quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
An interesting video about “explosions” at the ejection port of the Springfield Armory “Hellion” bullpup that could be a problem with the gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3FT5dxcItw

Lost consciousness after listening to him drone on after a couple of minutes. What’s the short version?

Almost certainly silencer-related, I'd say. My internet is too crappy right now to watch the video, but I gleaned from the comments that it was suppressed.

quote:

Another interesting aspect of the discussion is the fact that the nations that do utilize bullpups still don't equip their most elite units with them.

Dredging up this comment from the OP, because an interesting part of the Ukrainian conflict has been that their special operations units seem to prefer bullpup rifles.

In addition to more standard rifles, they've been frequently photographed with Malyuk bullpups:

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
What’s the short version?

“Explosive” fireball discharges occurred at the ejection ports of two of the rifles when fired. They were pictured more than once, but one is at the 0:41 mark of the video.

Supposedly they may have occurred without suppressors on the guns, but the vast majority were with the rifles suppressed. The narrator also advised that they were most common in cold air temperatures. No one seems to know why they occurred, but there was of course much speculation, some sensible, some not. Inspection of the fired cases showed that they were not out-of-battery or overpressure discharges.

The discharges were disconcerting, but not harmful if the ejection port is open on the shooter’s dominant side, but is believed to possibly be hazardous if, for example the right side port were open and the gun was being fired from the shooter’s left shoulder.

If that’s not enough, tough up and use the fast forward feature of the video to skip over the droning.

I withdraw my silencer comment. The explosive event may be slightly aggravated by the presence of the can, but it's an OSS can, and I know them to work as advertised. So, I don't think it is something caused by the introduction of the silencer; exacerbated, sure, but not caused. Certainly interesting, considering the gun's military history. I am sure someone at Springfield is at least slightly irritated by the internet social media firearms community rabble this video will cause. I'd be interested to see footage of other suppressed firearms ejection ports, and their flash signatures; no way it's a phenomenon exclusive of other designs. I think it goes without saying that the VHS doesn't suppress well! I have enough trouble with leftover gasses escaping the ejection port, let alone friggen explosions.

That photo clearly indicates how unfriendly they might be to left-handed shooters.

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
That photo clearly indicates how unfriendly they might be to left-handed shooters.

To be fair to the rifle, it is possible to configure it to eject to the left. That’s not something we’d be doing in the middle of a firing string in a competition or other event, though, and as the narrator in the video pointed out sometimes shooters do switch shoulders on the fly. We had a discussion here on the forum about the maneuver and a number of members said they believe it’s important to be able to do that. Even though I’m not a fan of the technique I’d like the option, and I’d be leery of a rifle that exhibited that problem.