PLA Small arms

taxiya said:

Good environmental awareness. Also cost saving.

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Sure beats picking up empty brass casing from the ground and put it into one's K-pot(Kevlar helmet) and dump it onto a big bin for recycling after firing practice at the gun range.

Iron Man said:

The first two photos do not seem to be related. The receivers are different in shape, the magwells are quite different, and the first rifle has pic rails on all 4 sides of the handguard while the second one uses a different system to mount accessories.

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Receivers are easily interchangeable, that's why it looks different. Heck I've done it to an M-16/A1 and M-16/A2 before.

MwRYum said:

The first 2 is related, the rumored new AR in development in China, slated to take the baton from QBZ-95-1 and QBZ-03, which said to be close semblance with the SIG weapon design in pic 2. But the story quickly slammed by everyone else as fake.

Pic 3 shows some 12.7mm anti-materiel rifles donated/sold/transferred to the Lebonese army, apparerntly of those rejected design, disposed like the M99 earlier...

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Can you elaborate? Are the rumors actually valid or has it been disproven?

Iron Man said:

The first two photos do not seem to be related. The receivers are different in shape, the magwells are quite different, and the first rifle has pic rails on all 4 sides of the handguard while the second one uses a different system to mount accessories.

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well one is real ( the second image) Of the Sig 551
The other is a Artists fiction.

SinoSoldier said:

Can you elaborate? Are the rumors actually valid or has it been disproven?

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Just go with the tried and proven rules: if there's no real pic, then it has to be fake; or treat it as fake until there are real pics show up to prove its existence.

This supposedly has something to do with a future Chinese sniper rifle, but I can't read Chinese so feel free to translate:

newguy02 said:

This supposedly has something to do with a future Chinese sniper rifle, but I can't read Chinese so feel free to translate:

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Concerning the paragraph with underline, it's talking about China is working on a new sniper rifle that's use the .338 Lapua Magnum cailbre. But again because it's a NATO calibre (Well it must be a misunderstanding, .338 Lapua Magnum is widely adopted by Western Bloc including NATO member states, but not NATO standard) whether it could be adopted by the PLA (we know that the Chinese have a dogmatic insistance to use a different calibre than the rest of the world) is hard to tell, nor would they tweek the calibre to fit the bill...nonetheless, it'll be @ .338 Lapua Magnum where they begin the work, and see whether they can improve upon it.

MwRYum said:

Concerning the paragraph with underline, it's talking about China is working on a new sniper rifle that's use the .338 Lapua Magnum cailbre.

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Does it say Lapua specifically? As there are a number other .338 Caliber variations Norma, Winchester, Federal, Remington Ultra, Marlin Express, Rugar Compact, Edge, Xtream, 06, whisper (subsonic), EXCALIBUR, Spectre and no doubt more. ,

But again because it's a NATO calibre (Well it must be a misunderstanding, .338 Lapua Magnum is widely adopted by Western Bloc including NATO member states, but not NATO standard)

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It was originally a US study that lead to a Finnish maker creating the chambering. .338 LM was also adopted by the Russian Military to a limited degree.

whether it could be adopted by the PLA (we know that the Chinese have a dogmatic insistance to use a different calibre than the rest of the world) is hard to tell, nor would they tweek the calibre to fit the bill...nonetheless, it'll be @ .338 Lapua Magnum where they begin the work, and see whether they can improve upon it.

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As I said there are already a number of chamberings of .33 dimensions And there are other potentially heavier rounds like .408 Cheytac showing possible alternatives. The First and For most Question Here is WHO?
If the PLA then they will likely push another proprietary round. IF the PAP then they will likely buy off the shelf.
Moving to a .338 Chambering especially the Magnum loads are intended for extended range shooting but with less of a weight penalty and size issues then 50Cals. A few years back GDLS even offered a .338 Norma Magnum Chambered Belt fed Medium Machine gun that was roughly the same weight and size as a Conventional 7.62x51mm M240B

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Does it say Lapua specifically? As there are a number other .338 Caliber variations Norma, Winchester, Federal, Remington Ultra, Marlin Express, Rugar Compact, Edge, Xtream, 06, whisper (subsonic), EXCALIBUR, Spectre and no doubt more. ,
It was originally a US study that lead to a Finnish maker creating the chambering. .338 LM was also adopted by the Russian Military to a limited degree.


As I said there are already a number of chamberings of .33 dimensions And there are other potentially heavier rounds like .408 Cheytac showing possible alternatives. The First and For most Question Here is WHO?
If the PLA then they will likely push another proprietary round. IF the PAP then they will likely buy off the shelf.
Moving to a .338 Chambering especially the Magnum loads are intended for extended range shooting but with less of a weight penalty and size issues then 50Cals. A few years back GDLS even offered a .338 Norma Magnum Chambered Belt fed Medium Machine gun that was roughly the same weight and size as a Conventional 7.62x51mm M240B

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While the .338 category is crowded, when you talk about military adoption then .338 LM is - if not the one and only - the most adopted one. Russians? We know they have a small cache of M4A1 as well, so what's your point?

Thing is, since the PAP has a far more room when choosing what firearms and gear to use - we've seen various formations using off-the-shelf solutions from both domestic and abroad - so if they talk about "adopt by the state" they've to talk about the PLA, 99% of instance if not full 100%. Like, we've seen the CS/LR-4 sniper rifle more amongst the PAP formations then ever with the PLA.

And with the "state adoption" in mind, that's why the whole "proprietary calibre" thing is on the table in the first place.

The article expresses doubt that China will develop 8.6mm sniper rifles because it's the caliber used by NATO. Says instead China will develop its own caliber, either 8.5, 8.7, or 9.0mm. However, whichever design they settle on, it'll use current 8.6mm designs as a starting point.

Anything would be better than the current 5.8x42mm "sniper round" that caused PLA snipers and sharpshooters serious headaches when operating under bad weather conditions or at long ranges, made China lose several international sniper competitions, and prompted them to import M24s and expensive handloaded 7.62x51 NATO precision rounds.