Monday, March 7, 2011

The AR-23

Yet another concept gun from a story I wrote. I call it the AR-23, though that designation may already exist for some other existing weapon. The dealio with this assault rifle is that it has 4 tube magazines located in the stock assembly. Each tube is loaded with different ammo, and the wielder of this weapon chooses his ammo as necessary by pressing a switch and cycling between tubes. Utilizing hi-tech micro-motors, the rifle can cycle the tubes at high speed, rotating the relevant tube to the barrel in an instant. The ammo is caseless, and the armor-piercing and high-velocity rounds use small-caliber slugs in sabot cladding. This allows a large charge to fire a thin, lightweight projectile thru the barrel at high-velocity. Other types of ammo might include incendiary, explosive, fragmenting, rubber, wireless Tazer, etc.

This concept could stand alone, but ammo capacity and reloading seem like they would be impeded. Therefore, this concept might be best used with small-caliber grenades or shotgun shells, with an additional & separate assault rifle located beneath it. In this configuration, the weapon would include an assault rifle with a normal bottom-loading box magazine, on top of which was stacked the tube concept weapon. A single trigger & sight would control both weapons. Buttons would allow the operator to seamlessly switch barrels and ammo on the run.

Example: PIG 6116 is fighting for his life in the ruins of San Francisco. He is crouched inside a bombed-out bus, firing his AR-23 up at an apartment window across the street. He's blasting away with the .223 assault rifle, laying down suppressing fire. The enemy soldier above withdraws from sight. PIG then seamlessly switches to his integral top-mounted grenade launcher, chooses HE, and fires 2 high-explosive rounds into the apartment. BINGO. An arm flies out the window, Russkie rifle still attached to the fingers, and PIG knows the enemy is out of commission.


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