Ingenious Ingenuity... Full-Auto bolt action?!?!?

Daver_II

Daver_II

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I came across this while reading about some forgotten weapons.

I had no Idea that bolt action rifles were ever made into select fire weapons, but sure enough when the BREN was hard to come by some genius engineer modified a Lee-Enfield.


Now before anyone tells me to shut up about it before the RCMP prohibits all Lee-Enfeilds.... It is the first result if you google Full Auto bolt action.
It is both important to know about the history of your hobby, and it is just cool this was ever invented.

Charlton_Automatic_Rifle.jpg


http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a18158/charlton-automatic-rifle/
 
The Lee-Enfield 10 round magazine is specifically exempted from magazine capacity limited because of the existence of the Charlton.

Then there's this beauty:

Huot-Ross+Rifle.jpg
 
The Huot worked well. Compared favorably with the Lewis gun.
The Charlton may have been more of a moral booster during the dark days of the Pacific war. There are reports that it didn't function all that well, not well enough to have been an effective combat arm.
While the Charlton is a bit of a mousetrap, the conversion was probably easier to perform than the Huot conversion.
There are lots of turnbolt autos. The Lee action is a very smooth one, so you can see how it could be made to work. And a straight pull action is almost begging to have a piston added to it...
 
The Russians experimented with Austrian M95s and successfully converted them to semi-automatic by adding a piston mounted on the side, here is a link which has some photos of one of them.

http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Rifl...es/Yasnikov's Mannlicher M95-15 Prototype.htm

If you think about it the trigger mechanism for virtually all bolt actions is the same as one for a full auto, there is no sear disconnect (also like the 1897 Winchester which you can slamfire). If you take a look at many early semi-automatic designs, it is also easy to convert to fully automatic. It is also easier to make a full auto trigger mech, than a semi-automatic one from a design standpoint.
 
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For a closed bolt locked breech full auto, the hammer or striker must be released only after the breech has locked. The fire control mechanism must incorporate this.
With a design like a Lewis or Bren, on the other hand, it is the action of the gas piston/slide running all the way forward that fires the round. Consequently the trigger mechanism is very simple in comparison.
 
tiriaq said:
For a closed bolt locked breech full auto, the hammer or striker must be released only after the breech has locked. The fire control mechanism must incorporate this.
With a design like a Lewis or Bren, on the other hand, it is the action of the gas piston/slide running all the way forward that fires the round. Consequently the trigger mechanism is very simple in comparison.
Click to expand...

Very true, which is why the M95 is a surprisingly good candidate for a full auto conversion, because the striker is held back until the bolt is fully in battery. How I wish our gun laws were different, there are many different things I would love to try and tinker with.
 
Daver_II said:
I came across this while reading about some forgotten weapons.

I had no Idea that bolt action rifles were ever made into select fire weapons, but sure enough when the BREN was hard to come by some genius engineer modified a Lee-Enfield.


Now before anyone tells me to shut up about it before the RCMP prohibits all Lee-Enfeilds.... It is the first result if you google Full Auto bolt action.
It is both important to know about the history of your hobby, and it is just cool this was ever invented.

Charlton_Automatic_Rifle.jpg


http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a18158/charlton-automatic-rifle/
Click to expand...

That's definitely an ak47 baby eating assalt rifle. Look at that assault style pistol grip stock and high capacity banana clipazine
 
But it doesn't have a shoulder thing that goes up...

Worth noting that the NZ Charltons were made up on MLEs, not SMLEs. The short rifles were too important. The MLEs were obsolete, and had been used for target shooting.
 
This needs to be a very significant example in the gun control debate.

Too many times an "ease-of-conversion" argument has prevailed.

The appropriate argument is... There is no firearm which cannot be converted easily to full auto.

This is not an incentive to do so. Useless, dangerous, irrelevant, and illegal action.

ALL firearms can be converted to full auto with determination and a few basic tools. This is not a characteristic of some, but all firearms. It's irrelevant of course as any illegal and dangerous use of a firearm requires only intent.

Otherwise what's next? Prohibited M14, SKS, 10/22, Glock, AR, and... Everything?

A stand must be taken before dissemination of a 3D printer file which machines a small part is exactly the same thing as prohibiting a gun and judging all future uses criminal. When the technology is freely available and cheap who could argue not "easily converted"?

It's only going to get easier, much easier to convert to full auto. They did it with a bolt gun in 1942. They've already tried to use dissemination of information of a conversion technique as proof of ease of conversion. Imagine the arguments with dissemination of technology of conversion.
 
Eaglelord17 said:
Very true, which is why the M95 is a surprisingly good candidate for a full auto conversion, because the striker is held back until the bolt is fully in battery. How I wish our gun laws were different, there are many different things I would love to try and tinker with.
Click to expand...

As long as your tinkering incorporates a disconnector function there should be no problem.

Many years ago, a chap with whom I corresponded legally turned a No. 4 into a 9mm smg. Many years ago.
 
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