Yeah, sounds to me like they’re using drag… just not in the way we would expect it to be done. I was thinking a bolt with some kind of adjustable protrusion that rubs against the inside of the receiver slightly to make it a bit more snug could work, and it could be adjustable too…. But it would not be sustainable, it would end up etching a groove into the inside of the receiver after a while and it would no longer slow it down.
This is exactly what the autowerks design did. It was a spring loaded bar that sat behind the bolt, when the bolt cycled backwards it hit that bar. It would push the bar backwards as it travelled towards the rear of the receiver. The bar had spring tension pushing up against the bolt, and slowed it down. Very similar to the closed bolt gun cocking the hammer on the way back. It didn’t completely STOP the bolt in its tracks, but it slowed it down some.
People also made a makeshift version that used an AR-15 hammer and hammer spring. In one version the hammer/spring assembly hammer pin was mounted in a carrier as was the case of the Autowerkz assembly; and in another version the hammer pin was mounted into holes in the receiver.
Not doing this. I don’t want to go into much detail just yet.
Obviously that isn’t your method and I wasn’t implying that it was, what I described would take 10 mins to create with an oem bolt, a drill, a tap and a set screw, cost less than 10 dollars, and certainly wouldn’t be treated like some top secret prototype (and likely would not work either, at least not for long).
This is what I bought many years ago. It was sold as a "drop in rate reducer" but after I received it I immediately noticed it wouldnt "drop in" without shaving the back of the AR hammer down. I contacted the man who had made and marketed these and he and I started corresponding about developing a more "drop in" version, but unfortunately he passed away before that project got started. I did work on it a bit, but lost interest when it did not appreciably decrease the ROF and tossed it into my 'box of all things Mac'...where it still sits today.
That's my experience as well. Which only adds to the obvious situation where MAC shooters want a slower gun but short of the TASK and the CFW with their own short comings* there is no good solution. Hence this thread is five pages long and growing until GS clues us all in. I'm thinking that the Polish RAK idea might have some legs as well.
TASK butt holes are a deal breaker for most these days. CFW style drop-ins are much more appealing. M11/9s have become expensive enough that people don’t wanna bore a hole through the rear end. I honestly have never even heard anyone complain about the extra weight of the CFW, its such a negligible amount in the big scheme of things that most likely don’t even feel much of a difference in the handling of the firearm, with the exception of the rate reduction of course.
Oooow getting really warm
Frankly, transferable machine guns as an aggregate are historically relevant enough to second guess heavily modifying your gun. Many MAC's, M-16's, etc. have entered C&R status, or are on their way.
I firmly agree. They’re not making any more of them anytime soon… over the years there will be less and less all original guns, until eventually an all original gun will be a diamond in the rough. We are already getting there…
I saw this happen live with the '63-'67 Corvette Stingrays. In the early to mid 1970s a popular modification was opening up and flaring the wheel wells to accommodate the tires and wheels that had evolved. By the mid to late 1980's, the same custom body shops that had cut and flared the wheel wells were making money putting the wheel wells back to the original shape, but any one who wanted a truly original Stingray knew to look for the wheel well modifications.
I mean it was 1986, all transferables will be legally C&R once they are 50 years old, and that occurs in May of 2036, which is only 8 years out.
Yea but we are talking about swapping uppers here and parts, Everybody who has any sense keeps the original parts in a box.
When wheel wells were modified, original rims were pitched as were original exhaust systems when the bodies were modified to install side pipes (which was another fairly common aftermarket modification). Upgrading the carburation from a single four barrel carb to "three deuces" generally resulted in the original carb and intake manifold being scrapped or sold.
