The Mysterious QSPR

Every once in a while, you run across a story that no one seems to know the complete truth about or that many get wrong, and few get right.

The story of the Smith & Wesson/Aircraft Armament Inc QSPR revolver is one of those.

Let's begin with the reason for the program in the first place.

In the late 1950s / early 1960s Victor Charlie aka Viet Cong aka North Vietnamese Regulars were building a network of tunnels to ferry personnel, supplies and weapons to battlefields in the south. These tunnels also offered an escape route when things went wrong or a means of surprise attack and disappear.

The Army began raiding these tunnels as soon as they figured out where the bastards were coming from.

Two things about exploring a tunnel, it is dark and not wide enough for two men side by side....it is a solo mission. This required the "tunnel rats" as they were unofficially known, to have the means to both see the enemy and to dispatch them.

This was how the tunnel rats were originally equipped, an angle head flashlight and a 1911, as depicted in the movie Forrest Gump.

That last part, the part about shooting, required some solicitous inquiry, discharging a firearm in a tunnel could easily do irreversible damage to one's ear, or at the very least cause nausea and disorientation.....not good in battle, much less in a dark tunnel.

The Army's first attempt was a Smith & Wesson model 10 equipped with a suppressor and a reduced barrel gap....Anyone who knows much about guns will tell you that you cannot successfully silence a revolver. The gap between the cylinder and barrel will allow the back pressure and noise to escape. This famous picture shows the second way the tunnel rats were equipped.

Meanwhile back at HQ, the Army put some geniuses at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds on the project and a new concept evolved. 

Smith & Wesson was contracted to supply some special model 29 revolvers. Here is where things get murky. Some say that S&W modified the guns before shipping them to Aircraft Armament Incorporated. Some say AAI performed the modifications.

I doubt AAI had the ability to swap the pinned barrels and reblue the guns, so it would make sense that the machine work and bluing would be done by the experts in Springfield. 

At any rate the guns were equipped with a smooth bore barrel measuring .4" (instead of the 44 Mag's .429" bore). I would assume this was so that the shot cup from a .410 bore shotgun could be used? 

The cylinders were bored out to .528", not leaving much material, but that was OK, because the cartridges being designed would hold the pressure.

From the outside, the guns looked like a typical N-Frame equipped with Magna grips and a very short barrel (1 3/8" long). Also note the lack of sights, no need for those in a tunnel with distances close enough to smell Charlie's bad breath.

The cartridge is where the magic happened. the blast would be completely contained within the carbon steel case. 

This graphic explains what happens inside the cartridge.

The primer and propellent would be loaded into the back via a screw on cap, when fired the piston would drive forward, but not exit the cartridge, thus no muzzle blast and a diminished report.

A plastic shot cup (called a sabot by some) contained 15 small balls reportedly made of lead, tungsten alloy or depleted uranium, your choice to believe which. Honestly it may have been all three as this was an experimental program after all.

The cartridges could be reused. There are few pictures of the cartridges to examine, some say they had a special coating, others think it was just typical black oxide (bluing). The pictures below are supposedly of the only remaining cartridge in existence. The story goes that the ATF or some other alphabet spook made sure they were disposed of.

This picture from cartridgecollector.net shows another intact cartridge, with some finish degradation which suggests that it might not be black oxide.

The limited reports from the field were positive, though no one seems to be able to get their hands on any of the actual reports. One wonders if the pistol worked so well, why was the program scrapped? Or was it even scrapped? Also, why the secrecy? I mean this was inventive, but it is hardly the recipe for atomic fission.

At any rate the testing and improvements went until late 1971 when the program was "cancelled".

Officially only three of these survive, two of which are in museums. Unofficially, the rumor is that the CIA continues to use the weapon for "special assignments".

Perhaps the program was simply shifted to the CIA and that is the reason for the secrecy, and it's supposed cancellation?

That is not the end of the story, the Russians built a near identical copy in 2002, called the OTs-38 Stechkin. When I say Identical, I mean in operation, not in looks.

It makes you wonder how the Russians came into possession of a QSPR?

Like all Russian guns, function comes before form.

44 QUIET SPECIAL PURPOSE REVOLVER | Cartridge Collector

Deadly Quiet Special Purpose Revolver (QSPR) | Army and Weapons (deadlyweapons-army.blogspot.com)

The Quiet Special Purpose Revolver | WeaponsMan

Eleven Rugers that never made it

 Sturm, Ruger and Company has been pretty good and putting out products that the customer wants, but sometimes they miss the mark or fail at perfecting the product.

In no particular order:

XGI

We'll start with the Ruger XGI. The XGI was a scaled-up version of the Mini-14, which is a scaled-down version of the M-14. In reality these were M-14s built Ruger's way. Calibers were .308 Winchester and .243 Winchester. 

Although they were advertised in the Ruger Catalog from '84 to '86 none were ever shipped due to functioning issues.

10-17 HMR

The same can be said of the Ruger 10-17 HMR. Built on the 10-22 Magnum platform the 10-17 HMR was chambered in .17 Hornady Rimfire Magnum. Introduced at the 2004 SHOT show, the rifle supposedly never went into full production as the .17 HMR develops more energy than the 10/22's blow back design could handle. After a couple of years, Ruger dropped the 10-17 HMR from the catalog.

Picture below is a 10/22 Magnum.

P97

In 1999 Ruger introduced a new P-series pistol, the P97, it was basically a P95 (9mm) chambered in .45 ACP. The polymer framed gun was never updated as its 9mm cousin was and sales of the gun floundered. Ruger discontinued the pistol in 2004 when it was replaced by the P345. 

The pistol was not a complete failure, they did make little less than 54,000 pistols before it was dropped from the catalog.

22LR/22Magnum Bearcat Convertible

In 1993 Ruger introduced the 3rd revision of the diminutive Bearcat revolver, this time with a .22 Magnum "convertible" cylinder. In April of 1994 the guns were recalled due to concerns the Magnum cylinders were not timed properly. Many of the owners of these guns have stated their revolvers shoot just fine.

Some believe that the issue was not with the timing, but with the 22 Magnum chambering. They believe the pressure was too much for the frames and thus Ruger recalled them. There is no other evidence to support this except for the fact that Ruger never again offered the Bearcat with a 22 Magnum cylinder.

357 Maximum Blackhawk

The 357 Maximum cartridge was originally developed by wildcatter Elgin Gates as the .357 SuperMag, in 1983 a joint venture between Remington and Ruger brought the .357 Maximum to the market. Ruger chambered their New Model Blackhawk revolver in the cartridge. It didn't take long for Ruger to notice the frames were being "flame cut" from the excessive blast through gap between the cylinder and forcing cone. Ruger discontinued the revolver after 7,500 or so guns were built.

MP9

In the late 1980's Ruger hired UZI designer Uziel Gal to redesign his infamous pistol/carbine. The result was a closed bolt select fire version that had many improvements over the original UZI design. Ruger hoped the gun would be adopted by US Government agencies that had a need for such a CQB weapon. Unfortunately, the gun never found favor with the alphabet agencies. 

Being that the gun fired from a closed bolt, it could probably be built as a semi-auto only version for civilian sales, but alas this was the Bill Ruger Sr. era and that wasn't going to happen on his watch. Only 1,500 of the pistol/carbines were produced before it was discoed.

96/44

In 1996 Ruger introduced a lever action carbine. Although it was chambered in three calibers (.17, .22 & .44) the .44 Magnum was the most interesting. The styling was reminiscent of the Savage model 99, which was a favorite of Bill Ruger and one which was still in production at the time this rifle was introduced.

The 96/44 was dropped from the catalog in 2006 with around 23,000 units produced, the rimfire version was discoed in 2009 with close to 57,000 being produced.

Red Label

Many people might not even know that Ruger once produced shotguns. Introduced in 1978 the Red Label was an over-under shotgun that Ruger hoped to compete with the higher priced European brands.

The Red Label was built in the three most popular chamberings 12, 20 & 28 gauge. The gun was expensive to produce and weighed more than the typical over-under.

Ruger discontinued the shotgun in 2011, then reintroduced the gun in 2013 with a newly designed receiver and a $500 drop in price. This new version was better built, lighter and easier to shoot but alas the gun was dropped from the catalogs in 2014. Around 150,000 were produced, so it is not rare by any means, but not very well known outside of the Ruger fan base.

Gold Label

Another Ruger shotgun is the Gold Label, this one even less known. The Gold Label was a hammerless side by side shotgun introduced in 2002 in 12 gauge only. The gun was not very popular and in 2006 it too was dropped from the catalog. These are considered somewhat rare as only 3,361 of them were produced during its 3-year run.

Deerfield Carbine

The Ruger Deerfield Carbine was a 44 Magnum carbine, introduced in 2000. This was a modern replacement of the beloved Ruger 44 Carbine which was discontinued in 1985.

The rifle, also known as the 99/44, was built on the Mini-14 platform and used a 4-round rotary magazine. 17,441 of these were made before the gun was discontinued in 2006.

Hawkeye Pistol

The Ruger Hawkeye pistol was a single shot pistol based on the Blackhawk. Chambered in .256 Winchester Magnum (a .357 Mag necked down to .25 cal), the pistol was produced for about a year in 1963-64. Only 3,075 were built making them quite collectable.

Best of Theme Guns: Tools #1

 

Firearm Factory of the Month: ArmaLite

Before we start I will apologize in advance for leaving out some details, in doing my research I found more info than I could possibly fit into one article, so I shortened much of it.

The story of Armalite starts with its parent company: Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Company.

Fairchild began operations in 1924, when the aviation industry was still young. Fairchild became famous for a couple of innovations including the first fully enclosed cockpit and the first hydraulic operated retractable landing gear.

By the end of WWII nearly every part of an aircraft was made with high strength aluminum. This is important to the story as the guns made by their subsidiary, ArmaLite, used aluminum as a means of reducing weight. 

Anyone who served in WWII would tell you how heavy the average grunt's load out was. The guns and ammunition were very heavy, and a lot of people were looking for ways to correct that.

Eugene Stoner went to work for Vega Aircraft Company (the forerunner to the Lockheed Martin Co) in 1939. During the war he served in the Marine Corps in the Pacific theater. After the war he worked for a machine shop, eventually becoming a design engineer.

During the year 1947 Stoner along with Charles Dorchester began developing a lightweight sniper rifle for the US Military. Originally designed after a Remington 722, they switched to a Mauser style action. The unique thing about the rifle was the barrel was made of aluminum with a thin rifled steel liner. The stock was made of foam filled fiberglass, keeping the weight under 5lbs.

The rifle was submitted to the Springfield Armory for consideration. 

In 1954 Fairchild Aircraft purchased the design, formed a new subsidiary, named ArmaLite and lured Eugene Stoner away from Whittaker Aircraft to be ArmaLite's head designer.

Armalite leased or purchased or leased a small machine shop in Hollywood California on Santa Monica Blvd. They had 9 employees.

At this time, it was believed that any rifle adopted by the US Military would be produced by Springfield Armory as that had been the tradition (spare for the World Wars) since 1777. 

The AR-1 Parasniper rifle gave way to a new idea, a survival rifle that could be used by aircraft crew members in the event they are shot down behind enemy lines or in an area where they may need to fight off wild animals. In addition, the entire gun would float, in the "unlikely event of a water landing".

This bolt action rifle, chambered in .22 Hornet, would have a takedown feature in which the action and barrel could fit inside the reinforced, foam filled bakelight stock. Called the AR-5 it was adopted by the US Air Force as the MA-1 Survival Rifle. 

The AR-5's design gave way to an improved version, chambered in .22 LR and semi-automatic action, this rifle was called the AR-7 Explorer and was (and still is) popular with the civilian market. This was ArmaLite's first civilian production gun.

During all this time Stoner had been working on a semi-auto rifle design, he called the M8. While it looked nothing like the later versions, it did have the rotating bolt and direct gas impingement system that are still used today. Rather than go through the entire history of his most iconic design, we will give you the cliff notes.

The AR-10 was developed from the M8, chambered in 308 Winchester the gun was considered by the US Military.

In 1956 the US Ordnance Corps made ArmaLite an offer for the rights to the AR-10.

Long story short, in an effort to reduce ammo weight and possible gain an advantage over the enemy, the US Military decided to go with a smaller cartridge, the .222 Remington which became the .223 Remington and eventually the 5.56mm NATO round. The rifle was also evolved into the AR-15.

The many trials and efforts resulted in the adoption of the AR-15 as the US Rifle M16, which was a bit of a failure at first.

In 1959 ArmaLite moved to an actual production factory in Costa Mesa, California, around this same time ArmaLite licensed the rights to produce the AR10 & AR15 to Colt.

In 1962 Fairchild sold it's interests in ArmaLite.

By the 1970s all design work at ArmaLite had come to a stop and the company sold in 1983 to the Elisco Tool Company out of the Philippines. 

The M16 evolved into the M16A1, then came the M4 and other developments, but perhaps the most important milestone was in 1989 when the 1st semi-automatic only versions of the AR-15 became available to the public.

While adoption was slow due to its high cost, but advancements in CNC technology took off in the mid 90's. Then came the 1994  Assault Weapons Ban, for 10 years no new civilian AR-15s were sold.

Upon expiration of the law, massive demand and lower prices  helped skyrocket the sales of the AR-15. Today nearly all gun shops have an AR-15 on the shelf for sale.

Along with the popularity came more innovations. Free-floating handguards, new stocks, polymer magazines, grips, triggers and every accessory you can imagine.

In 1996 after passing through a series of owners, the company name was relaunched and in 2013 it was purchased by Strategic Armory Corp. A company already in the firearms business.

What Remains:

Eugene Stoner passed away on April 24, 1997 at the age of 74.

Both the ArmaLite and Stoner names are still being used to sell AR-15s and products related to the iconic rifle.

The AR-15 has become the number one selling sporting rifle in America with more than 23 million of the rifles in civilian hands.

The machine shop at 6567 Santa Monica Blvd is gone, it is now an animal hospital, it is the U-shaped building in the middle of the picture below.

The ArmaLite factory building at 118 East 16th Street in Costa Mesa, still stands. It is the L-shaped building below

Sources:

ArmaLite AR-1 ParaSniper - Firearm Wiki: The Internet Gun Encyclopedia

Armalite Rifle History - Wideners Shooting, Hunting & Gun Blog

The AR-10 Story | An Official Journal Of The NRA (americanrifleman.org)

Local origin of the AR-15 rifle | Helytimes (stevehely.com)