Anything really new in firearms since 1950?

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Nobody here likes them very much, but you gotta admit the Chiappa Revolver barrel location is kinda different
 
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I know the Germans had that bent barrel subgun and the Brits had that periscope trench attachment but how about that Cornershot thing?
 
Most of the new and innovative ideas that pop up now-a -days have probably been done somewhere at sometime. The issue is usually the manufacturing processes needed to make it mass produced must be developed. CNC machinery has been around for nearly 50 years. It has really only come into being used to its fullest capabilities in the past 15 years or so. It used to take years to develop ideas into usable products. Now you can visualize changes in a part with stereo lithography in hours!
The true innovations are in the technology and implementing it with better products.
 
rcmodel said:
Better bullets.
Better powder.
Better optics.
Better out of the box rifle accuracy.
More reliable affordable semi-auto gas-operated shotguns and rifles.
The .44 Magnum revolver.
Affordable over & under shotguns.
Mass quantities of reloading equipment and components.
JHP & JSP pistol bullets.
Tritium night sights.
9MM pistols in the USA.
Shotgun Choke tubes.
Pistol scopes & red-dot sights.
Synthetic stocks.
Weapon TACK light rails & lights.
DA auto-pistols in the USA.
Laser sights.
Pillar & chassis bedding.
Range finding & Mil-Dot scopes.
Scopes that are 100% reliable.
Titanium & Scandium frames & cylinders.
LEGO Set rifle assembly & mods anyone can do.
Fiber Optic sights.
7 & 8 shot magnum revolvers.
.22 Magnum revolvers.
Really powerful auto-pistol calibers like the 10mm.


Ahhhh!
I got to rest.

But theres way more!

rc
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You got that right............
 
bushmaster1313 said:
Other than using plastic for the frame of a pistol, have there been any real innovations in firearms since 1950?
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This:

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M-61 20mm Vulcan Cannon @ 6,000 rounds per minute.

Dan
 
With the mathematics involved in the spacing, I'll throw Calico's Helical Feed magazines in the mix as an innovation in large capacity handgun-class magazines.

Wife did the Taxes yesterday... Might be getting one sooner rather than later :D

CalicoLibertyIII.jpg
calico-cut.jpg
 
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Bullpup configuration?

Burst fire in which two rounds are fired before the recoil impulse is felt.

There have actually been quite a number of innovations but few that were implemented on the large scale.
 
CNC isn't an innovation in guns, it's an innovation in production. Dardick Trounds weren't commercially viable. In much the same way as the Gyrojet. Interesting but not accepted by the market.
 
If most of us were forced to use guns, powders, bullets sights ect. made from 1940's technology and nothing made after 1950 we would be in for a huge disappointment. We have gotten so used to the major improvements that we don't even realize we are better off.
 
I would say the direct gas impingement operating system of the AR-10/AR-15/M-16 was a major innovation.
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Not really. Direct impingement had been used before in Swedish and French rifles.

Guns Magazine March 1957 gives the reason DI was used in the AR-10, the parent of the AR-15.

Go to http://www.gunsmagazine.com/classic-guns-magazine-editions/

and find the March 1957 edition.

This is what you will find:

The toughest job for Sullivan's team developing the AR-10 was to design a new bolt assembly that would not infringe on existing patents
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The whole reason for DI and the current AR15 bolt layout was profits! Armalite did not want to pay the license fee or buy any patents. That would have cost money, reducing profits. So the DI system was the best from a corporate standpoint, it made the most profits. DI is not the “best” system from many viewpoints, and the only DI system still in use is the M16 series of rifles.
 
I think the question should be, is anything still the same as it was in the 50's, the list would be much shorter. Other than the obvious job of the "GUN" in general, which is to fire a projectile through the air, just about everything from the metals used to the ammo has changed, aside form th action and dynamics of the guns themselves.
 
Well, Glock had a new design in 1980. Many fewer parts and a modern manufacturing method. It certainly used some ideas that were from other sources, but it changed the landscape for service weapons. Just as the 1911 design has been copied numerous times and in numerous ways, the Glock design has also be copied by many, some even had to pay royalities (S&W comes to mind).
 
Nobody here likes them very much, but you gotta admit the Chiappa Revolver barrel location if kinda different
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Done on the Mateba Unica 6 along with being an auto revolver. I would say the MTR8 is more interesting than that though. It still shoots from the 12 oclock, but since he put the cylinder in front of the trigger instead of ontop he lowered the bore axis all the same. It also used a kind of moonclip instead of a traditional cylinder.
 
The CIWS, or Phalanx, fires like 4500 rounds a minute using an electronic hammer. If you've never heard one fire, you don't hear any individual shots. It's like one extended explosion. Not exactly CCW but I'd call that innovation.
 
Call me "Old School" but I think that most modern gun designs, especially for handguns are ugly and contrived. It's as if the industrial designers are sitting at their workstations thinking "I've got to make a trigger guard with a square shape and hooks 'n' stuff just so it doesn't look like one of those 'classic' designs from the 1920's or 1930's."

I prefer steel & wood for long guns and either steel & wood or steel & bakelite for handguns. Nowadays, it's plastic & more plastic. Yuk!
 
I would agree with most of the above, but in the last 50 years in my opinion it's now more about accessories (laser sights, tritium sights, night vision scopes, red dot systems, holsters, or whatever else...). In this area, I think there have been huge advancements.

I like to view advancements in how a weapon/firearm is utilized by our armed forces today vs 30 years ago instead of what it is made of or how it was manufactured.

I hope I was able to articulate my thought process correctly, if not, sorry, I've had the flu all week and am still cooking-off a few calories (and brain cells).
 
Accuracy has been the biggest innovation that i can think of. Before the 90's it was rare indeed to have a rifle that would consistently shoot MOA, and now it is a basic premise. Almost all off the shelf will do MOA, or very close, all conditions being optimum.
 
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