Before going off and creating a design I recommend you try to find as many firearm design books that you can. This is my list, of the ones I have been able to acquire. This will really help you in your search for desirable paths to go.
1.“Technical Notes, Small Arms Design”, Author: John G. Rocha , available from Armalite (800) 336-0184, stock number NA1085 $12.50 . Maybe be out of print, cannot find it on Amazon.com. This soft cover pamphlet is a copy of the course material handout to a firearms class taught at Rock Island in the 60’s. Very interesting, a good number of formulas, but still very readable.
2. Brassey’s Essential Guide to Military Small Arms, Design Principles and Operating Method, Author Allsp and Popelinsky, Brassey’s Inc, 1997 Out of print. This starts off simple and ends up very technical. This is a serious book and the final sections really require education in math, science, or engineering. Currently on Amazon for $600.00!
3. The Machine Gun, Volume IV, parts X & XI, LTC George Chinn, pub 1955. Out of print. This book should be the absolute first book to buy for someone who is interested in the principles of automatic weapon design. Really an excellent statement of principles. It is a comment on the general state of technical ignorance in our society that this book is extremely rare, but the general public is not that much interested in it. A Gun Show book dealer told me more people wanted the volumes with the pretty pictures of old guns!
4. The Bolt Action by Stuart Ottenson. First edition by Winchester Press 1976. Ottesnon later added a Volume II which came out in a two volume edition by Wolfe Publishing in 1985. These books are very non mathematical for a general audience, but the principles, particularly expounded in Vol 1 on the Mauser 98 are, in my opinion, fundamental to the understanding of bolt action design.
5. AMCP 706-260. Engineering Design Handbook: Automatic Weapons. Out of print. The most technical and mathematical design book I have found to date. Assumes a high level of knowledge in firearms design, mathematics, and Mechanical Engineering. A technical degree, preferably in Mechanical Engineering is really needed to attempt to understand the presented material. This was created in the early 60’s, and reflects the designs, and the design knowledge of the day.
6. AMCP 706-252 Engineering Design Handbook: Gun Tubes. Out of print. Very interesting, not limited to small arms.
AMCP stands for Army Material Command Pamphlet. There were about one hundred AMCP Pamphlets covering information ranging from Statistics to Automotive Design. A copy of AMCP 706-260 and other out of print AMCP pamphlets can be ordered from NTIS at
http://www.ntis.gov/. These are not cheap, they want $45.00 to $150.00 for some of them.
7. Small Arms & Cannon, Smith and Haslam, RMC of Science, Shrivenham UK, 1st Edition, 1982, Brassey's Publishers LTD. Excellent read, look on Amazon.
8. Small Arms, Volume 6 of Brassey’s Land Warfare into the 21st Century, copyright 1999. Brassey’s UK, Authors D. F. Allsop and MA Toomey. Out of print. Excellent book, an expansion of reference 2 with more technical data added. Currently on Amazon for $120.00!
9. Ballistics, Theory and Design of Guns and Ammunition. CRC press, 2008, Authors Donald E. Carlucci and Sidney S Jacobson. This book is highly mathematical, primarily artillery related. A considerable advancement on interior, exterior, and terminal effects from earlier references.
Firearms design books are so rare because the market is very limited. I would suggest to anyone who has a technical background, and is interested in firearms design, to acquire those books in print. Because once they are out of print, you may never find one, or you have to pay the sky high prices on Amazon.
