Bullpup
Encyclopedia
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
configurations in which the action
Firearm action
In firearms terminology, an action is the physical mechanism that manipulates cartridges and/or seals the breech. The term is also used to describe the method in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism. Actions are generally categorized by the type of mechanism used...
is located behind the trigger group and alongside the shooter's face, so there is no wasted space for the buttstock
Stock (firearm)
A stock, also known as a buttstock or shoulder stock, is a part of a rifle or other firearm, to which the barrel and firing mechanism are attached, that is held against one's shoulder when firing the gun. Stocks are also found on crossbows though a crossbow stock is more properly referred to as a...
as in conventional designs. This permits a shorter firearm length for the same barrel length for improved maneuverability, and reduces weight.
Origins of the term 'bullpup' for this configuration are unclear. The word is reported as being used in the US in 1957 to denote a target pistol, particularly one with a fancy stock.
Description
The bullpup design places the gun's action behind the trigger, in front of a short buttstock. This decreases the firearm's length and weight while retaining the same barrel length. Bullpups generally allow for a 25% reduction in weapon length, which allows for better maneuverability in confined spaces.An often cited shortcoming of bullpups is that, by design, their ejection ports are close to the face, generally making it difficult for left-handed shooters to use because firearms in general have their ejection port on the right-hand side and eject spent cartridge casings towards the right. This means left-handed shooters must shoot right-handed, as ejected casings would otherwise hit them in the face. Certain designs, such as the FAMAS
FAMAS
The FAMAS is a bullpup-styled assault rifle designed and manufactured in France by MAS located in Saint-Étienne, which is now a member of the French government-owned Nexter group...
assault rifle, the Steyr AUG
Steyr AUG
The AUG is an Austrian bullpup 5.56mm assault rifle, designed in the early 1970s by Steyr Mannlicher GmbH & Co KG . The AUG was adopted by the Austrian Army as the StG 77 in 1977, where it replaced the 7.62mm StG 58 automatic rifle...
and the Israeli Tavor TAR-21
IMI Tavor TAR-21
The TAR-21 is an Israeli bullpup assault rifle chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition with a selective fire system, selecting between semi-automatic mode, burst mode, and full automatic fire mode. It is named after Mount Tavor, while "TAR-21" stands for "Tavor Assault Rifle - 21st Century". It is...
, overcome this limitation by allowing the bolt and ejection port cover to be swapped, turning the weapon into a dedicated left-handed version. Other bullpups such as the FN P90
FN P90
The FN P90 is a selective fire personal defense weapon designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. The P90's name is taken from 1990, the year it was introduced...
solve the problem by ejecting downward, while the FN F2000
FN F2000
The FN F2000 is a 5.56×45mm NATO bullpup assault rifle, designed by FN Herstal in Belgium. The F2000 made its debut in March 2001 at the IDEX defense exhibition held in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.-Design details:...
and Kel-Tec RFB
Kel-Tec RFB
The RFB is a gas-operated semi-automatic rifle, manufactured by Kel-Tec Industries of Florida. At the 2008 SHOT Show held from February 2 to 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada it was declared by Kel-Tec representatives that the RFB rifle would be made available to the public by the 4th quarter of 2008...
solve the problem by ejecting forward of the rifle. The Heckler & Koch G11
Heckler & Koch G11
The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production prototype assault rifle developed during the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s by Gesellschaft für Hülsenlose Gewehrsysteme , a conglomeration of companies headed by firearm manufacturer Heckler & Koch , Dynamit Nobel The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production...
largely avoided the issue of ejection by using caseless ammunition
Caseless ammunition
Caseless ammunition is a type of small arms ammunition that eliminates the cartridge case that typically holds the primer, propellant, and projectile together as a unit...
; in the event that a round failed to fire it could be manually ejected downward.
Additionally, the bullpup's extra weight in the rear may affect balance with respect to muzzle rise
Muzzle rise
The interchangeable terms muzzle rise, muzzle flip and muzzle climb refer to the tendency of firearms or pneumatic arms front end to rise up after firing....
and automatic firing accuracy. However, being held closer to the body, the bullpup design has the advantage of causing less fatigue to the user's positioning arm when the arm is outstretched for long periods of time. There may thus be an infinitesimal reaction time advantage in raising a bullpup to fire from a downward pointed direction, a result consistent with a lighter weapon.
The bolt may also have to be smaller to be able to fit in the stock, with reduced components, resulting in reduced overall weight. Being more compact and having a shorter length allows for greater close-in weapons usage; however, being of a shorter length, bayonet length effectiveness would be dimensionally reduced. Accuracy at longer distances is oft-cited as a criticism of bullpups; however, if barrel length is of similar dimensions, and all other factors are equal, accuracy should be similar. Lastly, due to the forward assembly and the necessary trigger linkage, bullpup trigger pull characteristics are often criticized.
History
Thorneycroft carbine
The Thorneycroft carbine was one of the earliest bullpup rifles, developed by an English gunsmith in 1901 as patent #14,622 of July 18, 1901. This bolt-action rifle featured a bullpup action in which the retracted bolt slid back through the stock nearly to the shooter's shoulder, maximising the...
of 1901, although the increased distance from hand grip to bolt handle meant the decreased length had to be weighed against the increased time required to fire. It is known to have been applied to semi-automatic firearm
Semi-automatic firearm
A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...
s in 1918 (6.5 mm French Faucon-Meunier semi-automatic rifle developed by Lt. Col. Armand-Frédéric Faucon), then in 1936 a bullpup machine pistol was patented by the Frenchman Henri Delacre.
After World War II, Western engineers drew inspiration from the German Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle
Assault rifle
An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies...
, which offered a compromise between bolt-action rifles and submachine guns, among them Kazimierz Januszewski (also known as Stefan Janson). Januszewski was a Polish engineer who worked at the Polish national arsenal during the 1930s. After being mobilized during the war he escaped German and Russian forces and made his way to England, where he was a part of the "Polish design team" at Enfield Lock
Enfield Lock
Enfield Lock is an area in the London Borough of Enfield, North London. It is approximately located east of the Hertford Road between Turkey Street and the Holmesdale Tunnel overpass, to the River Lee Navigation, including the Enfield Island Village. The locality gains its name from the lock on the...
's Royal Small Arms Factory
Royal Small Arms Factory
The Royal Small Arms Factory was a UK government-owned rifle factory in the London Borough of Enfield in an area generally known as the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and swords from 1816...
. The factory was run by lieutenant colonel Edward Kent-Lemon. As Januszewski was developing a new rifle, the "Ideal Calibre Board" was searching for a replacement for the .303 cartridge. The Board decided on an optimal 7 mm
.280 British
The .280 British was an experimental intermediate rifle cartridge. It was later designated 7 mm MK1Z, and has also been known as 7 mm NATO, .280/30, .280 Enfield, .280 NATO, 7 mm FN Short, and 7×43mm. It was designed by the British Army in the late 1940s, with subsequent help from...
cartridge on which Januszewski and the two teams working at Enfield had to base their designs. One design team led by Stanley Thorpe produced a gas-powered rifle with a locking system based on the Sturmgewehr. The design used steel pressings which were difficult to obtain, and the design was scrapped. The result of the Polish design team's efforts was the EM-2, which broke significant new ground.
The EM-2 contained some similarities to the Soviet AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
, although Januszewski had never seen the Soviet rifle. The first significant bullpup assault rifle came from the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
program to replace the service pistols, sub-machine guns, and rifles. In the two forms of the EM-1 and the EM-2, the new rifle concept was born as a result of the experience with small arms that was gained during the Second World War. It was obvious that the modern warfare would require the infantry to be armed with a light, selective fire weapon, with effective range of fire much longer than that of a submachine gun, but shorter than that of conventional semi-automatic or bolt action rifles. The choice of bullpup design was seen as a necessity to retain accuracy while reducing overall length. With none of the firing difficulties a bolt-action bullpup achieved, giving a short, long-ranged rifle the bullpup configuration was an obvious option. The EM-2 was adopted by the UK in 1951 as the world's first (limited) service bullpup rifle, but was promptly displaced by the adoption of the 7.62x51mm (0.308 in) NATO cartridge, to which the EM-2 was not easily adapted. The decision was rescinded and a variant of the more conventional FN FAL
FN FAL
The Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a self-loading, selective fire battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal . During the Cold War it was adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, with the notable exception of the United States...
was adopted in its place.
A 7.62x39mm M43 calibre experimental assault rifle was developed by German A. Korobov in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
around 1945, and a further development, the TKB-408
TKB-408
The TKB-408 was an early gas-operated bullpup assault rifle with a tilting bolt. It was created by German A. Korobov and submitted to a set of official trials conducted in 1946 to select an assault rifle for the Red Army...
was entered for the 1946–47 assault rifle trials by the Soviet Army, although it was rejected in favour of the more conventional AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
. The United States briefly experimented in the same year with the integrally-scoped Model 45A
Model 45A
The Model 45A was a battle rifle / light machine gun developed by the United States Army in the Philippines in 1945. The weapon existed in prototype or mockup form, but never entered production...
bullpup, which never progressed beyond the prototype stage.
After these failures of the bullpup design to achieve widespread service, the concept continued to be explored (for example: a second Korobov bullpup, the TKB-022).
Widespread use
Steyr AUG
The AUG is an Austrian bullpup 5.56mm assault rifle, designed in the early 1970s by Steyr Mannlicher GmbH & Co KG . The AUG was adopted by the Austrian Army as the StG 77 in 1977, where it replaced the 7.62mm StG 58 automatic rifle...
(1977) is often cited as the first successful bullpup, achieving service among various services of over twenty countries, and becoming the primary rifle of countries such as Austria and Australia. It was highly advanced for the 1970s, combining in the same weapon the bullpup configuration, a polymer housing, dual vertical grips, an optical sight as standard, and a modular design. Highly reliable, light, and accurate, the Steyr AUG showed clearly the potential of the bullpup layout. The arrival of the FAMAS
FAMAS
The FAMAS is a bullpup-styled assault rifle designed and manufactured in France by MAS located in Saint-Étienne, which is now a member of the French government-owned Nexter group...
(1978), and its adoption by France emphasized the slide from traditional to bullpup layouts within gun designs.
Since the capabilities and widespread usage of these new bullpups became clear, bullpup rifles gained popularity among military rifle makers. The British resumed their bullpup ambitions with the L85 which entered service in 1985. Due to persistent reliability problems, it was redesigned by Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch GmbH is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various small arms. Some of their products include the SA80, MP5 submachine gun, G3 automatic rifle, the G36 assault rifle, the HK 416, the MP7 personal defense weapon, the USP series of handguns, and the high-precision...
into the L85A2, and it is now a reliable, accurate although a rather heavy assault rifle. Having entered service among some of the most militarily powerful Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
countries, bullpup rifles are becoming more common. The Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an SAR 21 addressed one flaw of bullpup rifles by using a stiff sliding plate to improve the quality of trigger pull, and by using a shell deflector to achieve an ambidextrous weapon. Having learned from extensive combat experience, Israel Military Industries
Israel Military Industries
Israel Weapons Industries , formerly the "Magen" division of the Israel Military Industries Ltd. is an Israeli firearms manufacturer. In 2005, the Small Arms Division of IMI was privatized....
developed a bullpup rifle: the Tavor (TAR-21)
IMI Tavor TAR-21
The TAR-21 is an Israeli bullpup assault rifle chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition with a selective fire system, selecting between semi-automatic mode, burst mode, and full automatic fire mode. It is named after Mount Tavor, while "TAR-21" stands for "Tavor Assault Rifle - 21st Century". It is...
. The Tavor is extremely light, accurate, and reliable (designed to stringent reliability standards to avoid being jammed by the prevalent sand of the Middle East), and has garnered demand among other countries, notably India.
Incidentally, the Tavor shares many similarities with the Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an SAR 21 and the South African Vektor CR-21
Vektor CR-21
The Vektor CR-21 is a modern South African assault rifle chambered for 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition. It has been designed by Denel Land Systems as a possible replacement for the South African National Defence Force's current R4 assault rifle.The rifle is being marketed for export customers, but no...
. Other bullpups have been adopted recently by the Iranian army and Chinese People's Liberation Army
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
: the Khaybar KH2002
Khaybar KH2002
Khaybar/KH-2002 is an Iranian designed assault rifle, derived from the DIO S 5.56 assault rifle and further developed by Iran's Defense Industries Organization...
and the QBZ-95
QBZ-95
The QBZ-95 is an assault rifle manufactured by Arsenal 266, part of Norinco and Arsenal 296, under Jianshe Corp, China South for the People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of the People's Republic of China, Chinese People's Armed Police , and Chinese law enforcement. This weapon uses a...
respectively.
Some sniper rifles, such as the American Barrett M95
Barrett M95
The Barrett M95 is a bolt-action sniper rifle chambered in .50 BMG , and manufactured by Barrett Firearms Company.-Overview:The M95 is an improved version of the earlier Barrett M90. It is a bolt-action sniper rifle in a bullpup design...
, the German WA 2000, the American XM500, the Chinese QBU-88
QBU-88
The QBU-88 sniper rifle is a designated marksman/sniper rifle deployed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army.- History :The QBU-88 rifle was the first weapon of the newest generation of Chinese small arms, chambered for proprietary 5.8 x 42 mm ammunition...
, the Russian Dragunov SVU
Dragunov SVU
The OTs-03 SVU is a bullpup configuration of the SVD sniper rifle. The SVU was developed to meet the needs of the security forces of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, such as OMON. The SVU was first seen in usage in the First Chechen War...
, and the Polish Bor, use the bullpup layout.
External links
- http://world.guns.ru/assault/as00-e.htm
- http://pookieweb.dyndns.org:61129/Groza/bullpups.htm