design:Sub-machinegun VL P24
8x25mm VLP
The P24 is a closed-bolt SMG chambered for the 8x25mm VLP cartridge and using a 30 round double stack box magazine which is loaded from the bottem. In order to manage the rather powerful pistol cartridge with out requiring a heavy bolt assembly the M24 uses a lever delayed blowback action. To keep cost down much of the gun is made out of stamped metal with only the barrel, bolt, action and trigger assemblies being milled steel. With our experience with the VL mg21 some attention is placed on ease of maintenance though instead of latches the reciver housing using push pins to hold it together. In terms of furnation the SMG has a pistol grip and a strait vertical fore grip as well as a non-collapseable matal stock. The P24 comes with an adjustable aperture sight which can onlt be set between 50, 100 and 200 meters. the Gun has a 25cm barrel and and overall lenth of about 75cm.
the 8x25mm VLP is a 8mm catridge similar to the 9x25 Mauser
An actual honest sub-machinegun, the "Sub-machinegun VL P24" uses 8mm cartridges in a double-stack box magazine. Most of the furniture is stamped metal, including the collapsible stock. This is simpler to produce than wood, but a little heavier and is missing that at-home touch. The assembly is simple to disassemble and clean, which is a nice bonus, and is simple and easy (and fun!) to use. The 8mm cartridge has decent stopping power for relatively close ranges, too.
The closed-bolt is kept shut with a lever-delayed blowback action. The bolt resets the hammer, ejects spent brass, and scoops a fresh round into the chamber each time the action is cycled. The lever-delay can become jammed if the gun is cold, and accuracy past 50m is a bit of a dream - even if the aperture sights go out to 200m. This accuracy is despite the rate of fire, which is
only around 200-250 rounds per minute. Furthermore, for no discernable reason, approximately one-third of all VL P24's produced will fail to fire after the first round. What's more, it doesn't even happen every time - for the guns that experience this failure, it happens randomly, about half the time a new magazine is sorted. These guns can be sorted out of our finished production with some careful testing, but this means our manufacturing cost is necessarily 33% higher.
It does look iconic, however.
Cost: $26 per shipment
ACTACTACT
Korsgaard Armoury
Rifle Design: KG-24-2A "Vulture"
13.5x120mm Korsgaard Anti-Materiel
The KG-24-2A "Vulture" is the latest innovation by Korsgaard in the field of breaking collarbones. The companion rifle to the Buzzard, it is chambered in the same very powerful 13.5x120mm Korsgaard Anti-Materiel cartridge. It is designed to kill things from extremely far away and look good doing it - without pesky things getting in the way like "walls" or "vehicular armour".
The rifle is extremely long (just under two metres), with 1,200mm of that length being the barrel. The most striking feature of the gun's silhouette is the huge muzzle brake on one end, designed to reduce the recoil to bearable levels for most human beings. Even so, firing the Vulture is definitely an "interesting" experience. The gun is in a conventional (magazine before trigger) layout, with a detachable double-stack magazine holding eight shots.
The Vulture is semi-automatic, and operates using a so-called "direct impingement" system; there is a gas port tapped near the muzzle (where the extreme pressure of the 13.5mm round is lowest) and piped along the rifle's length to the bolt carrier. A large portion of the gas is diverted to move an "active dampener" just behind the chamber - effectively a counter-recoiling mass with extremely stiff springs, designed to lessen the felt movement to levels acceptable to mere mortals.
The stock is a straight-line design, with a combination pistol grip/skeletonized shoulder stock (made of lacquered and polished dark walnut wood) and separate forestock (made of Bakelite treated to visually match the shoulder stock, due to Bakelite's superior ability to handle heat without warping and thus ruining the accuracy). The stock's butt is very wide, to allow the shooter to spread the recoil force on as wide an area as possible. All guns come with a folding bipod and a 10x telescopic sight (which can be removed, if the user desires to use their own sight) as standard. All guns also come equipped with a thick leather recoil pad on the buttstock, a leather shoulder strap (less for carrying, more for steadying the rifle while prone), and shiny brass trim.
(Keep it short, please. Regular Arms Race games have 1 design every two turns, this game has about a half dozen x_x)
As far as anti-materiel rifles go, the KG-24-2A is pretty beefy. An expert in designing expensive, over-engineered guns at this point, Korsgaard has expanded the idea of the German 13.2mm T-Gewehr anti-tank rifle to something that would make a Moskurg nod approvingly. It's heavy. It's big. It has recoil that will cause bruises and a report that causes hearing loss. It will punch through brick walls. If there's one thing this gun can do, it can
shoot. Due to time constraints, the furniture is all made of bakelite (since both the forestock, shoulderstock, and pistol grip can be made in one whole batch) rather than part walnut and part bakelite. A system of springs and counter-recoiling mass in the weapon helps keep the gun from breaking bones or flying up off the ground, though the complex spring system is pricey. It comes with a folding bipod and an embossed leather pad on the butt to help alleviate recoil (also pricey). It is semi-automatic with a direct impingement system (increasing the weight further) which cycles the port and works the counter-recoil spring system. We did not develop a muzzle brake for the weapon at this time.
There are, however, a number of drawbacks. The 8-round magazine stick out from the bottom, and since the weapon must be fired while laying down (or resting on a wall) this means it can get in the way. The complex spring system is integral to the semi-auto cycling system to the point that working the bolt manually requires an actual
hand-crank to operate. Bakelite is not particularly resilient, and repeated firings will cause stress-fractures that inevitably disintegrate and make the weapon unusable - and since the forestock, shoulderstock, and pistol grip are one whole piece, they are all replaced at once. We did not have time to develop a telescopic sight (that counter-recoil system ate a large portion of our manhours) so the gun is without one. There are, however, simple rails where one could be attached. Testers also note that there's not much reason they'd want eight rounds at once, and the additional magazines holding the rounds are quite heavy. The entire gun, in fact, is monstrously heavy, and though that helps with the recoil it means one man would have to carry just the weapon by itself for mobile operations.
Cost: $29 per shipment
Massgraves Incorporated
Rifle Design: A1 Locust
Ammunition: 5x20mm
The Locust is a short, stocky rifle emphasizing rate of fire over accuracy or caliber. It features a 30-round drum magazine of modest 5x20mm rounds, and its internals are appropriately efficient at cycling such small rounds at a high rate of speed.
The other distinguishing feature of the Locust is its modularity. The barrel, firing mechanism, and stock are intended to detach from each other with some ease, allowing the swapping out of damaged or fouled parts, and easier maintenance and cleaning.
Sending lead downrange like a swarm, the Locust can spray bullets like a plague from God. Reaching rates of fire as high as 1,200 rounds per minute, the 30 round drum will empty in -
literally - less than 2 seconds with its open-bolt blowback action. The stopping power on this gun isn't much at only 5mm, but the volume of fire makes up for it (though accuracy isn't even considered). The A1 Locust features easy-swap components, meaning parts can be detached and replaced with minimal amounts of effort. This allows the weapon to be disassembled, packaged, and reassembled quickly, but it also represents points of failure as the join between the barrel and action isn't always perfect.
In terms of reliability, the Locust none. Internal components wear out rapidly with frequent use, and the barrel will warp visibly as it heats. The stamped components will flex and deform with mistreatment, in some cases making new magazines impossible to insert. The drum magazine is a chore to reload, bulky, and heavy - which is especially bad since the Locust goes through ammo so quickly. Swapping components is basically a necessity, and armorers despise this weapon for the amount of work that goes into keeping them functional. Without a foregrip, users will hold the magazine to steady the weapon. This can unintentionally twist the magazine, resulting in failure-to-feed. Range isn't great, assuming you can hit your target. The weapon is
extremely prone to keyhole effects, and targets as close as 25m away have been found unscathed during test firings (though the ceiling above had taken a fair amount of punishment).
This gun will never be accurate or pretty. It
will, however, spray a LOT of bullets downrange.
Cost: $17 per shipment
Type: Rifle
Ammo: 12 Gauge Shell
The KashKow Kicker is a durable and reliable piece of equipment. Built from milled, chromed steel with wooden furniture, it is somewhat weighty but solid, allowing one to reliably use it as a club, leave it in a muddy puddle three weeks and then still fire without fault. As a smoothbore and simple weapon it is not recommended for long ranged shooting, but with its smooth pump action and 6 shell box magazine it is quick to ready and use.
The KashKow Kicker is pump-action magazine with a box magazine and is quite popular with hate-groups in southern USA. It features a simple close-bolt pump-action with wide internals, which makes it nearly impossible to jam. The barrel is chromed (which is quite flashy) and the wooden furniture is hickory - which makes it quite solid as a club. The double-stack box magazine foregoes the traditional tube-magazine design, and in the interest of simplicity simply detaches with a button on the left side. There's no lock on the pump action, so it's possible to partially open the chamber by accident. Luckily this doesn't cause any out-of-battery fires, but it can cause failure to fire. This doesn't allow for slamfiring since the hammer is cocked by the action - if the round is unseated or not yet seated, then the hammer will "miss" the primer and need to be reset by another pump.
It's not accurate - which is fair, as a shotgun, but this means slug rounds aren't widely considered in the smooth-bore design. The 12 gauge shell is a nice, hefty, common size, but since the KKK shotgun uses paper casings for the shells moisture is a concern (if found left in a muddy puddle for three weeks, it is recommended to replace whatever ammo was loaded). The sights are, quite simply, the length of the barrel. The pump action tends to wobble a bit from side to side since it slides around the single tube, further decreasing accuracy. The pump is also quite small, and it's possible for errant fingers to touch the chrome barrel (though unless it's been used heavily, this isn't too bad).
It is remarkably cheap and remarkably reliable.
Cost: $7 per shipment