QBZ-191 service rifle family

I’m a little disappointed it’s right hand side only charging handle, as that makes it more difficult (not impossible tho, just look at some AK47 quick mag change drills) to change Mags and chamber a round with your right hand on the pistol grip at all times.

I know the last round hold-open and left hand bolt release helps mitigate the issue to a large degree, but in general, I just prefer a left handed charging handle, especially when clearing dud rounds/mis-feeds etc. Just much quicker and cleaner to do it with your off-hand without needed awkward positions or too many hand hold swaps.

A TV segment on the 208th institute. A longer firing footage of the new assault is available. I have included some screen captures.


Industrial design of the foregrip. According to the video, since its inception, the development of the new assault rifle incorporated industrial designers and real soldiers as part of the design team. Gone are the days of 'soldiers being issued whatever the factory produced'.


Undergoing environmental testing (muddy water)


More high-resolution screen captures.

MwRYum said:

View attachment 54764
It's from that report, there's about a second or 2 between the timestamp which the focus adjusted just enough to see the straight edges to indicace those are allen key...

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The clarity of that image is about the same as the one in #245 when zoomed in, and for both I can kind of see straight edges but I can also kind of see a continuous round circle.

It definitely could be an Allen key but I don't think it's clear enough to call it unfortunately.

Bltizo said:

The clarity of that image is about the same as the one in #245 when zoomed in, and for both I can kind of see straight edges but I can also kind of see a continuous round circle.

It definitely could be an Allen key but I don't think it's clear enough to call it unfortunately.

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They could be Allen keys with bevelled or chamfered lips, which would explain why at some angles they appear to have straight edged while at others they appear round.

by78 said:

They could be Allen keys with bevelled or chamfered lips, which would explain why at some angles they appear to have straight edged while at others they appear round.

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Very true. For the purposes of confirmation I think it would be better to wait for a fully clear image before calling it, but I suppose for practical purposes it is not that important.

Bltizo said:

Very true. For the purposes of confirmation I think it would be better to wait for a fully clear image before calling it, but I suppose for practical purposes it is not that important.

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I must laud you guys for detail. There are like a dozen posts on whether or not the handguard removal can be done tool free. For M-16, only time in my personal experience (variant model) that I removed handguards was to clean out dirt and sand that could get in. It wasn't considered part of field strip, but was tool-free. If I recall correctly, it was only really needed to be done by an armourer to fix the gas block.

Even if allen key is needed, I assume multi-tool is issued that would be compatible with it should need arise for something like simple cleaning. Does the new rifle have a buttstock cleaning kit? Might also be in there. Topic for the next 10 posts...

plawolf said:

I’m a little disappointed it’s right hand side only charging handle, as that makes it more difficult (not impossible tho, just look at some AK47 quick mag change drills) to change Mags and chamber a round with your right hand on the pistol grip at all times.

I know the last round hold-open and left hand bolt release helps mitigate the issue to a large degree, but in general, I just prefer a left handed charging handle, especially when clearing dud rounds/mis-feeds etc. Just much quicker and cleaner to do it with your off-hand without needed awkward positions or too many hand hold swaps.

Click to expand...

The mag release lever on the right side is said to be designed close enough to the trigger finger to push without the hand to leave the grip. I know it is awkward for the index finger to push that way because finger muscle is much weaker in that motion. But if it works then the design enables the same practice.

Of course, I agree that it is better to have levers on both sides.

A few other questions.
Is there a new grenade launcher? I don't imagine the old ones will be compatible.
It looks like there is only a single hole in the front for attaching the sling. Is this a new single point sling design? I could not see clearly in other photos.

Since the new rifles still have full auto, what would the point of IAR be? I imagine LMG/SAW is much more useful (defined as something with belt feed/QC barrel for sustained fire application). I would hope that new fabrication techniques could be applied to new SAW/LMG.

taxiya said:

The mag release lever on the right side is said to be designed close enough to the trigger finger to push without the hand to leave the grip. I know it is awkward for the index finger to push that way because finger muscle is much weaker in that motion. But if it works then the design enables the same practice.

Of course, I agree that it is better to have levers on both sides.

Click to expand...

The lip at the bottom side of the magazine release should be long enough to perform the AK-style bump change, alas by the angle in relation to the trigger guard it'd not be as instinctive as that with the AK. Still, if there's to be any modification it's superficial that can be introduced at later date, just change out the magazine release lever. Given the gun is still (most likely) at troop trial phase, it can still be make into the final definitive model...after all, they still blotted out where the serial number would be engraved onto, so that may be the sign that it's certainly not getting finalised, yet.

supersnoop said:

A few other questions.
Is there a new grenade launcher? I don't imagine the old ones will be compatible.
It looks like there is only a single hole in the front for attaching the sling. Is this a new single point sling design? I could not see clearly in other photos.

Since the new rifles still have full auto, what would the point of IAR be? I imagine LMG/SAW is much more useful (defined as something with belt feed/QC barrel for sustained fire application). I would hope that new fabrication techniques could be applied to new SAW/LMG.

Click to expand...

That's quite a puzzle doesn't it? The fact that they didn't show the full series in the segment it opens many possibilities.

1. there's a modified version from the QLG-10A one that can be mounted on the new rifle's bottom rail, along with a modified barrel clamp;
2. like the EGLM it partly based on, make a stand-alone module for it to go "pirate-gun"...