Old Small Arms Revived...... With Some Tweaks

[dy031101]

So the Philippine special forces are being issued with restored M3/M3A1 SMGs with suppressors and red dot scopes......

The suppressor is said to be locally-made.  I wonder if it is merely a copy of the original Bell Laboratories design or an all-new design that offers better performance......

Interesting stuff there.  I've also been thinking as to how many battle rifles of the old time could be refurbished and upgraded into scout and sniper rifles, preferably those using ammos still in widespread use by military forces of their countries (mostly of Soviet manufacture I would imagine, for example 7.62mm x 39 and 7.62mm x 54R)......

[Wyrmshadow]

LOL, it's pimp my gun. I love this sort of stuff.

[dy031101]

I don't know, but after hearing about the Russian contract Winchester 1895, I couldn't help imaging someone tricking that one out......

Could this weapon be practically pimped into a reasonably-useful sniper rifle?

[Sauragnmon]

So we're talking something like take a PPSh-41, rechamber it for a slightly more kinetic round, give it a forward mounted assault grip, a stock and pistol grip, and keep the drum concept?

[deathjester]

How about bringing back the old FN-FAL, but with armour piercing ammo....

[dy031101]

...... rechamber it for a slightly more kinetic round......

As long as it's a practical modification.

But rechambering...... is it like no more 7.62x25mm Tokarev?  I thought you still want the drum?

[Sauragnmon]

I was thinking maybe something like 9x21 Gyurza potentially.  A round with a little more kinetic energy on the target.  You can adapt the drum feed as well, considering the high rate of fire it's somewhat requisite that you carry a drum feed for a practical application.

Jester, I like that idea - the FAL was a mother of a rifle.  Maybe a recoil adapter so it's not got quite as much kick when you're hammering it off in full auto.

[B777LR]

Pfft, nothing. If i get conscripted into the Danish army i'll have the joy of learning to fire the M-1 Garand, the main weapon of conscripts in the Danish army...

How about bringing back the old FN-FAL, but with armour piercing ammo....

Nah, just bring back the FAL as it was back then. It was just perfect. Had stopping power, something modern rifles are lacking when a terrorist is charging a car full of explosives towards a building...

[pyro-manic]

They should have made the EM-2 assault rifle. The FAL and EM-2 were initially built to fire the .280 British. The Americans are finally realising that this type of intermediate-size round is the way to go, 50 years later.

[Aircav]

Actually the FAL was initially chambered in 7.92mm but thats another story and as far as stopping a terrorist with a car full of explosives thats what a LAW's is for

The EM-2 was a good weapon with the optimum calibre cartridge for bullet weight to range for an infantryman the steel pressings for the main body of the rifle was a little thin to keep the weight down and could be dented and stop the rifle from working, the real problem with bullpups is the difficulty of firing the weapon from the left shoulder without getting a empty case in the mouth.

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, unless it's designed ambidextrous and you can switch the ejection pattern on the fly for lefthanders.  I had an action I thought was a pretty novel idea, maybe one day... who knows.  Let's just say, it was a Downward Ejection system on the layout, and the casings would have been cool-ish by the time they dropped due to the way the action worked.  I guess alternately you could set it up to release casings down the side, but we're not getting into that.

[dy031101]

What I had in mind when starting this thread is actually to take weapons that are placed in reserves and give them some upgrades and modifications to serve as (preferably economically-viable) alternatives to brand-spanking-new weapons, so......

FAL is relatively modern and, yup I agree, perfect enough...... maybe a new barrel threaded for a suppressor, some picatinny rails for accessories...... and of course a good scope for designated-marksmen/snipers.

I wanted to say that I like the idea of a paint job, but there is no one-pattern-fits-all camo......

[jcf]

Self-winding wheellocks perhaps? 

[Weaver]

They should have made the EM-2 assault rifle. The FAL and EM-2 were initially built to fire the .280 British. The Americans are finally realising that this type of intermediate-size round is the way to go, 50 years later.

They only made a few .280 FALs in case the British round was adopted as the NATO standard.

Originally posted by Aircav:
Actually the FAL was initially chambered in 7.92mm but thats another story and as far as stopping a terrorist with a car full of explosives thats what a LAW's is for

I thought it was the FN49 (FAL's predecessor with a variety of names) that was chambered for 7.92mm Mauser, not to mention 7.5mm Swiss, 6.5mm Swedish and basically anything else an export customer wanted? They might have made a few 7.92mm FAL prototypes as a bet-hedging exercise, as per the .280.......

[Aircav]

The M1 Carbine would be a good weapon to revamp, fit scope rail, an aimpoint and a moderator to cut the noise down a bit 
The FAL was tried in Korea by the British army and it was chambered in 7.92x33mm Kurz which a friend of my father used over there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.92x33mm_Kurz