Chapter 231 Shaosha's Improvement
Ciel groaned inwardly.
How to modify this machine gun?
If we really want to change it, it would be like redesigning a machine gun, right?
It had shortcomings everywhere, but because the war broke out suddenly and all countries were in short supply of light machine guns, it still received a certain number of orders.
However, the battlefield's evaluation of it is:
“It’s normal for it to go wrong.”
"If it breaks down, throw it away, it's not worth bringing it back for repair."
"This is not a machine gun. At most, it's a rifle that can fire continuously!"
…
Charles stared at the machine gun for a while, then looked up and asked Dominic: "Tell me about its shortcomings?"
"The biggest problem is that the barrel will overheat after firing more than 200 rounds." Dominic pointed at the barrel and said, "Although we installed a heat sink for it, it still doesn't have much effect."
Ciel smiled and shook his head: "This is not the biggest problem, Dominic, you don't even need to worry about it."
"What?" Dominic looked up at Charles in confusion.
Charles didn't answer. He pointed at the sickle-shaped magazine under the machine gun and asked, "Hollowout design?"
"Yes!" Dominic nodded: "To reduce the weight of the machine gun."
"Do you know what this means on the battlefield?" Charles said calmly, "The battlefield is full of dirty water, sand, and many other things we can't imagine. They will enter the magazine through the hollow parts, and then be brought into the bolt by the bullet, and then..."
Needless to say, the next thing is, of course, it's stuck.
Dominic was stunned. He had indeed never thought about this, but now that Charles reminded him of this, it seemed to be true.
The environment they used for testing was so clean, the operations were very standardized, and they even carried out maintenance before the test.
If used in actual combat, it might be just like what Charles said, and it would not be able to fire more than 200 rounds before the barrel overheated.
Dominic said somewhat frustratedly: "But it already weighs 9 kilograms. If we don't reduce the weight of the magazine, it may lose the meaning of the light machine gun."
Charles understood what this meant.
There may seem to be little difference between a hollowed-out magazine and a non-hollowed-out magazine, but the point is that the magazine has a smaller capacity and can only hold 20 rounds of bullets.
A machine gun will carry at least two or three hundred rounds of bullets, so there will be a dozen magazines. When you carry them on your back, the difference will be huge.
If a light machine gun requires three or more people, it is better to equip a heavy machine gun.
Charles paced around the machine gun and slowly looked around for a while, summing up two particularly prominent shortcomings:
One is barrel heat dissipation.
The materials of this period were not very good. The barrel would overheat after firing 200 rounds. Adding a heat sink would only allow for a few dozen more rounds to be fired. It would not have much effect and would only increase the weight. It was useless.
The second is the taper of the French bullets.
Its unique large taper will inevitably make the magazine form this semi-sickle shape, which cannot be changed.
After thinking for a while, Charles came to a conclusion. He said calmly, "Maybe we should remove the heat sink."
"Remove the heat sink?" Dominic exclaimed: "Then, you can only fire 200 rounds..."
"We can design its barrel to be replaceable." Charles pointed to the junction between the barrel and the gun body and said, "About here, design a barrel lock and add a handle to the barrel. When the barrel is hot, hold the handle and replace it with another one, and repeat this process."
This design is widely used in modern machine guns, and the barrel can be replaced in just 5 seconds.
Dominic and Steed looked at each other in bewilderment. How could it be designed like this?
However, this does seem to be feasible. Instead of getting stuck on the "heat dissipation" issue, it is a direct replacement. When one barrel heats up, replace it with another one. When this one heats up again, the other barrel has cooled down, so it can be replaced repeatedly.
In this way, the firepower sustainability is unmatched by ordinary light machine guns.
"Good idea!" Steed nodded in praise.
In terms of production, this is nothing more than adding a barrel lock to allow the gun body to be tightly fastened together, but it solves a major problem.
"Magazine problem!" Charles removed the magazine from the machine gun and looked at it. He said, "If it has to be half-sickle-shaped like this, why not just design it in a disc shape?"
"Disc-shaped?" Dominic's eyes widened.
"Yes." Charles saw that there was another magazine in the long box, so he took it and put the two together: "Disc-shaped, fully enclosed design, made of lightweight metal as much as possible, while reducing weight, it may be able to hold a few more bullets."
Charles was inspired by the DP-28 rotary machine gun. This kind of magazine can be well compatible with the taper problem of the Lebel rifle bullet. The bullets in it rotate one circle after another, so the taper problem does not have much impact.
Dominic looked at Charles in shock: "This may solve the problem of magazines, but how can we install this rotary magazine?"
Steed had the same doubts. It's not like they haven't thought about this method, but if it rotates around to form a disc, where can they put it?
Charles didn't hesitate at all. He tapped the top of the receiver and said, "Put it here. Make a loading hole under the disc and load the bullets from top to bottom."
Unknowingly, Charles had modified the machine gun into something similar to the "Da Pan Ji".
Dominic and Steed looked at each other and saw excited shock in each other's eyes.
Fortunately for Steed, he had known about Charles's design talent for a long time, so he turned to Charles for help at this time.
But Dominic thought Charles would not be of any help.
After all, Charles had just started to use guns. How was it possible that he was still practicing shooting an hour ago and could easily solve the problem of the machine gun an hour later?
He had never even touched the trigger of a machine gun!
But the facts are in front of us, and Charles gave several valuable ideas:
Replace the barrel and closed magazine.
Although there is not much change in weight when two sickle-shaped magazines are replaced with one disc magazine, the firepower continuity increases from 20 rounds to 40 rounds or even more, which is also a leap.
"That's a great idea, Colonel!" Dominic excitedly shook Charles' hand. "I didn't expect you to have such a deep understanding of firearms. I think we will have more opportunities to cooperate in the future!"
Steed smiled with satisfaction. Dominic had never been defeated by anyone when it came to firearms, but now he was full of admiration for Charles.
"Of course." Charles nodded.
Watching Dominic packing up the machine gun, Charles frowned and turned to Steed and said, "We may be able to make use of the original design of this machine gun."
Steed's eyes flashed with confusion: "It still works?"
Charles said, "Hmm," "If you can get it out to the Pitot Arsenal..."
Steed understood Charles' intention instantly. He smiled meaningfully and said, "Of course, Colonel, of course there is a way!"
(End of this chapter)
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