Tony Williams
Member
I have added a new article to my website to consider the pros and cons of bullpups vs traditional military rifles, here: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/bullpups.htm
Proponents of bayonet fighting will also point to the shorter length of the weapon, which means that you have to get closer to the enemy.
Are there any bullpup models available for civilians?
[Even that may be changing. The Kel-Tec RFB is slated to have a trigger design that circumvents entirely the problem of transmitting high-fidelity forces to the aft portion of the gun.
Furthermore, as Mr. Williams points out, lots of other rifles have mediocre triggers as well. Indeed, most factory rifles have downright mediocre to lousy triggers, so saying that most bullpups do as well is hardly a point against them vis a vis conventional designs.
From the article: The necessarily straight-line stock means that the firer cannot sight along the top of the barrel, so if iron sights are used they have to stick up high above the barrel and the firer therefore has to expose more of his head 'above the parapet'.
The coments about squishy triggers a valid as well. Interestingly (at least for me) I found that the combination of trigger assemblies on DC Engineerings SKS conversion make for a better trigger pull than what the rifle had to begin with.