Bullpup.

This is coolbert:

Recent developments [well, at least since the late 1960's and later], seem to favor the "bullpup" type of assault rifle.

An assault rifle that to the uninitiated, seems to be "weird" looking, futuristic.

NOT a rifle design that "looks" like the traditional rifle the common person is accustomed to.

By "bullpup" I would define a rifle, assault variety, short in length [a mini-rifle by conventional standards], but possessing a lot of firepower.

The most single significant feature of these rifles is the location of the magazine well. To the rear of the trigger, not forward as in most conventional assault rifle designs.

[a modern assault rifle would be defined by characteristics, such as:

Having night sights, high capacity magazine [30 rounds], pistol grip stock [said to be essential for urban warfare, one hand gripping the rifle, one hand free to scale an object], semi-automatic or automatic selector switch, quick breakdown and ease of maintenance, etc.]

Exactly what advantage is obtained by having the magazine well to the rear of the trigger and not forward is a mystery to me?? It is not intuitive as to what advantage is gained by placing the magazine well where it is placed. Perhaps it has to do with barrel length and ease of insertion of a full magazine. I am just not sure.

"Bullpup refers to a firearm configuration in which the firearm action (or mechanism) and magazine are located behind the trigger, increasing the barrel length relative to the overall weapon length, thus permitting shorter weapons for the same barrel length or longer barrels for the same weapon length."

Included in this category of “bullpup” assault rifles are the:

British Enfield L85.



Austrian Steyr AUG.



French FEMAS.



South African Vektor CR-21.



[the latter weapon, the South African is based upon the Kalashnikov action.]

Australian AICW.



[The AICW has built-into the weapon from the start a rifle AND a 40 mm grenade launcher.]

[Please note the use of the optical sights as incorporated in the L85, the AUG, the CR-21, and the AICW.]

In some cases, these "futuristic" designs are not so futuristic, the AUG and the FEMAS first being developed in the early 1970's. These weapons are around thirty years old!!

For those can travel the web, here is a more inclusive list of existing bullpup designs:

Examples of bullpup firearms
A-91
Afanasiev TKB-011M
Bushmaster M17S
Vektor CR-21
EM2
Enfield SA80
FN F2000
FN P90
GIAT FAMAS
IMI Tavor TAR-21
Interdynamics MKR
Korobov TKB-408
Korobov TKB-022
OC-14
Pancor Jackhammer
QBZ-95
QBZ-97
SAR-21
Steyr ACR
Steyr AUG
Type 86
Valmet M82
Vepr
Walther G22
Walther WA 2000

Impressive!! Such a ferment of weapons design. It seems a lot of folks all over the world like and want bullpup type rifles. The future is tomorrow and NOW!!

coolbert.