Graphene components and recoil control (theoretical/near future)
Posted by Sansophia@reddit | Firearms | View on Reddit | 17 comments
As you guys might be aware graphene is the wonder material of the future and has been for....20 years. It's not as bad as fusion, because there's plenty of products and applications but right now, it's still orders of magnitude more expensive than steel.
So in the long term, graphene is 200X stronger than steel. But let's say they put some redundancy and make a 1911 (40 ounces) that's twice as strong as a steel version and thus weighs all of .4 ounces. Whatever other considerations aside, I would think this gun would be all but uncontrollable when fired, given how much I hear gun weight is to making recoil manageable. I'm thinking the old adage that the 14 becomes an Anti air platform after two rounds on full auto.
Of course, I've never fired a pistol larger than a .22 trainer at my university (and after that, disability, SSI and absolutely no fun money whatsoever), but given how much documentary time goes on about recoil problems in so many small arms, I think this could be a major issue.
How do recoil dampening/mitigation systems work and what kind are there? Especially in a theoretical gun where the heaviest parts are by far the bullets in the magazine well. And beyond pistols, would those mitigation techs work on rifle caliber platforms?
Curious minds want to know. Well a curious mind at least. Thank you.
mcbergstedt@reddit
The problem with your idea is that graphene is super strong under tension. Everything (except for the barrel) is generally under compression or some form of shear force.
A_Queer_Owl@reddit
graphene will probably end up in some high end super lightweight composite barrel, but I doubt it'll see much use for anything else.
Traveller7142@reddit
Why would you want an ultralight gun? Even if recoil is negligible, it would be difficult to aim
Gunsensual@reddit
Why would it be more difficult to aim?
For hiking and rucking. A long gun with ammo may be 1/3 of a person's typical load. If that's cut in half that's more headroom for about a day of food.
Traveller7142@reddit
A lightweight gun is more difficult to hold steady
Gunsensual@reddit
Isn't that only an issue for long range?
Traveller7142@reddit
It applies to pistols too. Competition precision pistols often have weights attached
Gunsensual@reddit
Do you know if that's still a problem with 3 points of contact? I can see why that would be bad for pistols.
Traveller7142@reddit
Yes, but less so. Competition long range rifles are often over 12 lbs
Riker557118@reddit
Inertia and other factors. What's easier to kick across a hallway, a cart loaded up with weights or the cart itself? That same initial force the get the cart moving is combating inertia.
Granted a firearm that is too heavy will cause you to fatigue too fast, but being too light is also an issue.
And other issues, usually resulting from making things smaller to save weight, like decreased sight radius, sacrifice of a proper grip, ect.
Sansophia@reddit (OP)
That's why I was asking about workarounds. When humping it, especially in military context, weight matters a lot for the individual and it adds up very quickly. A 40 ounce 1911 going to .4 ounces is nice, but a SAW going from 18 pounds to 1/5 of a pound is either almost 20 pounds of extra food, ammo or far less muscle fatigue.
For concealed carry purposes maybe not so much a purpose but anything involving camping, patrolling, or field deployment, the weight is gonna matter a lot.
Fluffy-Map-5998@reddit
most recoil mitigation/dampening systems involve either directing the recoil in a specific way, or adding more mass to the weapon
e30jawn@reddit
Goofy Goober Group tactical tire weights duh
Riker557118@reddit
it's also orders of magnitude more brittle. The tensile strength and hardness of a material are only a couple of aspects of consideration, when you're involving lots of pressure, heat, and cyclic rates of these; ductility also becomes a factor. Now we could certainly see parts of the firearm be replaced by graphene, but an entire firearm built from graphene wouldn't be feasible.
There are many types, most just come down to adding non-reciprocating mass in places to balance the firearm, venting of gases to counter motion, and reducing the mass of the parts that do move.
usa2a@reddit
A 230gr projectile is about .5 ounces.
You know what happens when your projectile is heavier than your gun? The thing you are holding onto becomes the projectile.
Kromulent@reddit
the upward direction of the kick (muzzle rise) can be mitigated with a compensator (it blows escaping gasses directly up, and is loud) and the rearward, if it is a rifle, can be mitigated with some annoyance with a spring in the stock
not really practical probably, but possible
Happymrsnowman@reddit
In most instances, the weight of the components are part of the math of operation of the gun. Not just the recoil but the rate of fire, speed of movements of components, and spring strength.
When you make the components ultra light, the springs have to be made beefier to slow them down from moving insanely fast. When the bullet that is being accelerated by the propellent weighs as much as the bolt of the gun (theoretically) that bolt is going to be moving as fast as the bullet. So then, in order to prevent that you need much longer dwell times in order to let the pressure drop in order to not accelerate the bolt/slide at insane speeds.
Also I'm not an expert on graphene strength, but there are many aspects to that. Shear strength, compressive, tensile, and many others. I don't know how it ranks up in all of those compared to steel, but there are many instances of guns beating themselves to death because components are slamming into one another or moving too fast. Graphene may be strong but it may not be able to handle hard impact from itself moving at 800 fps.