That's a cool rig, Strambo, and probably about as small as an AR can be made. What kind of kick would 300 generate in something that small/light? I have no experience with that particular round, but a heavier-and-faster-than-a-pistol round would surely degrade the rate of accurate fire (whether the difference is noticeable is my question
). Interesting idea, though; a round designed for subsonic/suppressor performance would be very nice for HD even without the can, as the flash and overpressure will be minimized (though the heavier slug could potentially over-penetrate and all that noise)
The above statements about caliber and hearing damage miss the point; anything down to and including 22LR will permanently damage your ears. The question is which will cause disorientation sufficient to degrade your effectiveness and ability to make hits accurately, quickly. I submit that 223 is excessive in this regard, based solely upon my first experiences wearing double-earpro at open-air gun ranges next to people with braked rifles sporting full length barrels. Unprepared for the magnitude of the blast, I was momentarily stunned --the pressure wave travels through your face, or something-- and had ringing ears after foolishly opening my mouth to say something shortly thereafter as another shot was let off --went straight to my ears through my mouth. It probably wasn't so bad for the shooter directly behind the gun, but if mere reflection off a steel roof could rattle me that bad, I shudder to think about a hallway. I haven't played with a linear comp; do they really reduce the boom from a short barrel that much in an enclosed space? I know our nation's finest in uniform have and will "make due" with whatever they are issued to get the job done, but I also know a great many of them suffer terrible hearing loss as a result of their valiant service.
There may be something to be said for pistol caliber carbines in calibers bigger thn 9mm, like .40S&W, 10mm and .45acp. These sorta have some similarlity to Jeff Cooper's "Thumper" concept.
Precisely, he perceived a gap between pistols and rifles that could be filled by...
something. I think marketing to this niche is impossible, though (as seen by many responses on this thread
). A 'large pistol' or 'light rifle' as the case may be, will be almost as expensive as the next step up, due to a similar operating system requiring similar manufacturing. Ammunition will be big enough to be expensive, but the gun will be small enough that the user will appraise it with an eye on plinking (cuz smaller is cheaper
). And since no NATO/Comm nation uses 475 Linebaugh or 10MM, there will be none of the requisite milsurp ammo needed to make a gun worth buying :banghead:
FWIW, the thumper was:
18" long with stock folder
4.5 pounds unloaded Ghostring sights
Clean trigger
Chambered for .44 AutoMag
Muzzle brake and locked/delayed breech bolt to mitigate recoil
20 rd box mag
Semiauto only
So pretty much an M1 carbine blown out to his beloved 44mag
The Ruger Model 44 or Deerslayer or Deerfield or whatever it is now is probably a pretty close match. Kinda funny how the concept sought to perform the same function in the same size as "The PDW" --but using a
completely opposite chambering. I imagine advances in body armor and bullets unforeseen at the time are the primary reasons why the concept was never explored (though we're coming right back full circle with high-caliber subsonic, semi-auto ARs)
TCB