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[Man of Paper]

Core Thread

Welcome to the newly formed War Council of the Northern States Administration! As an Administrative Engineer it is the responsibility of you and your fellows to ensure the armed forces of The Northern States Administration are equipped and deployed in a most efficient manner befitting the Administration.

Your first goal is to create the standard issue rifle for the Administrative Armed Forces. It may be bolt-action or self-loading/semiautomatic, although semiauto firearms are not yet very tried and tested weapons on the battlefield.

Administrative forces have begun to mass along the southern defensive line in response to increased activity by Southern Star military near the border.

Spoiler: Armory (click to show/hide)

None!

Spoiler: Territories (click to show/hide)

Capital
Northern States Administration: 2/0

Western Lane
Administrative Forest: 2/0
Northern Plain: 3/0
NO MAN'S LAND: NEUTRAL
Southern Plain: 0/3
Southern Star Mountains: 0/2

Central Lane
Administrative Forest: 2/0
Northern Plain: 3/0
NO MAN'S LAND: NEUTRAL
Southern Plain: 0/3
Southern Star Mountains: 0/2

Eastern Lane
Administrative Forest: 2/0
Northern Plain: 3/0
NO MAN'S LAND: NEUTRAL
Southern Plain: 0/3
Southern Star Mountains: 0/2

Capital
Kingdom of The Southern Star: 0/2

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

[Funk]

Here's some thing to start with.

Spoiler: The Blitz shock rifle (click to show/hide)

A semiautomatic rifle with a semi-automatic revolving action, chambered in 10x45mm with a 7 shot cylinder, loaded by a gate .
It has a long barrel of 1000mm, a spike bayonet, wooden furniture and a brass trigger guard and butt plate.

[Quarque]

Looks good to me, but then again I know diddly squat about rifles tbh.

[Nirur Torir]

Picture a soldier in the mud of the trenches. A night assault is ordered during heavy rain. In the course of this, he crawls through the wet mud, and his gun is saturated with it.
His platoon reaches the enemy trench. He stabs out with his bayonet, then bludgeons the enemy with his gun.
Exhausted and victorious, he falls asleep without cleaning it. In the morning, he has ten minutes to make himself presentable, scarf down breakfast, and clean the caked off mud and blood with an old rag and a barrel of dirty water, in the dim light of a filthy trench.

We need for his gun to not jam because there's still a bit of dirt in the firing mechanism, more than we need long range or volume of fire. I'm not sure we even need long range on all our infantry, when the terrain is forests, trenches, mountains, and cities. Volume of fire can be covered by machine guns for now.

Spoiler: ADM-12 'Bean Counter' Rifle (click to show/hide)

A heavy-duty bolt-action rifle, firing 10x45mm bullets.
It has iron sights and a simple bayonet. It has wooden furniture and brass trim.
The primary design goal is a focus on extreme reliability and durability. Accuracy beyond trench-to-trench range isn't a major concern.

[Quarque]

Just before reading your post I was reading up on rifles used in trench warfare and learning what bolt-action is. Simple and reliable is good, I am loving this. A bit early for votes but here we go.

ADM-12 Bean Counter Rifle (1): Quarque

[Aseaheru]

 Greetings fellow engineers!

 Now, while it is all well and good having the best rifle, it is useless if we cant have enough to equip enough folks. Likewise, we do need something with enough features to be useful, and modern enough to be future proofed, atleast until we develop totally-not-a-pseudo-assault-rifle-based-off-of-.351WSL

 Thus, I present the NSA's ADA-RA

Spoiler: Arms Development Administration - Rifle Alpha (click to show/hide)

 The Rifle Alpha(Or just the 'ra to its users) is a study in balance of cost and features. A meter long firearm, with a barrel at just under 600mm in length, the weapon is a bolt-action(with two large rear lugs to resist the muck of the battlefield and a handle that is bent to allow the shooter to almost instinctively and effortlessly switch from the trigger to the bolt), feeding from a five-round magazine charged with en-bloc clips, built of heavy forgings with minimal milling. The sights are crude, large apertures at the rear that flip between 100, 400, and 1000 meters; while the front sight is protected by two oversized wings. There is no fine sight adjustment, not for the common soldier. Instead, the sights are calibrated at the armory by swapping the rear sights for the ones that best match the actual point of aim of the weapon.
 The furniture of the weapon is in three parts, the two-part forward handguard and the stock itself. A fairly comprehensive cleaning kit(oil bottle, selection of patches, a carbon pick and a length of chain, all within a tinplate canister) is stored within the butt of the stock. The buttplate is of iron. The bayonet is of the spike type, is quite long at 300mm and is stored within the weapon, the user draws it from the foreend, reverses it, and puts it back into position for the stabbing or threat of stabbing that is required.
 The ammunition is modern, with all the modern features. Boat tails, spitzer noses, rimless cases, smokeless propellants... It is a 11g projectile 7mm in diameter, propelled at 700 m/s, from a case that is 55mm long. As noted, this is loaded via en-bloc clips, which are made to be used nomatter what orientation the user loads them into the weapon. Atleast, aslong as they dont have the whole packet reversed or something...

Also, brass? Really? Ateast go with something more modern(and cheaper), like gunmetal. Which is not grey when its the metal yer talking about, not the colour, but I digress

[Quarque]

How about using blued steel for the metal parts? Blueing is a process that was fairly common at the time. The steel is treated with magnetite to give it a black oxide coating. If you keep the gun oiled it provides fairly decent rust protection and it makes the gun look extra badass.

[Kot]

How about using blued steel for the metal parts? Blueing is a process that was fairly common at the time. The steel is treated with magnetite to give it a black oxide coating. If you keep the gun oiled it provides fairly decent rust protection and it makes the gun look extra badass.

Neat.

Spoiler: NSA-LR-1912-3-1, ADM Index:1A1 (click to show/hide)

The NSA-SR-1912-3-1, ADM Index:1A1* is a straight pull striker fired service rifle chambered in 7.5x55mm (NSA-FC-1912-2-1, ADM Index: 2A1) copper jacket spitzer cartridge. The free-floating** rifle barrel is 600mm with the whole rifle being about 1100mm in length, with white beech ***wooden furniture covering the front. The metal parts of the rifle have been chemically blackened through mid-temperature black oxidation. The reciever has a simple tangent sight with notches cut in for ranging attached and there's a hooded front post attached to the front of the barrel.
The rifle uses a rotating bolt assembly attached to a simple straight bolt handle which, which allows the rifle to be operated in a simple, efficient motion of pulling the handle back to unlock the action, eject the cartridge and cock the striker before pushing it forward to chamber a new round and make the gun ready to fire again. Rear of the reciever assembly features a big ring which is connected to the rifle's striker and servers as safety, pulling it and turning it to the side prevents the rifle from firing. ****
The rifle feeds from detachable 6-round magazine (NSA-FC-1912-2-1A, ADM Index: 1B1) sitting almost flush with the stock that can be reloaded either using single bullets or with help of 6-round stripper clips (NSA-FC-1912-2-1B, ADM Index: 2A1-2) made mostly out of waxed cardboard with metal pieces reinforcing only the bottom of the clip.*****
There is a cleaning kit (NSA-FA-1912-2-1, ADM Index: 1C1) included with the rifle which fits in the rear of the wooden stock, and a long, 550mm sword bayonet (NSA-MW-1912-3-1A ADM Index: 1D1), out of which about 45mm are the blade. The bayonet attaches safely to both the barrel and the handguard, and stored in a scabbard (NSA-MW-1912-1-1B ADM Index: 1E1) that can be attached to soldier's belts.***** The bayonet blade isn't blackened and the bayonet can be used separately from the rifle as a short sword.

_{*It's a Schmidt-Rubin and I won't even hide the fact. I considered making some unholy abomination that had a tubular magazine and gate loading or Krag–Jørgensen magazine or such but decided against it. It might seem overwhelming but it's really simple, the only really "complex" (as in, different from a normal bolt action rifle) parts it might have is the internal cam system which is what allows for the straight pull action which might have slight benefits in the future if we play our cards right.
**It's not really complex, the handguard just doesn't touch the barrel at any point. Might have some durability issues with cracked stocks but it's not probably way worse than normal and the advantages are mostly cosmetic, for now.
***I assume we can get that since we're in a forest but w/e make it some bright wood. I actually don't know much about wood so if it's excessively heavy or weak someone might suggest something else, I just want the white-black contrast.
****Google Schmidt-Rubin. It's that.
*****Apparently a real thing Swiss used.
******I assume we have some form of soldier's kit so I don't have to specify that but if we don't I'll be happy to throw in some cheap and simple bandolier (NSA-FA-1912-2-2, ADM Index: 1E2) so they don't have to carry the ammo in pockets of their civilian clothing. Also, since the bayonet attaches to both the handguard and the barrel it would help with rigidity and robustness of the whole rifle when it's most needed at the cost of presumably reducing accuracy when it's least needed.}

The first naming scheme, the NSA-whatever is basically old Arstotzkan one which I think mostly fits. If we use the example of this rifle, it goes NSA (we're watching you), Long Rifle, year of 1912, 3rd proposal, 1st iteration, simple enough to understand.
The second naming scheme is my own retarded take at GRAU index (US Army supply catalog and similar systems do not appease the level of bueraucratic hell we should aspire to), which is mostly used to help with logistical load. Our first design is 1A1, meaning the 1 will stand for personal soldier's kit, A being firearms and last 1 being the first design (hopefully) adopted. All ammunition would use the prefix 2, A being small arms ammunition and 1 being the first design adopted. The magazines, being part of a rifle, not ammunition use 1B1 but stripper clip packets use 2A1-2 being packed ammunition. D is for melee weapons apparently. The cleaning kit and bayonet scabbard we're doing firearms accessories and soldier's equipment, with C going for accessories and E being all the random shit he might wear such as clothes, backpacks or, well, scabbards.
Of course right now all the stuff is named in order which I wrote them by, which isn't really that great but we could go and make a cool category list for future use. Or we could just go with it and bear the retardation or maybe do a nice rework of the whole system in future providing us more occasions to flex our bueraucratic muscle!
I hope all this was easy to take in. All goyrl to the NSAstotzka!

[Aseaheru]

 So, we have
>automatic rifle
>bolt action rifle
>not a MAS-36(or atleast, an amalgamation of most of the things the MAS-36 was inspired by)
>Not a Schmidt-Rubin- err, nope, its just a Schmidt-Rubin

[Kot]

>Not a Schmidt-Rubin- err, nope, its just a Schmidt-Rubin

It should be easy to convert that to semi-auto if we figure out a way to not have the bolt bash someone's head in. If we create new furniture where the reciever is located further up on the rifle (cut down the barrel too to keep the overall length short) and have a connector bar for the trigger a simple gas system and return spring would be all that's neccesary. This way we can eat the cake of bolt action rifle (that also should fire slightly faster than a regular bolt action rifle) and have the cake of semi-auto rifle for the future too.
A Lee Navy action might be arguably cooler but making it semi-auto seems more complicated.

[Quarque]

Ok I'm voting the Not-a-Schmidt-Rubin

It is a proposal full of ridiculous codes.
Bolt action with potential for auto sounds excellent.
It has black coating.
It has an explicit description of the cleaning oil. Cleaning oil is very important.
It is based on a Swiss thing. Swiss things are good.
I can't say no.

ADM-12 Bean Counter Rifle (0):
NSA-LR-1912-3-1, ADM Index:1A1 (1): Quarque

[NUKE9.13]

I'll put my trust in Mr Retractable Floats, I guess. Unless MoP vetoes the name.

ADM-12 Bean Counter Rifle (0):
NSA-LR-1912-3-1, ADM Index:1A1 (2): Quarque, NUKE9.13

[Aseaheru]

_{I had cleaning oil too...}

 I do have five nits to pick about 1912-3-1, namely the detachable magazines being a thing, the bayonet with 45mm of blade(Yes, thats probably just a typo. 450mm blades? Thats still a really short grip for a sword bayonet) the chargers being called stripper clips(they arent really, it encapsulates the rounds, argle blargle gumph), what ranges are the sights setup fer and finally there is the implication that you cant do a semi-auto conversion of bolt-action firearms that do not have straight-pull actions.
 Its just significantly easier. and less janky, but they would be anyways.

 Barring suggestions on how to make my entry acceptable to others, I have no objections with going for the 1912-3-1, atleast if we drop the first two digits of the year. Think of the paper and ink we can save by omitting them! Its not like we will ever have a Y2K problem over it eigther...

[Kot]

I do have five nits to pick about 1912-3-1, namely the detachable magazines being a thing,

I was somewhat worried about this too but it's mainly because a whole lot of bolt action rifles from the era actually do have magazines that can be detached, it's just that they're almost never issued with them. If there's significant pushback then I'm fine with dropping that since if we ever have to make longer ones then putting a longer fixed magazine is literally the least worrying modification.

the bayonet with 45mm of blade(Yes, thats probably just a typo. 450mm blades? Thats still a really short grip for a sword bayonet)

Oh, yeah, obvious typo, you get those with all the paperwork sometimes. Would be hilarious if the bad roll actually resulted in the issue being something like this. The issues stem from me originally wanting to do something absolutely absurd like 700mm bayonet before scaling back to something closer to M1917 while rounding the numbers for neatness. I shall revise post-haste.

the chargers being called stripper clips(they arent really, it encapsulates the rounds, argle blargle gumph),

Fair. Maybe there would be confusion as to how they actually work if I named them otherwise but you're right.

what ranges are the sights setup fer

I don't want to go into this because this sort of detail is ultimately very pointless (and ideally would depend on what sort of performance can we get out of our round) unless it's something remarkable or funny. I imagine grading them to a kilometer would be more than sufficient but we can go full on over two kilometers if we want that pre-WW1 flair.

and finally there is the implication that you cant do a semi-auto conversion of bolt-action firearms that do not have straight-pull actions.
 Its just significantly easier. and less janky, but they would be anyways.

Oh no, not at all. But I think it would look more sleek with the cams being inside (as really some pieces of internals of a straight pull like Schmidt-Rubin are pretty similar to how most bolt-action conversions operated on the outside). Rychiger rifle looks really nice and it's essentially that, although I have never seen any good explanation as to how do the internals actually work compared to S-R and how does it deal with bolt going into someone's face. Maybe they just were men about it.

Barring suggestions on how to make my entry acceptable to others, I have no objections with going for the 1912-3-1, atleast if we drop the first two digits of the year. Think of the paper and ink we can save by omitting them!

This is why ADMI is clearly the superior method of designation but I fear we would have to have a huge explanation block and guide to make it accesible to everyone.

Spoiler: NSA-LR-12-3-2, ADM Index:1A1 (click to show/hide)

The NSA-SR-12-3-2, ADM Index:1A1 is a straight pull striker fired service rifle chambered in 7.5x55mm (NSA-FC-12-2-1, ADM Index: 2A1) copper jacket spitzer cartridge. The free-floating rifle barrel is 600mm with the whole rifle being about 1100mm in length, with white beech wooden furniture covering the front. The metal parts of the rifle have been chemically blackened through mid-temperature black oxidation. The reciever has a simple tangent sight and there's a hooded front post attached to the front of the barrel. The rifle is usually ranged for one kilometer of range with alternating notches for every 100 meters, with the lowest, resting position being ranged for 50 meters.
The rifle uses a rotating bolt assembly attached to a simple straight bolt handle which, which allows the rifle to be operated in a simple, efficient motion of pulling the handle back to unlock the action, eject the cartridge and cock the striker before pushing it forward to chamber a new round and make the gun ready to fire again. Rear of the reciever assembly features a big ring which is connected to the rifle's striker and servers as safety, pulling it and turning it to the side prevents the rifle from firing.
The rifle feeds from detachable 6-round magazine (NSA-FC-12-2-1A, ADM Index: 1B1) sitting almost flush with the stock that can be reloaded either using single bullets or with help of 6-round charging clips (NSA-FC-12-2-2B, ADM Index: 2A1-2) made mostly out of waxed cardboard with metal pieces reinforcing only the bottom of the clip.
There is a cleaning kit (NSA-FA-12-2-1, ADM Index: 1C1) included with the rifle which fits in the rear of the wooden stock, and a long, 600mm sword bayonet (NSA-MW-12-3-2A ADM Index: 1D1), out of which about 450mm are the blade. The bayonet attaches safely to both the barrel and the handguard, and stored in a scabbard (NSA-MW-12-1-2B ADM Index: 1E1) that can be attached to soldier's belts. The bayonet blade isn't blackened and the bayonet can be used separately from the rifle as a short sword.

I might create a more comprehensive idea of what the ADMI would look like in a bit.

[Aseaheru]

 Most magazines of the era are removable, for cleaning, but not really detachable, often lacking things like "feed lips"(like the MAS-36) or "retention within the firearm other than screws"(like the Springfield M1903). But the Schmidt Rubin is amongst those that are detachable, but are issued one to a weapon, yes.

 Referring things to their ADMI is all well and good, once they are actually selected. Till then... Well, we need something to call them then.

ADM-12 Bean Counter Rifle (0):
NSA-LR-1912-3-1(3): Quarque, NUKE9.13, AseaHeru