Scool of firearms design?
- Thread starter chaslavk
- Start date
- Location
- land of f-cktards
dude!
it would help if you spelled school correctly
it would help if you spelled school correctly
- Location
- land of f-cktards
Take Care
Bob
...and i was trying to save the guy some embarrassment ooops!
BTW Happy New year Bob
I would venture to say that there is no such thing as a school of design for firearms. It is simply too small of a market and too limited in appeal. If you have a mechanical engineering degree you are equipped with all the basics required to learn design of almost any mechanical system. To become a firearm designer you will need to find work at a firearms manufacturer to translate that raw knowledge into firearms specific knowledge and experience.
To be honest, most firearms design is not rocket science at all. Most guns are very simple contraptions that rely on mechanical cleverness in packaging and mechanism design, combined with quality controlled manufacturing to maintain acceptable tolerances to provide accuracy, durability and functional reliability.
Mark
The Master of Defence Engineering and Management program offered by the RMC has a section regarding weapons system engineering. Seems to be about a lot more than just designing guns though. Aside from that, most gun designers didn't go to "gun design school". I'd look at mechanical engineering as the best field of study.
On top of that, 99% of guns are basically copies of earlier designs. Sure, the wood might be nicer, a different shape or be polymer, but the stock is basically the same. Then the receivers are mostly the same common designs: Mauser bolt-actions, Browning/Walther blowback pocket pistols, AR-15 Armalite (original pattern), AK-47, Browning tilt-barrel auto pistols, Beretta handguns. The most innovation these days is usually taking earlier designs and re-packaging them with load-bearing polymer, like the Steyr AUG or Glock.
Example:
Look at the XM-8...futuristic looking, right? Well, it's a G-36 with brown plastic and different shape. But a G-36 is really an AR-18 (you might know it as an AR-180B, you'd see it in the first Terminator movie when he's going through the police station). And the AR-18 is basically many AR-15 components but with a piston and sheet metal upper and lower receivers.
Art in design is taught at a number of art schools as industrial art. It covers balance of shape and flow of lines for any item from teapots to, yes, even guns. Although I'm sure you won't find many of the artsy students sketching firearms designs in their classes.
The vast majority of newer guns such as the rather flowy Beretta Storm carbine would be designed by a team comprised of mechanical engineers and industrial artists. The engineers would present an action and barrel and the industrial artists then take it away and come up with a ###y shape for a stock taking style and ergonomics into account. To them it doesn't matter if the item is a gun. They have the task of placing the hands "here" and "here" and making it comfortable when held up to the shoulder and making sure that all the controls can be reached easily. The week before that they may have been working on a restaruant chair or a new shaver. To them it's just a shape.
And since Canada has only a very small domestic firearms making community the chances of getting such a job are slim indeed. I'd suggest you find a more common and lucrative way to make a living.
The vast majority of newer guns such as the rather flowy Beretta Storm carbine would be designed by a team comprised of mechanical engineers and industrial artists. The engineers would present an action and barrel and the industrial artists then take it away and come up with a ###y shape for a stock taking style and ergonomics into account. To them it doesn't matter if the item is a gun. They have the task of placing the hands "here" and "here" and making it comfortable when held up to the shoulder and making sure that all the controls can be reached easily. The week before that they may have been working on a restaruant chair or a new shaver. To them it's just a shape.
And since Canada has only a very small domestic firearms making community the chances of getting such a job are slim indeed. I'd suggest you find a more common and lucrative way to make a living.
That is very true. Combustible propellant, projectile throwing weapons have been developed and refined for centuries and we have pretty much figured out what works by this point.
Mark
