Best Assault Rifle?

What was/is the best post WWII Assault Rifle?


  • Total voters
    81
That was because they were trying to meet US insistance about the power of the round. The trials were fixed, the US wanted a more modern 30-06 and no matter what other proposals were made that's what was going to be the Nato round.

Personally I think the E.M.1 rifle with its stamped reciever would have been the better choice for the new Commonwealth rifle. It would have been a lot cheaper to build than the machined E.M.2

In fact. when the em2 was made. machining was cheaper for British arms industry at the time. and was well set up to produce the rifle no9, that is because at that point in time stamping was not widespread within British arms manufacturer, you would have to wait some time for that to be the case.
and it would have been far more expensive and time-consuming to set up a whole new manufacturing process and then retrain the workforce just for that rifle.
 
Sks with detachable mags and select fire.

The Chinese tried that starting with Type 63. Compared with their Type 56 (AKM), they sucked, although Type 81 was a decent rifle.

Actual Stg44.

Decent gun, although simultaneously overengineered (too many man-hours to produce) and underengineered (delicate stamped receiver) and its fat and stubby 8x33mm ammo is halfway between pistol and intermediate rifle cartridge.

No INSAS, poll is flawed.

Not sure if serious.
 
Mr. New Statesman,
You misunderstand the historical sequence.
Pressed sheet steel magazines were fashionable starting around 1900.
Then the automotive and "cheap tin toys" industry perfected many of the processes and tools for stamping sheet metal parts.
There is little need to buy specialized hydraulic presses for gun factories. Sure steel dies may be expensive because they are so precise. Once you have the dies, an automotive sub-contractor can stamp out a year's worth of gun parts in a day or two.
 
AK's going to be a run away in this, it's so iconic, cheap and reliable. Bullpups are the way of the future but I'm amazed you never included the magnificent FN FAL/L1A1.

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When people here talk about the G3 family they probably picture the classic battle rifle that was the standard weapon of the Bundeswehr. What they forget are the various mods and descendants like the HK53 or the HK43.
 
The 'Bullpups'

The 'MSBS Ramdom'

The Howa?



Some of the families you have listed don't really correlate to the actual lineages of certain rifles. Firstly you are missing the AR-18, which is perhaps one of the most influential weapons designs of the late 20th century. The Howa, SA-80, Daewoo rifles, and G-36. Are all descended from the AR-18.

The Fara 83 is basically a modified Galil type design, and certainly shouldn't be listed by itself.

The FN CAL, FNC and SCAR bare little relation to each other. The CAL is basically a 5.56 version of the FAL. The FNC is is FN is distantly related but drastically changed after the problems of the CAL. THE SCAR represents a clean sheet design that uses many different characteristics from other successful rifles designs such as the AR-15 and AR-18.

In fact the SCAR represents part of a loose family of new generation assault rifles that all are based on generally the same idea and using the same inspirations but developed independently. Almost all of them use new extrusion construction techniques, and include the SCAR, MSBS Radon, HK G433, CZ BREN, and ACR. Though these rifles share no direct links they are essentially solving the same set of requirements in pretty much the same way, and have ended up looking very similar.

You have entirely ignored the Chinese Type-81 and its descendants, which is understandable given how they look visually very similar to AKs, but are in fact their own design.

Bullpups are not a proper family. All the the bullpup rifles are highly varied, and share almost no relation to each other. Quite a few are AR-18 based, but two major ones, the Steyr AUG and Tavor are original designs that have spawned their own families and variants.

Really your options should be:

AK and Derivatives
AR-15 Family
AR-18 Derivatives
FAL Family
SIG Family
Beretta Family
G-3/CETME Family
Type-81 and Derivatives
New generation extrusion rifles (SCAR, MSBS, G433, ACR etc.)
Tavor Family
Steyr AUG Family
Other
 
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I chose the AK family because it was certainly the most ''constant'' across the years
In oppostion, the M-16/Ar-12 started as a delicate weapon for air base defence that needed generations to become a good, well rounded, assault weapon
Seems reasonable, let us remember that Tom Clancy described the M-16 as "Average"!
 
FAL but in the round it was originally designed for the .280 British before the US screwed it up demanding more speed and longer range
 
[QUOTE .... Actual Stg 44 ...... Decent gun, although simultaneously overengineered (too many man-hours to produce) and underengineered (delicate stamped receiver) and its fat and stubby 8x33mm ammo is halfway between pistol and intermediate rifle cartridge.
.......[/QUOTE]

.................................................................................

Not quite sure how you reached your opinion?????????

Sturmgwehr 44 fired 7.92 X 33mm Kurtz ammo that produced 1400 foot/pounds of muzzle-energy.

In comparison 9 X 19mm Luger pistol ammo produces 400
7.62 X 35 mm Tokarev pistol ammo produces 290 to 560

American .30 carbine (7.62 X 33 mm) produces 960

5.45 X 39 mm Warsaw produces 1000
5.56 X 45mm NATO produces 1300
5.8 X 42mm Chinese produces 1400
7.62 X 39mm (AK-47) ammo produces 1550
7.92 X 33mm Kurtz (Stg 44) produces 1400

7.62 X 51 NATO ammo produces 3400
7.62 X 54 Mosin Nagant ammo produces 2700
7.92 X 57mm German ammo produced 3000

So judging by muzzle energy, the Sturmgwehr 44 fired ammo similar in muzzle energy to modern assault rifles.
 
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Not claiming that my analysis was perfect. I was just trying to reduce a confusing pile of statistics to one number: muzzle energy.

According to your statistics - comparing 7.92 X 33mm Kurtz with modern 5.56 X 45 mm ammo - the Kurtz starts with a heavier bullet and slightly slower muzzle velocity to produce the same muzzle energy.
The two rounds perform roughly the same out to 300 or 400 metres, after which Kurtz accuracy deteriorates.

Next question: how many late WW2 infantry battles involved ranges more than 400 metres?
 
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