Recoil operation

From Free net encyclopedia

Recoil operation is a type of locked-breech firearm actions used in automatic firearms. As the name implies, these actions use the force of recoil to provide the energy to cycle the action.

1 How they work
2 Long recoil operation
3 Short recoil operation
4 Inertia operation
5 References

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How they work

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

--Popular phrasing of Newton's third law of motion

When a projectile is accelerated down the barrel of a firearm, all or a portion of the firearm will begin to move in the opposite direction, as required for conservation of momentum, according to the formula:

Bullet mass * bullet velocity = recoiling mass * recoil velocity

In non-recoil-operated firearms, it is generally the entire firearm that recoils. In recoil-operated firearms, however, only a portion of the firearm is allowed to recoil, while inertia holds another portion motionless relative to the recoiling mass. These two masses are coupled by a spring, which is compressed by the movement, and which serves to return the different masses to their original position.

Since there is a minimum momentum required to operate any given recoil-operated firearm's action, the cartridge must generate sufficient recoil to provide this momentum. Since cutting the mass of the bullet in half requires doubling its velocity to conserve momentum, thus quadrupling the kinetic energy that is required for the bullet, the kinetic energy requirements are lessened and recoil-operated firearms tend to work best with more massive projectiles in a given cartridge. Also, since most recoil-operated fireams directly use the recoiling parts to perform desired functions, there is often a maximum recoil momentum beyond which reliability will suffer or damage may occur to the action. Likewise, there is a minimum recoil momentum below which operation of the gun will likewise not be reliable. Recoil operated firearms therefore tend to work best when using a cartridge with a grain size (mass) near where the gun's action was originally optimized in terms of momentum. For example, the M1911 design was finalized for a 230 grain bullet, and, although there is a fairly-wide range over which different grain bullets may still operate reliably, the optimal operation will nonetheless occur around a 230 grain bullet size, for standard factory springs.

The different implementations of recoil operated designs are broadly categorized by how the parts move under recoil. The categories are long recoil, short recoil, and inertia operated.

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Long recoil operation

Long recoil operations are found primariy in shotguns, particularly ones based on John M. Browning's Auto-5 action. In a long recoil action, the barrel and bolt recoil all the way back as a unit. Once its rearward movement is absorbed by its recoil spring, the barrel is forced forward by the spring, where it unlocks from the bolt and returns to battery. The bolt, after compressing its own recoil spring, is held in the rearmost position until the barrel returns to battery. At this point, the fired shell has been extracted and ejected, and a new shell has been lifted from the magazine. The bolt is released by the return of the barrel, and is forced closed by its recoil spring. Long recoil operated firearms have a distinct "double recoil" feel to them, the "first recoil" being the halting of the rearward motion of the bolt and barrel, and the "second recoil" being the heavy barrel returning to battery.

Developed in 1900, the long recoil action is over a century old, and dominated the automatic shotgun market for more than half that century, before it was supplanted by new gas operated designs. While Browning halted production of the Auto-5 design in 1999, Franchi still makes a long recoil operated shotgun line, the AL-48, which shares both the original Browning action design, and the "humpbacked" appearance of the original Auto-5.

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Short recoil operation

Image:P12.45 barrel.jpg The short recoil action dominates the world of centerfire automatic pistols, being found on nearly all of 9 x 19mm or greater caliber. Short recoil operation differs from long recoil operation in that the barrel and bolt recoil only a short distance before they unlock and separate. The barrel stops quickly, and the bolt continues rearwards, compressing the recoil spring and performing the other actions of cycling. During the last portion of its forward travel, the bolt locks into the barrel and pushes the barrel back into battery.

The exact method of locking and unlocking the barrel is the primary differentiating factor in the wide array of short recoil designs. Perhaps the most unusual is the 1890 toggle bolt design of Hugo Borchardt, most famous for its use in the German Luger pistol. Most common are the John Browning tilting barrel designs, based either on the rotating link as used in the M1911 pistol, or the linkless cam design used in the Hi Power. The other common design is the Walther P38 locking block design, found in the modern Beretta 92 derived designs.

While the short recoil design is most common in pistols, the very first short recoil operated firearm was also the first machine gun, the Maxim gun. It used a toggle bolt similar to the one Borchardt later adapted to pistols. Browning also used the short recoil action in larger guns, with the most famous surviving example being the M2 machine gun, or Ma Deuce, which is essentially the only heavy machine gun ever used by United States military, serving roles in ground forces, fixed wing and rotary aircraft, and even use as a sniper rifle.

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Inertia operation

The newest design in recoil operated firearms is the inertia operated system. In a reversal of the other designs, the inertia system uses nearly the entire firearm as the recoiling component, with only the bolt remaining stationary during firing. Because of this, the inertia system is only applied to heavily recoiling firearms, particularly shotguns. Currently the only inertia operated firearms are either made by Benelli, or use a design licensed from Benelli, such as Franchi. In the Benelli implementation, a two part, rotating locking bolt, similar to that in many gas operated firearms, is used as basis of the action.

Before firing, the bolt body is separated from the locked bolt head by a stiff spring. As the shotgun recoils after firing, inertia causes the bolt body to remain stationary while the recoiling gun and locked bolt head move rearward. This movement compresses the spring between the bolt head and bolt body, storing the energy required to cycle the action. Since the spring can only be compressed a certain amount, this limits the amount of force the spring can absorb, and provides an inherent level of self-regulation to the action, allowing a wide range of shotshells to be used, from standard to magnum loads, as long as they provide the minimum recoil level to compress the spring. Note that the shotgun must be free to recoil for this to work--the compressability of the shooter's body is sufficient to allow this movement, but firing the shotgun from a secure position in a rest or with the stock against the ground will not allow it to recoil sufficiently to operate the mechanism.

As the recoil spring returns to its uncompressed state, it pushes the bolt body backward with sufficient force to cycle the action. The bolt body unlocks and retracts the bolt head, extracts and ejects the cartridge, cocks the hammer, and compresses the return spring. Once the bolt reaches the end of its travel, the return spring provides the force to chamber the next round from the magazine, and lock the bolt closed.

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