Lu Ming

Chapter 180 New Gun Prototype
In the first half of the 19th century, the term breech-loading gun was no longer a mysterious code, but gradually entered the eyes of the great powers, a powerful weapon that could change the destiny of the country.

Although the early breech-loading guns were very primitive and various problems emerged one after another, relying on the huge advantages in both rate of fire and accuracy, the breech-loading guns quickly drove the front-loading guns out of the stage of history.In the Prussian-Prussian War, the peak front-loading Mini gun was eliminated by the original Dreiser rifle, which is a classic example.

The current situation that the crossovers are facing is to choose a gun as a prototype in the era closest to the metal bullet rifle, and equip the troops after improvement.

This time period is the middle of the 19th century.

At that time, in France and the United States, two excellent breech-loading rifles were born almost at the same time: Chasepo and Sharps.

These two guns are breech-loaded paper-packed fixed ammunition, with a range of more than 800 meters and high accuracy. They are models of breech-loading guns before the popularity of metal bullets, and are very suitable for today's travel forces.

After all the ticket players were driven away, the minority who remained in the meeting room were basically rational people who had considered the actual situation of the crossing forces beforehand and advocated that the troops be equipped with breech-loading paper-packed rifles.

Therefore, Ma Zekai can finally discuss the pros and cons of these two rifles with everyone calmly.

First up is Sharps.

The Sharps rifle was designed by the American Christian Sharps in 1848. Here we call it the "American Gun".

The American gun is a mechanical descending structure: this is a mouthful, but it actually refers to the locking principle of the artillery. The bolt slides vertically up and down along the groove on the containing wall, and the vertical wedge locks.

The trigger guard of this gun is linked to the bolt, that is to say, when the shooter pulls the metal guard under the trigger, the bolt also slides down at the same time, and the chamber is exposed at this time, and the bullet can be loaded .

The firing method of the gun is to fire the cap with the bird's beak hook.The flash cap and the paper-wrapped bomb are loaded separately. After locking, the shooter pulls the trigger, the bird's beak hook falls, detonates the cap, and then ignites the black powder in the paper-wrapped bomb.

It is worth mentioning that the locking block of this gun is designed with a sharp semicircular cut surface, which can cut the tail of the paper-wrapped bullet when locking, thereby exposing the black powder: this saves the shooter from biting it open with his teeth Bullet steps.

By any standard, the Sharps was one of the best rifles of the pre-metal casing era, safe, reliable, accurate and powerful.

Ma Zekai, who is proficient in firearms, also likes this gun: for the low-quality troops who traveled through the crowd in the 17th century, the simple structure of this gun is a big bonus: the gun has only three parts: the locking block and the gas ring , Connecting pins, very easy to clean, can be disassembled without any tools.

Back to Chasepo.

Chasaipo is a rifle designed by the Frenchman Anthony Chasaipo around 1857. Here we call it a French gun.

The difference between American guns and French guns is that the French gun is a rotary rear bolt, fired by a firing pin, and the locking method is somewhat similar to the original pull bolt.While American guns are vertically locked up and down, the two guns are fundamentally different here.

This is the reason why French guns are not favored by Ma Zekai: Compared with American guns, this primitive bolt structure has poor airtightness.

The French gun originally had a unique design to solve the air-holding problem: the rubber ring.

However, the rubber ring, after a few shots, will harden due to the high temperature generated by the gunpowder gas and lose its locking ability, so soldiers need to carry the rubber ring to replace it at any time.

This trick hits the weakness of a certain force: rubber.

French guns need rubber rings or substitutes to ensure firing, while American guns win by design and do not require additional accessories. The difference between them is clear at a glance.

In addition, French guns required additional springs and firing pins, which added unnecessary stress to the industrial sector.

After Ma Zekai's analysis before and after, most of the people here realized the problem: French guns are not suitable for the current time-traveling forces.

"But Chasepo's rate of fire is unparalleled!" A supporter of the French gun, Zeng Rong, the director of the woodwork factory, almost gave up resistance at this time, but he still pointed out the biggest advantage of the French gun at the end of the discussion.

"Hehe, there is a price for a high rate of fire." Hearing this, Ma Zekai nodded and said, "Because the warhead, black powder and cap are wrapped in one piece of paper, Xia Saibo's firing pin can directly penetrate the tail of the paper shell." , Initiate shooting, this is the most concise way, so Chasepo’s rate of fire was the fastest at that time.”

"But the high rate of fire brings high failure rate." Ma Zekai said after a pause: "Chasaipo's original firing pin must first penetrate the paper shell to detonate the cap. The original spring and firing pin, due to the stroke , due to ablation and quality, the paper shell often breaks, and the cap is not hit hard enough to fire normally. At this time, it hurts—the broken paper shell cannot be pulled out by hand.”

"But American guns are different." Ma Zekai waited for everyone to digest the information, and then slowly said: "The caps and paper shells of American guns are packed separately. There is no need to penetrate the paper shell for a long distance like a firing pin - when the tail of the paper shell is locked, it is cut by the locking ring, and the black powder has been exposed. This design is very classic."

"French guns are about 12-14 rounds per minute, while American guns have a rate of fire of 8-10 rounds per minute, which is enough for use."

After Ma Zekai lit a black Lanzhou, he said leisurely: "Our enemy is the 17th century army with matchlock guns, knives, axes and spears. On the battlefield filled with black powder and smoke, the rate of fire is 8-10 rounds per minute. In fact, it is a bit redundant. Soldiers need to shoot after steady observation. In fact, 5 rounds per minute can wipe out all your imaginary enemies-don’t forget, the lobster soldiers use brown basses to fight the world. What is the rate of fire of brown basses?”

"Well, it's really unnecessary, 10 rounds per minute can't be used up." Han Xiaobo, who had been listening for a long time, nodded and said.

"The useless rate of fire improvement is maintained at the cost of rubber rings, springs, firing pins, and a high failure rate, which is unnecessary."

After Ma Zekai finished speaking, he looked around for the last time and concluded: "Well, if everyone has no objections, then I will report the results of today's meeting. Our final choice is the black powder rifle based on the American Sharps?"

After waiting for 1 minute, seeing no objection, Ma Zekai nodded and breathed a sigh of relief: "OK, let's break up for dinner, and I'll report. Let's continue in the afternoon and see what needs to be improved in the new gun."

2:[-] p.m., small conference room.

In view of the fact that most of the fanciers who came to participate in the previous meeting had already left, and even a few people who stayed to participate in the meeting in the morning did not continue to participate in the seminar to discuss the details after confirming that the new gun had been finalized, so Ma Zekai In the afternoon, the seminar was arranged in a small conference room—there were only 5 participants left, so why go to the restaurant?The small conference room is so convenient, and there are computers and projectors that can be used to display slides.

"Okay, let's say the same thing, let's start with the range first. Who will come first?" After seeing all the people coming, Ma Zekai started directly without delay.

"Let me go first." Mu Longcheng, who checked the information at noon, said at this time: "According to the information, Sharps' effective range is 460 meters, the maximum range is 900 meters+, and it is so powerful that it can shoot at a distance of 91 meters. Come on, shoot the bison, isn't this thing overpowered?"

"It's a bit overflowing." Han Xiaobo beside Mu Longcheng opened his mouth and added: "Our soldiers don't need to bring down the bison at a distance of 900 meters. In fact, no matter what firearms, the best aiming distance of the human eye will not exceed 400 meters, so we suggest that the power of the new gun should be appropriately weakened and the portability of the gun should be increased.”

After Ma Zekai crackled and typed in his notebook, he raised his head and thought for a while, then opened his mouth and said, "I have written down all my opinions. But I don't know if you have thought about it. In the future, our army will encounter a large number of formations to fight." Enemy—it is the 17th century now, and a neat formation of tens of thousands of people is the symbol of any strong army. At that time, the range of 900 meters + will be available.”

"It's still too strong." Han Xiaobo shook his head after hearing this: "It can kill people at a distance of 800 meters, and can aim and shoot at a distance of 400 meters. That's enough."

"Well, let's take a look." Ma Zekai called up the information in his notebook and looked at it, then said: "The Sharps we just mentioned refers to the 0.52-inch Sharps M1859 rifle in the Civil War. This type of bullet is equipped with 9g of black powder, and the muzzle velocity reaches 431m/s, which is enough for a hunter to kill a 914kg North American bison within 900m, hehe, it’s a bit ferocious.”

"If you want to reduce the power, there are ready-made ones." Ma Zekai turned the notebook over: "Well, after the Civil War, the 0.45-inch model and the carbine model launched by Sharps Company should meet your requirements."

Han Xiaobo looked at the computer screen and nodded: "The .45 carbine should be about the same, let's modify it on this basis. In short, the barrel of 1 meters is too long, and the total weight of 2 kilograms must be reduced. You know , Many of our soldiers are only about 4.3 meters tall, it is ridiculous to hold this kind of gun, and the recoil is too great."

Once the most important aspect of firepower for a new gun has been standardised, the rest of the details can be dealt with.

The next step is the trigger.

In the early Sharps rifles, there was a problem with the bolt: the direction of the bolt’s lifting and sliding was not perpendicular to the axis of the barrel, so after locking, there was still a gap between the barrel and the bolt, and a lot of gunpowder gas leaked out when shooting.

The improved vertical take-off and landing action in the later period solved this problem very well, which made the Sharps rifle shine in the Civil War.

The bolt action is the strong point of Time Travel: You must know that the vertical wedge lock similar to the Sharps rifle is often seen in the artillery of the later generations, and what is the locking gap of the artillery of the later generations? 0.02mm
In the future, no matter whether the kiln area is cut by CNC machine tools or stamped by machinery, in short, the bolts manufactured by the people, including the most important air-holding gap, will definitely replace the American guns of the 0.02th century even if they are not as abnormal as 19mm. The machine was thrown out of Jiutiao Street.

This is also the reason why the military headed by Han Xiaobo dared to reduce the power of guns. If the breath-holding link is good, the waste of gunpowder will be less. Even if the barrel is shortened and the amount of charge is reduced, the power will not be reduced too much.

(End of this chapter)