The Thorneycroft carbine was one of the earliest bullpuprifles, developed by an English gunsmith in 1901 as patent No. 14,622 of July 18, 1901. This bolt-action rifle featured a bullpup action in which the retracted bolt slid back through the stock nearly to the shooter's shoulder, maximising the space available in the body of the firearm. The rifle was chambered in the contemporary .303 British (7.7 mm) service cartridge, and held five rounds in an internal magazine.
The Thorneycroft was 7.5in (190mm) shorter and 10% lighter than the standard Lee–Enfield rifle used by the British military at the time. However, when tested at Hythe the firearm exhibited excessive recoil and poor ergonomics, and was not adopted for military service.
Ferguson, Jonathan S. (2021). Thorneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms 1901–2020. Nashville, Tennessee: Headstamp Publishing. ISBN978-1-7334246-2-2.
A carbine is a long-barreled firearm whose barrel is shorter than that of a standard rifle or musket. Most carbines are shortened versions of full-length rifles, shooting the same type of ammunition, while others fire generally lower-powered ammunition, including types designed for pistols.
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many centuries passed before multi-shot repeater designs became commonplace.
The SA80 is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO bullpups. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 variant of the FN FAL. The first prototypes were created in 1976, with production of the A1 variant starting in 1985 and ending in 1994. The A2 variant came to be as the result of a significant upgrade in the early 2000s by Heckler & Koch and remains in service as of 2020. The A3 variant was first issued in 2018 with several new improvements.
Bolt action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by directly manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right hand side of the weapon.
In firearms terminology, an action is the functional mechanism of a breech-loading firearm that handles the ammunition cartridges, or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all those are single-shot firearms with a closed off breech with the powder and projectile manually loaded from the muzzle. Instead, the muzzleloader ignition mechanism is referred to as the lock.
A bullpup firearm is one whose action is located behind the trigger instead of in front of it. This creates an overall more compact and maneuverable weapon in comparison to conventional firearm designs with the same barrel length, and maintains advantages of a long barrel such as better muzzle velocity and accuracy while reducing the overall size and weight.
The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century. It was the British Army's standard rifle from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957. The WWI versions are often referred to as the "SMLE", which is short for the common "Short, Magazine, Lee–Enfield" variant.
The Rifle No. 5 Mk I, was a derivative of the British Lee–Enfield No. 4 Mk I, Following experience of jungle fighting in the Pacific War the British came to "the conclusion that a rifle shorter and lighter than the standard issue, bolt action .303 cal No. 4 rifle was required." However its operational use was in post-war colonial campaigns such as the Malayan emergency, where it gained its common nickname of the "Jungle Carbine."
The De Lisle carbine or De Lisle Commando carbine was a British firearm used during World War II that was designed with an integrated suppressor. That, combined with its use of subsonic ammunition, made it extremely quiet in action, possibly one of the quietest firearms ever made.
The EM-2, also known as Rifle, No.9, Mk.1 or Janson rifle, was a British assault rifle. It was briefly adopted by British forces in 1951, but the decision was overturned very shortly thereafter by Winston Churchill's incoming government in an effort to secure NATO standardisation of small arms and ammunition. It was an innovative weapon with the compact bullpup layout, built-in carrying handle and an optical sight.
The L64 was an intermediate calibre British bullpup layout prototype assault rifle developed in the 1970s. At one time it was known as the 4.85 Individual Weapon, a reference to the calibre of the bullet it fired.
The Type 95 Automatic Rifle or QBZ-95 is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured by Norinco, and issued since 1995 as the service rifle for the People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police and various paramilitary law enforcement agencies in the People's Republic of China. The rifle's designation "QBZ" stands for "light weapon - rifle (Bùqiāng) - automatic (Zìdòng)", in keeping with the coding standards of the Chinese defense industry.
Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher was an Austrian engineer and small arms designer. Along with James Paris Lee, Mannlicher was particularly noted for inventing the en-bloc clip charger-loading magazine system. Later, while making improvements to other inventors prototype designs for rotary-feed magazines, Mannlicher, together with his protégé Otto Schönauer, patented a perfected rotary magazine design, the Mannlicher–Schönauer, which was a commercial and military success.
The M1917 Enfield, the "American Enfield", formally named "United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917" is an American modification and production of the .303-inch Pattern 1914 Enfield (P14) rifle, which was developed and manufactured during the period 1917–1918. Numerically, it was the main rifle used by the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I. The Danish Sirius Dog Sled Patrol on Greenland still use the M1917, which performs reliably in Arctic conditions, as their service weapon.
The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. While a musket was largely inaccurate over 80 yards (73 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheaper to produce and could be loaded quickly. The use in volley or in mass firing by troops meant that rate of fire took precedence over accuracy.
The Rifle 7.62mm 2A/2A1 is a 7.62×51mm NATO calibre bolt-action rifle adopted as a reserve arm by the Indian Armed Forces in 1963. The design of the rifle – initially the Rifle 7.62mm 2A – began at the Rifle Factory Ishapore of the Ordnance Factories Board in India, soon after the Sino-Indian War of 1962.
The FÉG 35M was a bolt-action rifle, chambered in 8×56mmR. Though superficially still resembling the 95/31M Carbine it was a new design with a cock-on-close bolt. An easily recognizable distinguishing feature was the placement of the bolt handle, which was further forward than in the 1895 design. It was used by Hungary in the years leading up to and during World War II, and after World War II before being gradually phased out by both Red Army surplus and locally produced Mosin–Nagant carbines.
An intermediate cartridge is a rifle/carbine cartridge that has significantly greater power than a pistol/personal defense weapon cartridge but still has a reduced muzzle energy compared to fully powered cartridges, and therefore is regarded as being "intermediate" between traditional rifle and handgun calibers.
The EM-4 rifle was an experimental bullpup rifle of British origin designed by Sir Dennis Burney of the Broadway Trust Company.
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