Yea wth lol
PLA Small arms
- Thread starter Vanguard1688
- Start date
Because for some reason (I don't think anyone knows why), the PLA decided that the QBZ-191 needed a buffer tube despite being gas piston operated.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Accuracy isn’t a matter of barrel length it’s a matter of barrel harmonics. What a longer barrel gives you (to a point) is velocity. Velocity can flatten the trajectory of the round. But if the barrel wobbles then it doesn’t matter. Because where ever the muzzle is when the bullet leaves the barrel is where the bullet is pointed. A shorter barrel tends to be stiffer.
Also if this is an equivalent to the Vintorez or the Sig LVAW then the barrel length doesn’t matter that much. The whole point is for the ammunition to be subsonic by design. A heavy slow bullet looses velocity fast and has a very dramatic trajectory. So somewhere around 200m if generally the max. If you went with supersonic it’s about 400m but again supersonic with performance not far removed from the standard issue intermediate calibre. So why bother with the R&D.
Half the ARs in the civilian and military market including the Taiwanese standard issue rifles are External piston operated either long or short stroke piston and have Buffer tubes.
There are also a small number of Internal piston (the AR15 is not true Direct impingement) rifles that have folding or abbreviated buffers too.
The whole point of the Buffer tube is to extend the receiver so the bolt has more room to travel allowing reduced felt recoil. Such a receiver extension was originally intended for the AR10 in 7.62x51mm a rather substantial cartridge especially when fired from a light weight 7.6 lbs rifle. They carried it over to the AR15. The PLA likely felt that the Buffer extension was one of the better features from the CQ (AR15 clone) and asked to carry it over. For a standard issue weapon it’s not a bad thing. When combined with an extending mechanism it be used by parachute troops just as well as a folding stock and your soldiers don’t go getting the idea they are to be shooting stock folded like an action hero.
For Vintorez or LVAW that’s a specialist’s weapon so if you have a proper training system in place then they are going to get more opportunities to train with the weapon and though the folding stock does mean a generally increased felt recoil. These are probably troops who can deal with it.
I don't think it's chambered in traditional 5.8. If it's anything like a 300 blackout of VSS Vintorez, a short barrel is actually what it's intended for.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Before U.S. Socom adopted the LVAW they adopted the Suppressed Upper Receiver Group. An 11.5 inch barreled 5.56x45mm integrally suppressed modification of the M4A1 with a folding stock. Sig won that contract and used a derivative of the MCX line as their bid. So this could also be an equivalent to that alternatively. Either way it’s not a “Sniper Rifle” in the traditional sense it’s a CQB weapon that can be used with a reduced signature.
The main aim being to replace SMGs well offering superior performance well still keeping it in a reduced sound and flash signature perfect for raiding.