(M) & G41(W) as well as the early gas trap M1 Garands. Following a 2,000 round test of the T-31 it was reported by testing officers that almost 1 pound of carbon was scrapped from the internal walls of the gas cylinder. This not only made the rifle heavier over time but would eventually prevent gas reaching the piston causing the rifle to fail to cycle.

The ergonomics of the T-31 prototype appear awkward with a large 20-round box magazine sitting just behind the pistol grip and in front of a large squared off rubberised butt stock. The rifles were 84cm or 33 inches in length and were fitted with adjustable folding sights, designed and patented by Garand but clearly influenced by those of the German FG-42. The in-line stock profile helped to reduce the recoil of the large T65 round.

In response to the problems of carbon fouling discovered in the gas cylinder of the early prototypes Garand developed a longer stroke gas piston system which tapped gas directly from the barrel to reduce fouling and improve reliability.

The rifle was select fire with the large muzzle break on the first two prototype rifles designed to mitigate blast and recoil. The T-31 had a cyclic rate of 600 rpm and fired from a closed bolt which some sources describe as a rotating bolt and was chambered in the ‘Lightweight Rifle Calibre .30′ round (T65) which evolved into 7.62x51mm. The 20-round box magazine was designed by Garand and was the only element of his design which would survive as it was later used in the successful T-44 rifle which became the M14.

Garand continued to work on the design until he retired in April 1953, at the age of 65, the T-31 design was never realised as a practical service rifle and the both Moore and Harvey’s rifles were also eventually abandoned in favour of the T-44. John Garand’s last rifle design was just ambitious and innovative as his early work, the T-31 was not only the lightest of the Light Rifle program’s three early rifles but it also attempted to combat the heavy recoil of the T65 cartridge, which while designed to be an intermediate cartridge was still too powerful. Garand died in February 1974 at the age of 86.

See also: John Garand’s .30 Calibre Carbine

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

M1946 Sieg Bullpup

The gas operated Sieg automatic rifle was developed by Chief Gunner's Mate James E. Sieg of the US Coast Guard.  A qualified machinist Sieg developed his rifle at the end of the war and was championed by the US Coast Guard.

Allegedly developed why Sieg was serving aboard the Coast Guard cutter  Mohawk while patrolling in the North Atlantic, but was later attached to the Research and Development Division of the Coast Guard Headquarters.  The rifle had a number of interesting features including folding front and rear sights, a selector trigger and a compensator developed by Sieg.  Chambered in .30-06 and feeding from a 20-round box magazine and capable of a rate of fire of up to 700 rounds per minute.

Interestingly the Sieg was a pound heavier than the M1 Garand while the bullpup design shortens the Sieg significantly measuring just 36 inches long compared to the Garand’s 43.5 inches.  One of the M1946′s most interesting features was its crescent double trigger, similar to the MG 34's, which allowed the operator to chose between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire.  Note in the photograph of Sieg above he has his fingers on both sections of the trigger.

The rifle was made up of 103 parts with a wood stock and had a combination safety and magazine release.  The M1946′s compensator patented by Sieg in 1945 channeled excess gases upwards through perforations in the barrel and into a number of baffles to compensate for the muzzle climb of the .30-06 when fired in full automatic. The compensator was able to also be used as a flash suppressor and as a grenade launcher.  By essentially ‘turning off’ the compensator the gases which would usually be released upwards were channeled out of the muzzle giving the increased energy needed to fire a rifle grenade.

The Sieg was not the only bullpup developed in the US its contemporaries include the mysterious Model 45A and John Garand’s experimental T31 bullpup. A 1946 Popular Science article about Sieg also mentions he developed a line-thrower which used a .50 calibre blank to project a line out to 400 yards.

The fate of the Sieg M1946 is unclear, it apparently tested well during trials at Fort Benning and the compensator was praised for improving controllability and accuracy. It may have fallen victim to inter-service rivalry but this is little more than a theory. It is likely that US Ordnance did not pursue the design as in 1946 three other design teams had already begun work on designs which including what became the T25, T28 and T31.  With the Coast Guard’s limited funding it is unlikely they could have continued development with the aim of adoption.  

Sources:

Experimental Enfield Sniper Rifle

Developed in 1944 by the design team at the Royal Small Arms factory at Enfield the rifle was designed in answer to a problem reported by snipers in the field who were reporting that the movement of cycling the Lee-Enfield No.4′s bolt was giving away their positions. 

In response to this Enfield designed a bullpup, straight pull rifle based on the 7.92x57mm rimless round.  The rifle’s bolt was linked to the pistol grip which when pulled backwards retracted the bolt and when pushed back into position stripped a round for the rifle’s 5-round magazine.  The grip was locked into place by a catch inside the trigger guard which locked when the pistol grip was returned forward.  The weapon was designed with fixed sights and to mount a magnified optic to the left of the receiver (see image #3).  

A number of designs were drawn up, two of which are shown above, but only one prototype rifle was built.  The practicality of the design has to be questioned when arguably the motion of cycling the pistol grip would be just as likely to give away a sniper’s position as working a standard bolt action.  

The rifle represented one of the first serious considerations of a bullpup design by British small arms designers since the Thorneycroft carbine in 1901. However, it was the rifles which were subsequently developed including the Hall EM-3 and the Korsac EM-1 developed in 1944 and 1947 which were semi-automatic and represented the immediate future of British small arms development which would see the rise and fall of the EM-2.  

Source:

Korobov, the Bullpup Rifle and the TKB-022

By the early 1960s the AK47 and subsequently the AKM had been in Soviet service for nearly 15 years.  Approximately 10 million rifles had been made and the designs had been shared with half a dozen allies including China, the East German Republic, Hungary and Egypt.  

However, during the early 1960s Soviet small arms konstruktors were at work on another rifle which was quite unlike the AK.  The team of konstructors was lead by German A. Korobov (see image one) a designer who had also entered the same contest Mikhail Kalashnikov entered and won with his Avtomat Kalashnikova in the mid-late 1940s.  Korobov, a designer at the Tula arms plant, entered the competition with one of the world's first practical bullpup assault rifle designs, the TKB-408 (see image two), the design lost out to Kalashnikov's and while Korobov was disenchanted with the bullpup configuration he did not fully abandon the concept.

With the development of a new phase of mobile warfare in the 1960s which saw troops travelling less on foot and more onboard helicopters and inside armoured personnel carriers the Red Army decided to look into the development of a shorter rifle. Korobov and his team again entered the state sponsored competition. In 1962 Korobov designed the TKB-022, another bullpup (see image three).  The TKB prefix is an initialism for 'Tulskoe Konstructorskoe Buro' which translates as the 'Tula Design Bureau'. The TKB-022 looked unlike any other contemporary military rifle, its trigger group was located beneath the rifle's barrel and just in front of an integrated magazine/pistol grip - a configuration similar to the Uzi's. It also featured another advanced design feature, a moulded plastic stock which fitted around the receiver.

While Korobov's initial design was rejected he continued developing and between 1962 and 1968 he built several more variants of the TKB-022. The first was the TKB-022P No. 2 (see image four) which featured a standard AK trigger and pistol grip with the magazine no longer integral and set back further along the stock.  The TKB-022PM No.1 (see image five) saw the weapon's configuration alter significantly with the magazine and chamber being moved to the rear of the rifle while the trigger group moved to the front of the weapon (a stock shape not unlike FN's recent P-90 and F-2000). The last variant, the TKB-022PM5 No.1 (see image six) had a more evolved and ergonomic plastic stock and was chambered in the new Soviet 5.6x39mm experimental cartridge.  

The TKB had an overall length of just over 20 inches, significantly shorter than the AKM's 32 inch length.  With the unusual positioning of the rifle's trigger and magazine it had an unconventional vertically moving bolt - rather than the standard horizontal orientation.  This also meant that the bolt could not extract a spent round and instead Korobov designed a U-shaped extractor which pulled with empty casing from the chamber and then pushed forward the next round.

The TKB-022 was never adopted by the Soviet Union, possibly because of the rifle's unconventional configuration (which would not see widespread adoption until the 1980s), possibly because of the untested nature of the plastic stocks it is likely that there were concerns regarding its hardiness in extreme temperatures. It is also possible the TKB's unconventional bolt raised concerns among senior Soviet konstruktors. Regardless of the reason the TKB-022 in all its configurations and variants was undoubtedly a rifle well ahead of its time.  

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon! 

Britain's Forgotten Assault Rifles: The EM series

During the late 1940s and early 1950s the British Army began its search for a new rifle to replace its increasingly obsolete bolt action Lee-Enfield MkIII’s & No.4’s.  The success of the German StG-44 and the growing importance of automatic fire over long range accuracy led the British to seek a radically different rifle.   This spawned a series of bullpup designs designated the EM series (standing for Experimental Model).  The EM’s had varying firing mechanisms but all were uniquely bullpup in layout (EM-2 as seen in images 1 & 2 and EM-1 as seen in image 3).  The EM-2 designed by a team of Polish engineers over seen by Captain Stefan Kenneth Janson became the favoured design and was selected to replace the venerable Lee-Enfield.  The British Army briefly adopted the EM-2 in 1951 as the Rifle No.9 Mk1 and begun gearing for manufacture.

At the same time NATO was seeking to field a common shared round between its member nations and the EM-2’s .280 round was a strong contender.  However, the USA refused to standardise to the ammunition the EM-2 used; .280, citing it as being underpowered.

As a result of NATO’s decision the British Army instead adopted the FN-FAL battle rifle chambered in the 7.62 round which the US and as a result NATO prefered.  The British licensed version of the FAL was introduced into service as the L1A1 Self Loading Rifle (SLR) in 1954. The SLR served for almost 40 years and was eventually replaced in the late 80s/early 1990s with the SA80/L85.

Ironically during the 1960s the US realised that the British had been right in suggesting that 7.62mm was too powerful a round for assault rifles - they found this out the hard way with the M14.   In 1963 the M16 chambered in the smaller 5.56 round was adopted to replace the M14.  The 5.56 subsequently grew in favour with NATO during the early 1960s and was fast replacing the larger 7.62mm NATO round as the common calibre for assault rifles.  As such the L85 was chambered in the 5.56mm round, which ironically is a slightly smaller bullet than the .280.  

The SA80/L85 shares a striking resemblance to the EM-2 but shares not mechanical similarities. However, the SA80/L85’s layout was influenced by both the EM-2 and the later (also bullpup) L64/65.

The EM-2 itself was a revolutionary design and performed well in trials, being extremely accurate, ergonomic and able to fire consistently at high rates of fire.  But it was a victim of international politics and all attempts to upscale the EM-2’s design to the larger 7.62 cartridge failed miserably sacrificing the reliability, controllability and the accuracy which had made the EM-2 so attractive.