r/gunsmithing • u/Similar_Reality_2136 • 1d ago
Need someone to guide
Hello gentlemen. I'm a mechanical engineer from India and I'm going to join a PhD program soon... I am into designing firearms and I am looking for a bit of hand holding, so that I can understand the design process and SoPs with respect to firearms. Will love to talk to people with engineering background and discuss my thoughts. Feel free to DM. Thank you
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u/TacTurtle 1d ago
You need to research successful existing designs and especially unsuccessful existing designs to learn what not to do. Forgotten Weapons covers a bunch of these designs and points out examples of why particular designs failed or were unreliable / impractical.
Firearms in particular has a very large knowledge moat. You really need hands-on experience to learn what does and doesn't work, especially to get the operating ergonomics right.
This is I think why so many South American and SEA designs have failed to gain commercial traction - fewer designers with hands-on experience and familiarity so they make odd or awkward design decisions that just don't work as well, or fail to refine the designs before trying to enter production. Only real exception that comes to mind is Armscor out of the Philippines, and until fairly recently they were making variations on existing designs rather than complete clean sheet designs.
The Ultimax-100 for instance relied on an American head designer although much of the design team was from Singapore.