Something else that struck me...

While i was thinking about the split-breech system in the previous post, I also considered an extractorless system that is almost but not quite the same, because it employs a split breech that is fully supported, but involves the standard longitudinal entry-exit system as a standard firearm.

*ponder*

Ok, that one's actually too far off the wall to continue on.

But, I'll toss up another idea...

Through history there have been instances of blow-forward firearms. That is, the pressure and drag from the bullet pulls the slide/barrel forward and when it returns, it takes in another round from the magazine.

Well, why not adapt that with a modern gas lock system? The gases act on a free-floating piston which is blown *back* against a spring, delaying the action. When the spring rebounds, the piston runs forward, hitting the end of the gas cylinder and activating a latch there which unlocks the barrel, and inertia takes it forward. Advantages? Longer barrels, since the chamber can essentially lay directly on top of the magazine. Easier to feed too. Disadvantages? A truly wierd function cycle and manual of arms, plus the added stangeness to the feel of recoil because of the gas piston flailing back and forth within it's cyinder.

Of course, stranger things do enter my mind at times, like using the ported gas from a gas-delayed machine gun to run a little vibrating piston compressor and cooling the barrel with an ammonia or freon refrigeration cycle. You'd end up with a machine gun that could fire until you run out of ammo or the rifling wears out of the barrel...