By Sunshine Shooter
I’m not the first person to say this. It’s a common enough sentiment that saying it is starting to become cliche. Now to prove my point, I will list off the entire state of the US firearms industry in about a eight individual guns. Watch.
PISTOLS
Every pistol is a Glock 17 copy, a revolver, or a 1911. And that’s being generous, as the Glock uses Browning’s tilt-barrel delayed blowback system. The Glock has a significantly different trigger system so I do think it’s different enough to be a different gun, but it is very similar to the other semi-auto in this category.
The best selling category of pistols in the US is the small EDC/pocket gun sector. This market segment used to be dominated by the S&W Shield, but is now dominated by the SIG P365. Both of these guns are small Glock copies. Polymer frames, striker fired, mainly 9mm, and very affordable, these guns are just small Glocks. The S&W Shield was a 6+1 round single-stack and the P365 is a 12+1 round double-stack. Both guns have lots of copies and competitors that are borderline patent infringement if not actual patent infringement. That of course also accurately describes the Glock as well, with its literally dozens of direct competitors, multiple patent lawsuits, and ever-increasing number of Gen 3 copies (Zev, Shadow Systems, Palmetto’s DAGR, etc.).
The revolvers are are only better in the regard that they don’t have a direct design heritage from the 1911. They do seem to all be the exact same gun, though. I know that there are significant differences between S&W, Colt, and Ruger, but they are all very subtle and are mainly differences in executing the same concept. Examples being cast frames instead of forged, a cylinder release that pushes forward instead of pulls back or presses in, stuff like that. Where it really matters they are all almost the same. Almost every revolver is a .38 special or a .357 Magnum, which also shoots .38 special. All these wheelguns are either small snubnose guns with 2″ barrels, or big stainless 4″ barreled range toys.
SEMI-AUTO RIFLES
Every semi-auto rifle is one of 4 guns. The vast majority are relatively mil-spec AR-15s in 5.56 with 16″ barrels and front sight posts. Yes, the AR is super modular, but those are just small variations on a very consistent base gun. A different handguard, or red dot on top, or flashlight with a pressure pad in different spots, or a different grip, it’s all small variations upon the same thing.
The next gun is a distant second place, and that’s the AK. And if you think that ARs are fairly interchangeable, AKs are downright cookie-cutter! Different decades of production, different countries of origin, I can’t tell them apart at all. I’m sure that there are lots of very significant differences, but I just can’t see them. I’m sure that if I actually gave time to learning more about AKs I’d soon start to be able to tell them apart, but I just haven’t given the platform the kind of attention required.
After the AR and AK, the next most common semi-auto rifle is going to be some sort of not-an-AR chambered in 5.56. It is going to be a piston gun, and it is almost assuredly a direct AR-180/AR-18 copy. These not-an-ARs are so interchangeable that some people have started calling them “Pmag adapters”. And they aren’t entirely wrong for doing so. These guns may have slightly different stylings and different makers from different countries, but they are basically the same gun.
The newest and already mostly homogeneous kind of gun you’re likely to see is the recently popular 9mm PCC. This kind of gun really only came to prominence about 6 or 7 years ago. When it was a new concept, the PCC market was very diverse. Everyone was trying to find a way to make a 9mm rifle interesting, and a lot of people decided to modify mil spec AR uppers and lowers to accept the pistol cartridge. A lot of other people made ground-up new designs for sub guns that had 16″ barrels and were semi-auto only, such as the CZ Scorpion Evo and the B&T GHM9, among others. In the highly competitive commercial market certain things have been quickly proven to be a more optimal combination of affordable manufacture, performance, and public acceptance. That combination ends up usually being an AR style upper with a straight blowback operating system, fits a mil-spec lower, and feeds from Glock magazines. Its not a coincidence that rapid adoption and homogenization of these guns was fueled by the use of mags from the the most common pistol in the world.
BOLT ACTION RIFLES
They are all an updated version of the Mauser action. Remington 700, Savage Model 10, Browning X-Bolt, they’re all basically a cheaper and faster to produce Mauser action that doesn’t control-feed rounds into the chamber. There are also Mauser clone actions and they are almost the rest of the bolt action market. This is how it’s been since last century, and there’s no sign of it changing any time soon.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Now admittedly, I have painted a pretty dark picture. And everything I wrote here I firmly believe, but it isn’t the whole story. There are people out there toiling away in R&D departments and machine shops trying to make new and interesting guns. And I applaud them! We need more people like them to help us create the designs that will replace the status quo options that we are currently stuck with. I will shed a little light on where I see these unsung heroes’ efforts next week. [part two]
Scattered Shots 
You’re baiting me, right? 😉
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OK, I have a little more time this evening to write up some comments.
1. First, let us have a small semantic correction: “Pistol” is taken to mean that the chamber is integral with the barrel, which means that the appellation “pistol” does not include revolvers.
2. Glock knock-offs and patents: The Glock takes many ideas from the Browning P35 Hi Power, and the idea of striker (as opposed to hammer-on-firing-pin) goes clear back to the P-08 Luger. There are patents involved in the S&W guns and P365, but they’re very particular, specific issues involving the magazine or certain attributes of the lockwork. Where there is “prior art,” you can’t get a patent without making an improvement, and in the field of firearms, there is a lot of prior art.
You want innovation? What about the Boberg design? That’s wholly new. There are gas-operated pistols (the original IMI Desert Eagle, for example), the Laugo Alien is a new gas-operated pistol.
There are cheaper pistols that aren’t 1911 or Glock (Hi Power-esque) designs. There are blowback (Hi Point pistols are direct blowback designs, as are most .22LR pistols).
3. Revolvers: There are significant differences inside revolvers between Colt, S&W, and Ruger. Some of these are:
– Colt’s cylinder spins “into the window” (clockwise from the shooter’s perspective).
– S&W’s cylinder spins “out of the window” (CCW from the shooter’s perspective)
– Rugers spin out of the window on their DA revolvers, into the window on their SA revolvers.
Why these various little differences? These are issues brought about to avoid patent infringement – in the 19th century, when DA revolvers started. What’s the best solution? It varies according to the issue. Cylinders should spin into the window – it makes lockup tighter when the hand is pushing the cylinder into the window. But the classic Colt DA lockwork design is very subtle and prone to malfunction if someone doesn’t understand what they’re working on, or if the revolver is dropped hard enough or used as a hammer on the butt of the grip. S&W solved these issues by splitting the lockwork into the cylinder/trigger/hammer functions and then splitting off the trigger rebound function into its own spring and trip. Ruger uses coil springs instead of leaf springs in their DA revolvers, making manufacturing less expensive. Revolvers are very well-trod ground, and there’s very little new to be done in this area.
The best revolver would be one using the S&W lockwork design, rotating the cylinder into the window. Arguably the best realization of a DA revolver made in America was the Colt Python. The best realization of the single-action revolver design is probably the Freedom Arms line of revolvers.
4. Semi-auto rifles: We have plenty of non-AR/AK semi-auto rifle designs. The AR/AK are ubiquitous now due to pricing and mass manufacturing, that’s all. They’re fine designs, but they’re hardly the only designs out there.
At this point, the reasons for the popularity of the AR in the firearms market is because of the sheer number of modifications that are easily added or used in an AR build.
5. Bolt action rifles: When you say that all modern bolt actions are cost-reduced versions of Peter Paul Mauser’s original Model 98 design, you’re correct. What people need to understand is that prior to WWI, the Germans lavished lots of effort into firearms design and manufacturing. eg, both the Mauser and the Luger P08 are examples of German machining prowess. They’re fabulous examples of machining and manufacturing, very expensive to manufacture. The Germans finally realized that the Luger was insanely expensive in the late 30’s, and the Walther P38 was the resulting replacement. Cruder, simpler, effective at launching 9mm rounds.
The Model 98, however, had what other rifles would leave behind in their cost reduction efforts: safety features. Most people don’t recognize the safety features on the Model 98, because they’ve not suffered a gas escape on a pre-98-like action (eg, Model 93). Mauser had several bolt action designs before the 98 – the 1871, 1889, 1893, 1895 before the 98. The models made after the 98 are refinements of the 98, not radical departures or significant improvements. The 98 is the most robust and safe design in the event of a gas escape, or failure of the bolt lugs, which is why it endured in sporting rifles, especially those rifles chambered in high pressure “magnum” cartridges.
Why does the bolt action continue so well? Because the bolt action has the power of the camming action of the bolts rotating into and out of battery, which allows a cartridge to be pushed home and then pulled out with great force. This makes the bolt action very reliable, where straight-pull, semi-auto, pump, lever, falling block, etc actions have nowhere near the extraction force of the bolt action. The bolt action is very strong, and when made with high-quality steels, is capable of containing very high operating pressures.
What youngsters today fail to appreciate is that “the best” bolt action rifle has already been designed, made, and realized: the pre-64 Winchester Model 70. It wasn’t called “the Rifleman’s Rifle” for mere marketing reasons.
Almost all “innovation” in the firearms industry is now oriented towards cheaper, crappier manufacturing, not better or more innovative function. eg, In bolt action rifles, you see this in the Rem 700 rifle – it’s a cheap echo of a bolt action: just a tube of 4140 steel, bolt raceways broached out, the bolt is made from three pieces that are silver-soldered together, the extractor is a piece of spring steel riveted into the bolt nose, etc, etc.
The Glock is a respin of the Browning Hi Power, using polymers to reduce costs.
If you want innovation in firearms today, you’re going to have to be willing to pay more than the price points that the firearms company have decided should apply, regardless of inflation or currency devaluations.
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