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Bullpup
A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, more compact, concealable, and more maneuverable than a conventionally configured firearm. Where it is desirable for troops to be issued a more compact weapon, the use of a bullpup configuration allows for barrel length to be retained, thus preserving muzzle velocity, range, and ballistic effectiveness.
The bullpup concept was first tested militarily in 1901 with the British Thorneycroft carbine, but it was not until the Cold War that more successful designs and improvements led to wider adoption. In 1977, the Austrian Army became the first military force in the world to adopt a bullpup rifle, the Steyr AUG, as a principal combat weapon. Since then the militaries in many countries have followed suit with other bullpup designs, such as the Chinese QBZ-95, Israeli IWI Tavor, French FAMAS and British SA80.
The origin of term "bullpup" for this configuration has long been unclear. In 1957, the word was reported to denote a target pistol, particularly one with a fancy stock.
British firearm expert Jonathan Ferguson researched the origin of the term in 2019–2020. He found early references in 1930s firearm magazines implying that "bullpup" is derived from an analogy of such rifles to bulldog puppies (colloquially called "bullpups" in England during the late 19th and the early 20th century), which were considered "squat, ugly but still aggressive and powerful". The original meaning of the word to describe dogs has since fallen out of use.
The bullpup design places the gun's action mechanism and magazine behind the trigger, and the receiver functionally serves as the buttstock with usually only a thin endplate, making the gun more of a "stockless" weapon from a pure technical sense. The magazine is also inserted behind the trigger group (technically it only needs the magazine's feeding slot to be located behind the trigger for the gun to be classified as a bullpup), but in some designs such as the Heckler & Koch G11, FN P90 and Neostead, the magazine can extend forward beyond the trigger.
The earliest bullpup firearm known is a heavy bench-rest target rifle made circa 1860 for a Professor Richard Potter by Riviere of London. It weighs more than 6 kg (13 lb 4 oz) and features an octagonal barrel of approximately 20 bore (0.60 in) in calibre, with two-groove Brunswick rifling. It is held in the collection of the British National Rifle Association. One of the earliest repeating bullpup designs was patented by William Joseph Curtis in 1866. The concept was later used in bolt-action rifles such as the Thorneycroft carbine of 1901, although the increased distance from hand grip to bolt handle meant the decreased length had to be weighed against the increased time required to fire. It was used in semi-automatic firearms in 1918 (6.5 mm French Faucon-Meunier semi-automatic rifle developed by Lt. Col. Armand-Frédéric Faucon), then in 1936 a bullpup machine pistol was patented by the Frenchman Henri Delacre. The first bullpup design used in combat was the PzB M.SS.41 anti-tank rifle during World War II. It was a Czech weapon used by the SS, produced under German occupation.
After World War II, Western engineers drew inspiration from the German Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle, which offered a compromise between bolt-action rifles and submachine guns. Among them was Kazimierz Januszewski (also known as Stefan Janson), a Polish engineer who had worked at the Polish national arsenal during the 1930s. After being mobilized during World War II he escaped German and Soviet forces and made his way to England, where he was a part of the "Polish design team" at Enfield Lock's Royal Small Arms Factory. The factory was run by lieutenant colonel Edward Kent-Lemon. As Januszewski was developing a new rifle, the "Ideal Calibre Board" was searching for a replacement for the .303 cartridge. The Board decided on an optimal 7 mm cartridge on which Januszewski and the two teams working at Enfield had to base their designs. One design team led by Stanley Thorpe produced a gas-powered rifle with a locking system based on the Sturmgewehr. The design used steel pressings which were difficult to obtain, and so was scrapped. The result of the Polish design team's efforts was the EM-2, which broke significant ground.
The EM-2 contained some similarities to the Soviet AK-47, although Januszewski had never seen the Soviet rifle. The first significant bullpup assault rifle came from the British programme to replace the service pistols, sub-machine guns, and rifles. In the two forms of the EM-1 and the EM-2, the new rifle concept was born as a result of the experience with small arms that was gained during the Second World War.
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Bullpup
A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, more compact, concealable, and more maneuverable than a conventionally configured firearm. Where it is desirable for troops to be issued a more compact weapon, the use of a bullpup configuration allows for barrel length to be retained, thus preserving muzzle velocity, range, and ballistic effectiveness.
The bullpup concept was first tested militarily in 1901 with the British Thorneycroft carbine, but it was not until the Cold War that more successful designs and improvements led to wider adoption. In 1977, the Austrian Army became the first military force in the world to adopt a bullpup rifle, the Steyr AUG, as a principal combat weapon. Since then the militaries in many countries have followed suit with other bullpup designs, such as the Chinese QBZ-95, Israeli IWI Tavor, French FAMAS and British SA80.
The origin of term "bullpup" for this configuration has long been unclear. In 1957, the word was reported to denote a target pistol, particularly one with a fancy stock.
British firearm expert Jonathan Ferguson researched the origin of the term in 2019–2020. He found early references in 1930s firearm magazines implying that "bullpup" is derived from an analogy of such rifles to bulldog puppies (colloquially called "bullpups" in England during the late 19th and the early 20th century), which were considered "squat, ugly but still aggressive and powerful". The original meaning of the word to describe dogs has since fallen out of use.
The bullpup design places the gun's action mechanism and magazine behind the trigger, and the receiver functionally serves as the buttstock with usually only a thin endplate, making the gun more of a "stockless" weapon from a pure technical sense. The magazine is also inserted behind the trigger group (technically it only needs the magazine's feeding slot to be located behind the trigger for the gun to be classified as a bullpup), but in some designs such as the Heckler & Koch G11, FN P90 and Neostead, the magazine can extend forward beyond the trigger.
The earliest bullpup firearm known is a heavy bench-rest target rifle made circa 1860 for a Professor Richard Potter by Riviere of London. It weighs more than 6 kg (13 lb 4 oz) and features an octagonal barrel of approximately 20 bore (0.60 in) in calibre, with two-groove Brunswick rifling. It is held in the collection of the British National Rifle Association. One of the earliest repeating bullpup designs was patented by William Joseph Curtis in 1866. The concept was later used in bolt-action rifles such as the Thorneycroft carbine of 1901, although the increased distance from hand grip to bolt handle meant the decreased length had to be weighed against the increased time required to fire. It was used in semi-automatic firearms in 1918 (6.5 mm French Faucon-Meunier semi-automatic rifle developed by Lt. Col. Armand-Frédéric Faucon), then in 1936 a bullpup machine pistol was patented by the Frenchman Henri Delacre. The first bullpup design used in combat was the PzB M.SS.41 anti-tank rifle during World War II. It was a Czech weapon used by the SS, produced under German occupation.
After World War II, Western engineers drew inspiration from the German Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle, which offered a compromise between bolt-action rifles and submachine guns. Among them was Kazimierz Januszewski (also known as Stefan Janson), a Polish engineer who had worked at the Polish national arsenal during the 1930s. After being mobilized during World War II he escaped German and Soviet forces and made his way to England, where he was a part of the "Polish design team" at Enfield Lock's Royal Small Arms Factory. The factory was run by lieutenant colonel Edward Kent-Lemon. As Januszewski was developing a new rifle, the "Ideal Calibre Board" was searching for a replacement for the .303 cartridge. The Board decided on an optimal 7 mm cartridge on which Januszewski and the two teams working at Enfield had to base their designs. One design team led by Stanley Thorpe produced a gas-powered rifle with a locking system based on the Sturmgewehr. The design used steel pressings which were difficult to obtain, and so was scrapped. The result of the Polish design team's efforts was the EM-2, which broke significant ground.
The EM-2 contained some similarities to the Soviet AK-47, although Januszewski had never seen the Soviet rifle. The first significant bullpup assault rifle came from the British programme to replace the service pistols, sub-machine guns, and rifles. In the two forms of the EM-1 and the EM-2, the new rifle concept was born as a result of the experience with small arms that was gained during the Second World War.