Rifles haven't changed in 100 years

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Photon Guy

New member
Supposedly with the human race as a whole, we double our knowledge every 7 years. However, some things just go on and on without being changed or updated. I suppose technology reaches its peak and then stabilizes. Here is a list of 10 things that haven't changed in 100 years and the rifle is one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87QCbmlfL3k
 
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Jimro

New member
I'd say a bit more than 100 years for the basic tech of what we think of as "rifle" technology was pretty solidly established by the 1880s. Breech fed, brass cartridge, smokeless powder, even further back with the black powder cartridge rifles. Different things have been tried since then like caseless ammunition, and even pre-loaded barrels fired off with electrical pulses (Metal Storm), but for the most part those haven't really taken off in a way to supplant the normal "rifles" of our time.

Jimro
 
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handlerer2

New member
Has the shape of a wheel or the pipe changed since antiquity? They haven't needed to. The shape of the wheel is perfect. The materials and processes of making them has changed, but until there is a breakthrough in technology, such as room temperature superconductors, nothing about chemically powered firearms is going to change significantly.
 
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Pond James Pond

New member
Admittedly, the designs we have now are often re-hashed or refined versions of what came before but they they work pretty well.

On the one hand we can indeed ask "Why haven't they changed?".

On the other we can ask "Why should they?". There reaches a point where stuff works so well that further changes are probably not worth the bother. I can't remember the last time I saw a thread on a bolt-action FTF or FTE that wasn't due to the ammo...

I certainly don't bemoan my bolt action being based on a 80-100 odd year design: on the contrary I find it reassuring as I'm not beta-testing!
 
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turtlehead

New member
It's fascinating to behold the evolution of the spoon over the last 100 years. And the fork? Who could have imagined we'd end up here?
 
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jmr40

New member
Rifles have changed very little since smokeless powder came on the scene. The optics, bullets, and powder have been where the advancements came from. The 7X57 was the 1st smokeless powder round that came out in 1892. An original rifle with modern bullets, loads and optics would rival anything made since.
 
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Guv

New member
Well I sure am not a fan of most of today's entry level new guns.
Way too much plastic (polymer) in place of metal, matte blueing and lack of wooden stocks.
Just look at what something like a clean 788 brings today.
 
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eastbank

New member
i have a 6.5x55 swedish rifle made in 1907 that kills just as good as a .260-6.5CM with the same bullets at 100-150 fps less and no animal would ever notice the difference. the only improvment to me is in the safety factor of the steel today if you overload the shell. eastbank.
 
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Jimro

New member
The 7X57 was the 1st smokeless powder round that came out in 1892.
Click to expand...

Actually the first smokeless powder round was the French 8mm Lebel in 1886, in 188. The 8mm Lebel would also officially launch the first Spitzer bullets with the Balle D in 1898.

For such an innovative cartridge, the Lebel was a commercial failure where the 7x57 was a huge commercial success. I did find some evidence that there were 7x57 spitzer bullets used in a late 1890s brush war in Brazil, but no archeologist could verify whether the recovered bullets were actually from that conflict or possibly later.

Jimro
 
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Driftwood Johnson

New member
Howdy

Videos like this are useless.

Besides not knowing what he is talking about, (trains have changed a great deal since 1916), he is wrong about several other things. Rifling being perfected in the late 19th Century? I guess those flintlock Pennsylvania rifles are a figment of my imagination.

Useless video.
 
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FairWarning

New member
Well, at least my WWII Mauser can just about claim that based on design.

The shovel in my storage room hasn't changed in longer than that. It something works, it works...
 
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Llama Bob

New member
Rifles have changed a LOT in 100 years, but it's been a sum of small innovations.

For example, when the Winchester 1886 was created, it was chambered in .45-70 and threw a 405 grain lead load at 1,400 ft/s for 1763 ft-lbs of energy. My modern 1886 is chambered in .45-90. If I really want it to, it'll drive a 405 grainer at 2,200 ft/s for 4350 ft-lbs - well over twice the energy. There was no one big change, but rather a host of small ones - nitro powder (and several incremental developments thereof), a .25" longer chamber, better steel, better cases, jacketed bullets. But add it all up, and you've got a totally different set of capabilities.

The same thing has happened to bolt actions. My 7mag has less felt recoil than a M1903, but it'll easily keep a bullet with better terminal performance than M1 ball supersonic for over 2000y if I want and it can deliver a reasonable chance of a hit on man sized target at a mile if the wind is calm. And that's just an off the rack hunting rifle with a scope bolted on. In WW1 they would have killed for crates of them. A whole bunch of small changes like recoil pads, good glass, adjustable parallax, down-angle mounts, magnum cases, good slow powders, and polymer tipped bullets make that possible. Add it all up, and it's a totally different gun.
 
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SIGSHR

New member
What I would call the "classic" designs have remained unchanged-cf the Colt and S&W DA revolvers. What changes have been introduced have been more for manufacturers needs-cf the Pre-64/Post-'64 Winchester debate. Then there's the introduction of investment casting and other new methods of manufacture.
 
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supercub99

New member
Where we agree Bob is on the powders, bullets, primers, and it pretty much ends there.

I have owned a 7 mm Ruger mag for 42 yrs and shot it up to 40 rounds in a sitting. I put down every thing Alaska had to offer and all it had was a hard plastic butt plate, no fancy recoil pad. It was somewhat brutal after 40 rounds.
I have 5-8 1903's/A3's, 06's in both original, sporting and custom made .308 Heavy barrel target rifles. I can shoot 100+ rounds through them all day long and not feel a thing. They have steel butt plates on the originals and Fajen or Bishop plastic on the sporters. I also have a newer Rem 700 06 in a plastic stock and that thing isn't a lot diff than the 7 mag. The length and weight of an old 03 coupled with the wood stock made for a nice shooting rifle, accurate and dependable. They continue to shoot as well as most off the shelf rifles after 75 years. And they shoot all the latest and greatest components just fine. Those old guns were mass produced and pumped out the door in war time conditions and without the precision tools and measurement equipment of today. Not much has changed in my opinion and if it has, it didn't make much difference other than to change the price from $14 bucks to $450 +.

:)
 
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RC20

New member
Having shot 338 Win Mag, 375 HH, and the 7mm, I have to say the 7mm was the nastiest shooting rifle of them all (standing)

When I went to sell it I took it down to the range and shot it 3 times to be sure I could sell the gun truthfully as fully functioning.

My thought was, holy mother, why didn't this thing kill me? Younger and far tougher apparently though my limit was 20 rounds even back then.

Me thinks that they are pretty much the same, refined yes, civilian mass production getting more accurately consistent yes,

Optics have improved but not new either.

Its all been refined but the basis was there and there is still nothing quite as nice as a 1903 bolt.
 
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