Gas-operated reloading 1

Gas-operated reloading
Gas-operation is a system of operation used
to provide energy to operate autoloading
firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high
pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is
used to power a mechanism to extract the
spent case and chamber a new cartridge.
Energy from the gas is harnessed through
either a port in the barrel or trap at the
muzzle. This high-pressure gas impinges on
a surface such as a piston head to provide
motion for unlocking of the action,
extraction of the spent case, ejection,
cocking of the hammer or striker, Gas-operated firearm (AK-47). 1) gas port, 2) piston head, 3) rod, 4) bolt, 5) bolt
chambering of a fresh cartridge, and locking carrier, 6) spring

of the action.

History of development
Manuel Mondragón, a Mexican General began work in 1882 and patented the first gas-operated weapon in 1887. It
was gas-operated with a cylinder and piston arrangement, now very familiar but unusual at the time. The earliest
self-powered automatic firearms, such as the Maxim gun, were based on using the power of recoil to operate the
mechanism. While this was effective, it led to problems due to the complexity imposed by the requirement that the
barrel slide rearward a short distance in recoil. In 1891, John Moses Browning, a well known designer of lever action
firearms, filed his first patent for an automatic firearm that harnessed expanding propellant gas to operate the
mechanism.[1] The prototype gun, built in 1889, used a baffle at the muzzle that deflected the escaping gas of the
muzzle blast, and used that energy to cycle the action of a .44 caliber rifle, allowing it to fire 16 shots in under one
second.[2]
In 1892 Browning licensed the patent to Colt, and by 1895, the design had been refined to produce the M1895
Colt-Browning machine gun. The baffle had become a piston near the middle of the underside of the barrel. The
cylinder connected to a small port in the barrel that forced a piston, attached to a hinged arm, down and rearward.
This energy was used to cycle the belt feed mechanism of the machine gun. While the swinging arm below the barrel
was awkward (resulting in the nickname "potato digger" after its tendency to dig into the ground if fired from too
low a position) it was adopted by a number of militaries around the world in calibers ranging from 6 mm Lee Navy
to .30-40 Krag and .30-06 Springfield. The M1895 was exported to Russia in 1914 for use in World War I and saw
service in England, France, and various countries in South America.[2]
A later variant of the M1895, commonly called the Marlin Gun after its builder, Marlin-Rockwell (now Marlin
Firearms), replaced the swinging arm with a long cylinder and a piston attached directly to a the rod that operated the
action. This version was designed for use on tanks and aircraft, and it remained in production through the end of
World War I. The Marlin Gun's long cylinder design would later be used by Browning in the design of the M1918
Browning Automatic Rifle, and by John C. Garand in the final version of the M1 Garand.[2]
Other builders began experimenting with gas operation soon after Browning. The French Manufacture d'armes de
Saint-Étienne, or MAS, began experimenting with a new form in 1901 that eventually saw service as the MAS-49
rifle, and was copied by others, such as the Swedish Ag m/42. These rifles used a gas port located partway down the
barrel, which is in turn connected to a tube that runs back to the bolt. This piston fits into a cylinder on the bolt
Gas-operated reloading 2

carrier. While this uses the same short cylinder as the M1895, by applying the gas directly to the bolt carrier, the
mass of the reciprocating parts is reduced significantly.
In 1931 inventor David Marshall Williams submitted a patent application for an automatic firearm which used a
piston separate from, but acting on, the operating rod. This principle was used in the M1 carbine and variants.[3] In
1956, Eugene Stoner patented a design that used a gas tube, similar to the MAS design, but rather than acting on the
bolt carrier itself, it acted on a piston contained inside the bolt carrier. In this case, the bolt acts as a fixed piston, and
the bolt carrier as a movable cylinder. Gas is routed into the bolt carrier, where it pushes upon the locked bolt, and in
response the bolt carrier is pushed to the rear. This unlocks the bolt, disconnects the gas tube from the carrier, and
the bolt and carrier continue travel rearwards to cycle the action.[4] A rifle using Stoner's operating mechanism was
eventually adopted by the US military as the M-16 rifle.

Gas systems
Most current gas systems employ some type of piston. The face of the piston is acted upon by gas from the
combustion of the propellant from the barrel of the firearm. Early methods such as Browning's 'flapper' prototype,
the Bang rifle, and Garand rifle used relatively low-pressure gas from at or near the muzzle. This, combined with
more massive operating parts, reduced the strain on the mechanism. To simplify and lighten the firearm, gas from
nearer the chamber needed to be used. This gas is of extremely high pressure and has sufficient force to destroy a
firearm unless it is regulated somehow. Several methods are employed to regulate the energy. The M1 carbine
incorporates a very short piston, or "tappet", that moves only a fraction of an inch prior to stopping against a
shoulder recess. Excess gas is then vented back into the bore. The M14 rifle and M60 GPMG use the White
expansion and cutoff system to stop (cut off) gas from entering the cylinder once the piston has traveled a short
distance.[5] Most systems, however, vent excess gas into the atmosphere through slots, holes, or ports.

Short-stroke piston
With a short-stroke or tappet system, the piston moves separately from the bolt group. It may directly push[6] the
bolt group parts as in the M1 carbine or operate through a connecting rod or assembly as in the Armalite AR-18. In
either case, the energy is imparted in a short, violent push and the motion of the gas piston is then arrested allowing
the bolt carrier assembly to continue through the operating cycle through kinetic energy. This has the advantage of
reducing the total mass of recoiling parts. This, in turn, enables better control of the weapon due to less mass needing
to be stopped at either end of the bolt carrier travel. These sudden stops on other systems disrupt the weapon's point
of aim, especially with light weapons in full-automatic fire. The primary disadvantage of this system is that it relies
more heavily on spring pressure and less on bolt mass for the kinetic energy to chamber a round and lock the breech.
Additional benefits of short-stroke piston design are ease of maintenance, longer service life of various components
in the rifle; but most importantly, many experts agree that short-stroke piston design almost completely eliminates
traditional reliability issues with direct impingement systems such as the M16, AR-15 or M4 type assault rifles,
especially during sustained suppressive fire. Service life increases up to 100% over direct gas impingement systems
would not be considered unusual. At the same time service intervals are also vastly increased, all due to this design's
ability to keep most moving parts operating much cooler and cleaner.

Long-stroke piston
With a long-stroke system, the piston is mechanically fixed to the bolt group and moves through the entire operating
cycle. This system is used in weapons such as the Bren light machine gun, AK47, and M1 Garand. The primary
advantage of the long-stroke system, beyond design simplicity and robustness, is that the mass of the piston rod adds
to the momentum of the bolt carrier enabling more positive extraction, ejection, chambering, and locking. The
primary disadvantage to this system is the disruption of the point of aim due to the center of balance changing during
the action cycle and energetic and abrupt stops at the beginning and end of bolt carrier travel.
Gas-operated reloading 3

Gas trap
A gas trap system is similar to long-stroke operation, however gas is 'trapped' after leaving the muzzle. The Bang
rifle, early 'gas-trap Garand', and Gewehr 41 operated this way. These systems are longer, heavier, dirtier and more
complex; however, they do use lower pressure gas and do not require that a hole be drilled in the barrel, two
advantages that are largely negated by their disadvantages.

Direct impingement
The direct impingement method of operation vents gas through a tube to the working parts of a rifle where they
directly impinge on the bolt carrier. Rifles that use this system include the Swedish Ljungman, M16 and French
MAS-49. This system has the advantage of having the absolute minimum of recoiling action parts, resulting in the
minimum possible weapon disturbance due to balance shifting during the action cycle. It has the disadvantage of the
propellant gas (and the accompanying fouling) being blown directly into the action parts. [7] A further disadvantage
is that the bolt, extractor, ejector, pins, and springs are heated by this high-temperature gas. This heat dries out
lubrication and changes the temper of the metal resulting in reduced life of these parts and shortening time between
failures.

Gas assist systems

Floating chamber
Early machine guns were expensive to operate. The United States Army wanted to train machine gun crews with
less-expensive ammunition. To do this, they needed the .22LR cartridge to operate firearms designed to use the
.30-06 cartridge. David Marshall Williams invented a method that involved a separate floating chamber that acted as
a gas piston with combustion gas impinging directly on the front of the floating chamber.[8] The Colt Service Ace
conversion kit utilized this system, which allows a much heavier slide than other conversions operating on the
unaugmented blowback mechanism. A floating chamber provides additional force to operate the heavier slide,
providing a felt recoil level similar to that of a full power cartridge.[9]

Muzzle booster
The French Chauchat, German MG-42 machine gun, and some
other recoil operated firearms use a gas trap style mechanism to
provide additional energy to 'boost' the energy provided by recoil.
This 'boost' provides higher rates of fire and/or more reliable
operation. It is alternately called a gas assist, and may also be
found in some types of blank-firing adapters.
Animation of the Vickers muzzle booster operation,
showing the expanding gases pushing the barrel to the
Gas-delayed blowback rear relative to the cooling jacket

The bolt is not locked but is pushed rearward by the expanding

propellant gases as in other blowback-based designs. However, propellant gases are vented from the barrel into a
cylinder with a piston that delays the opening of the bolt. It is used by Volkssturmgewehr 1-5 rifle, the Heckler &
Koch P7 and Steyr GB pistols.
Gas-operated reloading 4

Gas ejection
Patented by August Schuler, the Reform pistol featured a vertical row of barrels that advanced upwards with each
shot exposing the fired chamber. As the lower barrel fired, a gas hole between the barrels pressurized the empty
barrel enough to eject the case rearward. An extended spur on the hammer prevented the spent case from hitting the
firer in the face. The final case required manual extraction.

Other autoloading systems

Other autoloading systems are:
• Recoil operation uses the rearward movement of parts of the weapon counter to the ejecta moving forward, as
described by Newton's third law of motion.
• Gatling and other mechanical means utilize mechanical energy from an operator turning a crank.
• Chain and others utilize external power through electrical or hydraulic energy for operation.
• Blowback firearms use the expanding gas impinging on the cartridge itself to push the bolt of the firearm
rearward.

References
[1] U.S. Patent 471,783 (http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=471,783)
[2] Julian S. Hatcher (1962). Hatcher's Notebook. Stackpole Books. pp. 79–81. ISBN 0811707954.
[3] U.S. Patent 2090656 (http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=2090656)
[4] U.S. Patent 2951424 (http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=2951424)
[5] U.S. Patent 1,907,163 (http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=1,907,163)
[6] U.S. Patent 2090656 (http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=2090656) Page 8, column 2, lines 67-70, Pg 9, column 1, lines 22-39
[7] Smith, W.H.B.; Ezell, E. C. (1983), Small Arms of the World, 12th Edition, Stackpole Company, Harrisburg PA
[8] Charles E. Petty, Delightful diversion: testing Kimber's new rimfire was a tough job, but someone had to do it, Guns Magazine, March, 2004.
(http:/ / findarticles. com/ p/ articles/ mi_m0BQY/ is_3_50/ ai_112646118) Contains some discussion about the floating chamber device.
[9] S. P. Fjestad (1991). Blue Book of Gun Values, 13th Ed.. p. 291. ISBN 0962594342.

• Hatcher, J. S. (1962). Hatcher's Notebook. Stackpole Books, ISBN 0811707954

• Smith, J.E.; Smith, W.H.B. (1960), Small Arms of the World, 6th Edition, Stackpole Company, Harrisburg PA
• Smith, W.H.B.; Ezell, E. C. (1983), Small Arms of the World, 12th Edition, Stackpole Company, Harrisburg PA
• Smith, W.H.B.; Smith, J.E. (1963), Book of Rifles, 3rd Edition, The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg PA
• Balleisen, C.E. (1945).Principles of Firearms. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York NY
• Chinn, G.M. (1955), The Machine Gun Volume IV, USGPO for the US Navy Bureau of Ordnance, Washington
DC, Pp. 130-134
• Shalaby, S.H., "Automatic Weapon", Brassey's Encyclopedia of Land Forces and Warfare, 2000 Edition,
Brassey's, ISBN 9781574880878

External links
• Gas operation (http://science.howstuffworks.com/machine-gun2.htm), Animation and explanation at
howstuffworks.com
Article Sources and Contributors 5

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