I don't know if its real or a Hollywood prop, but it is ugly.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
13 comments:
I reserve the right to not publish ignorant ill-informed and filthy comments from vile cretins who have a four letter vocabulary. Further, anonymous comments with strong opinions and personal attacks may be rejected. If you want to voice a strong opinion, at least have the courage to sign your name to it. You don't even have to use your name, make something up so the next person can address your comment without confusion.
It's real. 1960's flechette rifle prototype.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinkin prop. The butt stock doesn't look deep enough to house the bolt as it's coming back to pick up a round out of the magazine, the pistol grip looks like a EAA witness type grip, there are some weird non rifle or firearm dodads just in front of what would be a chamber top side. And that thing hangin underneath.. plumbing fixture maybe???? UGLY!
ReplyDeleteThad
You've posted some ugly guns in this series, but this one may be the ugliest yet.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I enjoy checking in on Sunday to see what you've come up with.
I vote for movie prop. The ejection port is way to small for the size of the magazine. (Among other things.) -- Jason
ReplyDeleteHeh! Learn something new every day.
ReplyDeleteSPIW bullpup
"The SPIW program came to an end when several problems could not be overcome. Most were engineering problems dealing with the ammunition. The expensive flechette round had to be fired in burst because the single hit probablility was very low (a 40% chance of a hit at 300 meters). Also, when fired, the fiberglass sabot that held the flechette in place as it travelled down the barrel would shred. In troop tests, soldiers suffered eye injuries when microscopic particles of fiberglass blew back into their eyes. The final blow came in 1973 in the post Vietnam days of tight budgets when Congress "pulled the plug" on this problem beset program. "
It looks really prop-ish, especially with mag placement, but you are right, that's a dad-gummed ugly gun.
ReplyDeleteYep, that one is in the running for all time ugly...
ReplyDeleteejection port is small (compared to the magazine) because the rounds had very long thin projectiles.
ReplyDeleteThe trunk to the Govenator’s limo popped open after hitting a speed bump — then this thing fell out.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's one of the SPIW submissions. Not sure exactly which one, I think it's AAI's. IIRC, the 40mm grenade launcher component on their design eventually became the M203, the only thing from the program to ever see service.
ReplyDeleteThe rifle magazine is an interesting affair. Not only does it have two columns of cartridges side by side, but it has two double columns of cartridges in tandem, which is why it looks so long front to back. Not sure how it switched which stack was feeding though.
It takes an awful lot of work to make a real rifle that looks like a bad photoshop.
ReplyDelete(WV: "ackess". Bill The Cat's wife.)
Yes it's real, Yes it's the SPIW, and Yes one of them is currently sitting in the Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds MD. Saw it last Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the 1964 vintage Springfield SPIW. Besides the front-to-back twin magazine, they also played with a side-by-side twin magazine. The 40mm semi-auto grenade launcher appears to be missing its three-round magazine.
ReplyDeleteSpringfield's earlier single-magazine prototype, minus the grenade launcher, actually looked kind of handy. In some M1 Garand books, you can see John C. Garand handling one of these during a post-retirement visit to Springfield Armory. However, it is almost always misidentified as his T31 prototype. Other than being a bullpup and having high sights, the early Springfield SPIW and T31 bear no similarities.