[X] Plan This Is Not an LMG, Goddamnit!
With a cartridge and requirements selected, an RFP was written and sent out to a number of gun manufacturers and independent designers. All of whom are more than a little interested in selling the Marines and Constitutional Guard a new service rifle. You get results back in two months, since pretty much everyone has been playing with semi-auto rifles for export and 6mm r/71 for the commercial market anyway.
Herschel Rivkes, a Jewish Werser Expatriate working for Tatoosh Machine and Tool (TMT) has a proposal for a gas operated rotating bolt action derived from the Frankengatsch's five lug bolt using a short stroke piston. While the TMT team does mention in a note with the tool room prototype that the design needs non-corrosive primers, the limited piston travel should prevent over-acceleration of the bolt and damage to the action. The Current prototype weighs in at 3.8kg with a 61cm barrel (although the TMT team do note that this can easily loose 300g just from switching out the pretty stoutly welded op-rod and receiver for more production ready models,) and fits detachable box magazines of ten or more rounds, but can also feed stripper clips into a magazine if need be (they also included a pair of handy tools for loading magazines off the gun for field and range use.) The gun fires from a closed bolt and is usually semi-auto although the staged trigger also functions as a fire selector. The gun includes an automatic dust cover, and while the bolt supposedly locks open after the magazine is emptied, the dust cover does not. Rivkes includes a rather crude design for a grenade launching attachment, and a bayonet lug and part of nose cap that looks like it was cut off a Bartulis-Vilks Šautene rifle, and then crudely welded onto a ring that would fit. Accordingly, the gun also comes with the handle of a Šautene Bayonet that had some bar stock welded on to mimic the weight of a real bayonet. The sights exist, but as this is just a tool room model, they're honestly just an Elta ladder that wasn't remarked and are just there for look and feel.
Gott likes it and wants to see a version that isn't made out of bar stock and plywood (he's been screaming about finally getting non-corrosive primers for years anyway according to Caine.) Caine just doesn't like the look of the bolt and receiver, and thinks it's overcomplicated to machine, when so much else in the competition could be made out of a few castings or something, especially when they also have a field serviceable gas system. Wekiva doesn't like the idea of a progressive trigger as a fire-selector on a standard rifle and thinks it's a possible safety issue. Cayetano wants to see a better built prototype because it might actually be sturdy enough for use, and thinks non-corrosive primers are a great idea, albeit one that will require sergeants to think up more make work to keep the average marine from having idle hands.
Griffin, Howe & Ruark (GHR) is submitting a relatively simple gas piston tilting bolt design using a fixed ten round box magazine. It's a long stroke design, and the bolt locks to the receiver bridge (right where the feed guide is actually.) The gun is in a relatively advanced state and is clearly a hastily rechambered version of the design they did for the Ajawate of Nojpetén in 7.8mm before the Ajaw was thrown down the steps of the capital and then off a dock during last year's coup (which was understandably taken as a cancelation of their contract.) It looks like it should work quite well and is comfortably within the weight limit at 4.5kg with a 62.5cm barrel. It does come with a built-in grenade spigot, although this and the bayonet lug cannot be used at the same time and the gas system has to be turned off while the rifle grenade functionality is used. The gun fires from a closed bolt, does not have a fire-selector as it is very emphatically semi-automatic only, and is very easy to field strip and clean as it was designed to be safe around illiterate conscripts who until recently only got falling blocks. The sights are a pretty simple tangent design and also haven't been adjusted for 6mm r/71.
Gott doesn't like the fixed magazine that has to be removed with the entire trigger group for cleaning and disassembly and thinks this is both a really stupid idea from a maintenance standpoint and for the end user. Caine doesn't like how complexly machined the bolt is, even if the rifle is relatively simple otherwise. Cayetano thinks the rifle is ready for issue if it runs reliably in testing but doesn't like that It has a fixed magazine and is semi-auto only, especially as heavy as it is. Wekiva wants to hold judgement until the actual shooting but is pretty certain it will work well enough and is at the very least worth taking to testing despite her ongoing feud with GHR.
Thotson Arms proposes a screw delay blowback rifle, which on paper should be fairly light, simple and reliable, even if it does require lubricated ammunition. It feeds from detachable box magazines which can be topped up using a charger loading guide on the rifle. It is semi-automatic only, all of 4.1kg with a 61cm barrel, and looks reliable enough. It also has an integrated grenade spigot, and a bayonet lug. Over all it looks to be simple and user friendly.
Gott likes it and wants to see it actually in use. Caine doesn't like how the screw structure is made, and thinks it complex enough to render the rifle a pain in the ass to make even if the rest of it is dead simple. Cayetano doesn't mind that it's semi-auto only if it's that simple and easy to use, and Wekiva is convinced it will be an accurate weapon in testing since it doesn't have a gas piston messing with the operator's aim.
Samu Holl's son Lindor proposed another rather inspired design. Cooked up while he was at a spa seeking treatment for Moral Insanity through the administration of radium water, a number of entheogens and nutmeg enemas, Lindor's talents did shine through on the Holl recoil rifle. Using a new roller delayed blowback action, the weapon is capable of firing from a closed or open bolt depending on firing mode. The 45cm barrel is free floating inside the handguard and is fitted with a muzzle device that works as a flash hider, bayonet lug and rifle grenade spigot. The rifle, while presently 5.6kg unloaded, could be cut down through some selective refinement, better choices of furniture and more aggressive milling or just ditching the integrated bipod, telescopic sight mount and bottle opener in the foregrip. The gun only feeds from ten or twenty round detachable box magazines, and the magazine cannot be topped up through stripper clips while in the gun. The gun looks surprisingly strong and well finished for something made at a spa, and despite the fact that the bayonet is clearly fashioned out of a modified breadknife, the bipod from soup ladles, and the furniture from actual furniture, should function properly. Holl promises a better (and firing) prototype when he is clearheaded and back in his workshop, but it was the best he could do on such short notice with limited facilities, as he could not acquire a proper rifled barrel and so had to make do by fabricating a wire-wound barrel using some gas pipe, bailing wire and electrical conduit. Holl did not include fully functional sights but had a wooden model of a screw adjustable flip up rear aperture sight glued to the receiver that broke off during shipping.
Gott is impressed by Holl's ingenuity and thinks a version that doesn't have a magazine and magazine well made from scrounged tinplate beaten and soldered into a proper shape is worth testing. Especially given the Holl family's reputation. Caine is of course horrified by the abomination in front of him, but is taken by how lucid Holl's letter accompanying the rifle is, and thinks if it could be simplified, it could actually make a decent rifle, even if it is at present complex, ugly and more than a little overweight. Also, Caine thinks it needs something on the gun to enable it to top up a box magazine. Cayetano is leery of the specific prototype but thinks that the basic design can be easily simplified and would produce an excellent rifle or light machine gun if put through a proper development cycle. Wekiva is amused by it and finds the promise of a free-floating barrel too great to ignore. Also, the magazines are made from the cartons of the same brands of malt and meat extracts she buys so extra points there.
Mortiz Fung of the Illahe Naval Arsenal submitted a proposal for a direct impingement tilting bolt rifle. Aggressively simple and stout, it weighs 4.7kg with a 62cm barrel, and is as simple ergonomically as it is mechanically. Fung designed it to be easy to take down and clean, and it is held together by only a pair of captive pins. It has a ten round detachable box magazine albeit one Fung admits is mostly separate to allow for easier repairs and cleaning, and is normally loaded from five round stripper clips (although on a marksman version, given the choice of scope rail on it, the rifle would have to be loaded from the magazine.) It is semi-automatic only, and has an extremely long sight radius as Fung did not bother to include a fixed grenade launching adapter, instead making it an extra piece of kit that could be issued out to grenadiers and carried along with their bayonets. Fung included an aperture battle sight and a flip up ladder sight with very fine adjustments, as Fung was above all going for accurate aimed fire assuming that machine guns would be doing most of the suppression. The Rifle is well made for a workshop gun, and Fung proposes using some stamped parts to speed up and simplify production, although Fung has not applied such to the receiver, limiting it to barrel bands, the butt plate, and trigger guard, although Fung says magazines should probably also be stamped.
Caine and Gott are quite fond of their coworker's design, and attest that they've seen him clean a related prototype with petrol and lube it with motor oil because he can. They're not really as fond of the long sight radius or Fung's obsession with using it as a target rifle, but it's at least a sensible size for a rifle. Wekiva loves the higher comb of the stock and the very long sight radius, which make it quite practical for iron sight sniping unlike the Elta or many other competitors. Cayetano thinks it's a bit overkill for anyone other than a marksman and would rather have a handier or lighter rifle if it's only going to have a magazine capacity of ten rounds.
Tyee Arms is being interesting with their submission. It's a long stroke gas piston design on a tilting bolt, weighing all of 4.3kg, with a ten round or more detachable box magazine (they said more, but only included a ten round sample.) It's based off a light machine gun of some sort, and has a 62.5cm barrel, but fires only from a closed bolt, even on full auto. The selector is poorly placed, next to the magazine release paddle, but they say that they're working on a new position and can make a semi-auto only version if desired. Otherwise, it's a pretty basic rifle, and they've figured that the arsenal system would want to put their own sights on, and so have only fitted commercial express sights onto the rifle. The grenade launcher adapter is an accessory, and not part of the main kit, for cost and complexity reasons.
Cayetano thinks it's just barely adequate and hates the controls but will admit full auto with a 62cm barrel on 4.3kg is nice. Wekiva is concerned about how thin the barrel is but will admit that the designer shrugging about the sights will make it easier to get someone who actually knows what they're doing to build better ones than you could otherwise get. Gott has a long-standing hatred of the Tyee team and spent his time nitpicking, down to the stock grain being insufficiently straight. Caine is willing to take a further look at the design but thinks it might prove to be somewhat of an underperformer compared to the wilder competition.
The Frankengatsch Company's Kubachi office has developed their own new and extremely compact abomination. A long stroke gas piston rotating bolt design. It's got a 50cm barrel, with a fixed flash hider/muzzle compensator/grenade launcher on the end. The whole action is designed to recoil slightly into a massive buffer spring, and the system feeds from a ten or twenty round box magazine mounted to the left of the action. On semi-automatic mode the gun fires from a closed bolt, but fires open bolt on full auto, and the gun includes a folding bipod, inline stock and space for an optical sight rail as well as fold down front and rear sights (the rear being an adjustable barrel) for easier transportation. The Frankengatsch company apparently initially designed it as a light machine gun for airborne and mechanized units, and then slimmed it down to be a rifle, but this seems unlikely. Overall, the controls are well placed for a Frankengatsch design, and the present 56cm sight radius is plenty. Overall weight is still only 4.2kg with all that, and the action is designed to be well sealed.
Cayetano is in love. It's everything he asked for, who cares if it seems a bit fragile for a standard service arm. Wekiva doesn't like how the magazine throws off the balance of the rifle, and is positioned to smash you right in the face if you try to fire a rifle grenade from the shoulder, but that's a training issue. Otherwise she finds it compact, a certainly capable weapon and possibly a bit overkill, even if it is the second lightest gun in the competition. Gott thinks it'd be better as a proper LMG, but concedes that a lightened LMG is a better basis for a semi-auto rifle than a lot of other proposals he'd seen. Caine just thinks the thing is too complicated, expensive and fragile for service, even if it could give the marines a massive advantage in firepower over everyone else, especially when paired with a new belt-fed MG. The extra ammunition consumption and barrel wear doesn't really seem worth it compared to a simpler or heavier semi-auto rifle.
One H. Dunlap proposed a short recoil semi-automatic only rifle. It weighs all of 4.3kg, has a ten round rotary magazine that like the Elta can be topped up with the bolt closed and a round of ammunition in the chamber, and has a 56cm barrel. It does include a bayonet, and a kit to convert the rifle to a fixed barrel straight pull for either bayonet or rifle grenade use. The action itself is a pretty standard short recoil rotating bolt design, and the bolt is similar to the TMT and Frankengatsch submissions. The sights are also taken off an Elta rifle, and the control design is a combination of Elta and long recoil semi-automatic shotgun features, producing a confusing mess. However, it does have a free-floating barrel normally so it should be reasonably accurate, as well as avoiding the complexity of a gas operation.
Gott just wants to fail it now, it really can't reasonably fire a grenade or use a bayonet if it has to be converted into a fixed barrel design to do so. Caine doesn't even find it cheap even if he does think the magazine on it fascinating and worth trying to transplant if he could. Cayetano likes it because of how handy it is but admits he wouldn't want to use one in a place where he might need to bayonet someone, because it would damage the action. Wekiva thinks it might make a decent civilian rifle, or a shotgun, but a short recoil service rifle is just too impractical. Of course they all want to see if it can actually hold up to abuse, since the bayonet requirement is one of those things pretty much everyone agrees is a technicality for a bunch of positions. At worst, it could always be the new Army service rifle.
Choose however many designs to select for prototyping, up to all eight. This can include suggested modifications, although as these are early prototypes some might happen anyway, and no gun should be considered a frozen design yet.
Voting moratorium until midnight GMT Sunday the 16th/Monday the 17th because this is fucking huge.
[] Rivkes/Tatoosh Machine and Tool (TMT) Rifle
[] Griffin, Howe & Ruark (GHR) Rifle
[] Thotson Arms Rifle
[] Lindor Holl "Asylum" Rifle
[] Fung Rifle
[] Tyee Arms Rifle
[] Frankengatsch Machine Rifle
[] Dunlap rifle
