weapons designer looking for user input

[CZlover]

I don't want a firearm with batteries, rails, optics, lasers, flashlights, bolt hold opens. I want it to be able to be built by third world craftsmen in caves. It can be dropped in the mud, sloshed off with dirty water and still work. It must rarely need to be cleaned to work and all the parts have loose tolerances and be able to switch parts between rifles. I must work in heat, humidity and arctic cold. It should still work even if it is totally rusted out from a marine environment. Simplicity and reliability is the number one design guideline.

That would be a perfect design.

Sounds like Glocks...

[CHS]

Design an ergonomic Glock

[grammaton76]

Sounds like Glocks...

Glocks don't rust. Think he means AK. Cavemen can't do injection molding.

[nagorb]

I don't want a firearm with batteries, rails, optics, lasers, flashlights, bolt hold opens. I want it to be able to be built by third world craftsmen in caves. It can be dropped in the mud, sloshed off with dirty water and still work. It must rarely need to be cleaned to work and all the parts have loose tolerances and be able to switch parts between rifles. I must work in heat, humidity and arctic cold. It should still work even if it is totally rusted out from a marine environment. Simplicity and reliability is the number one design guideline.

That would be a perfect design.

Just did a quick sketch, ignore the water mark

[StraightShooter]

A huge reason why the whole AR-15 world is so popular among civilians is that they are all user customizable. People with little to no mechanical experience can buy the parts and put one together with simple tools. You see a trend in precision/long range rifles heading this way and picking up speed with guns like the Savage target rifles and the DTA SRS, where barrels can be swapped out with simple tools. People like to be in controll of their firearms and what they do to them. People would much prefer to be able to do the work themselves than to send it off. I think this could possibly be a good area for you to look into and it will help narrow down the scope of your survey. What guns could benefit from user customizable options?

[renderfarmer]

the reason i choose this project was because i felt that is would be a good challenge to develop something that will improve upon current designs using new materials and processes.

That's why I suggested you focus on something hyper specific. Otherwise simply researching all of the variations of that one feature throughout the 700 year history of firearms would be impossible in the amount of time that you have.

I don't want to alienated from potential employers, but I also don't want to turn away a good oppurtunity.

I'm afraid that any firearms project in your folio will alienate employers in the Bay Area. I've been on folio reviews for candidates at the consultancies I've worked at and you have literally a fraction of a second to make a positive impression.

Unless your firearms related project is a massive commercial success it will brand you as a "gun nut" and simply not the kind of person that other typical designers would get along with on a personal level.

Do you have any recommendations on specific areas to work on?

Look at firearm components: safety levers/switches, trigger guards, iron sights, grips, rail covers, bipods, charging handles, etc... You're not going to be able to design a whole firearm in the time that you have. But if you pick a type/family of firearm like AK-47, AR-15, 1911, or specific model like a Remington 700 or Mossberg 500, preferably one you can get access to, then you can re-design one aspect of it.

It helps to use something a lot to be able to pinpoint its deficiencies. So go on gunbroker.com and buy a couple of used rifles and a handgun and start shooting as much as you can.

I also recommend reading as many books on the topic of shooting as possible.

[Ford8N]

Just did a quick sketch, ignore the water mark

Gee, thanks, that's the ticket!

[TKM]

Does it come in black?

[sd1023x]

Design an AR piston upper that departs radically from the standard AR bolt design addressing the issues and you'll make yourself millions.

Think its agreed (at least in America) the AR ergonomics is the tits and you'll be hard pressed to beat it.

[Cokebottle]

Have to agree with the above comments RE the questions themselves.
The survey is more of a demographic profile of the responder with only one question that is focused on what we actually want, and a couple more that pertain to favorites and/or use that could be assembled into a profile reflecting which currently available guns are most popular, where common traits could be analyzed and compared to see if they are present on less popular models to determine if THAT is the reason they are unpopular.

[lbrtm1]

thanks, CSACANNONEER, I've thinking about picking up a glock 19. all my friends got 9mm so i wanna get a 9. but sometimes i think about picking up a .40 instead. my girlfriend is a small asian girl, but she handles 9mm easy. so i think a .40 wouldn't be a problem for her. I go to 10th street range in san jose during public hours to plink the .22, so if anyone is down to shoot some targets or just kick it, come on by.

[nagorb]

thanks, CSACANNONEER, I've thinking about picking up a glock 19. all my friends got 9mm so i wanna get a 9. but sometimes i think about picking up a .40 instead. my girlfriend is a small asian girl, but she handles 9mm easy. so i think a .40 wouldn't be a problem for her. I go to 10th street range in san jose during public hours to plink the .22, so if anyone is down to shoot some targets or just kick it, come on by.

You should come out to the next shoot we have, lots of goodies!

[Vinz]

Only 1 question relates to new firearm development. The other questions are unrelated. Sounds like a troll to me

oh crap...census back door? they got ya. LOL


vinz

[Peter W Bush]

I don't want a firearm with batteries, rails, optics, lasers, flashlights, bolt hold opens. I want it to be able to be built by third world craftsmen in caves. It can be dropped in the mud, sloshed off with dirty water and still work. It must rarely need to be cleaned to work and all the parts have loose tolerances and be able to switch parts between rifles. I must work in heat, humidity and arctic cold. It should still work even if it is totally rusted out from a marine environment. Simplicity and reliability is the number one design guideline.

That would be a perfect design.

lollll keep dreaming

[gravedigger]

lbrtm1

Hmmm... Well, since you seem to be legit, I'll respond.

Make a handgun that is truly ambidextrous. Magazine release with either hand. Slide release with either hand. If you want to be innovative, make the semi-automatic pistols eject the casings STRAIGHT DOWN in front of the shooter, rather than off to the left or right. It will make recovery of one's own brass at a range much easier by placing a box or barrel underneath the weapon when shooting.

Find a way to reduce or eliminate the recoil of large caliber handguns so it is easier to stay on target. Make ALL of the parts out of a material that will make cleaning the gun as easy as dipping the whole pistol into a parts cleaner for a few minutes and hanging it to dry, perhaps after dipping it into a rinse solution with rust inhibitor and lube.

Come up with a frame and slide that will allow a gun to "become" anything from a .22 to a 44 Magnum simply by switching the barrel and magazine. Design the gun so that it can quickly and SAFELY be drawn from a jeans or coat pocket without snagging on the clothing.

Build a gun that ONLY loads bullets (no brass, no gunpowder, no primer) and uses a gas chamber with an igniter fed by an explosive gas like acetylene that is contained in a cylinder in the grip perhaps, like an air gun's CO2 cylinder to propel the projectile ... preferably at 4,000 feet per second. Make the cylinder good for a thousand rounds, and refillable.

Design a small barrel-mounted gyro that will help hunters hold a rifle steady and on target.

That should keep you busy for a while!