Vaux and leander Manufacturing
Rifle design: VL M187x50mm Ammunition
The Vaux and Leander Manufacturing’s VL M18 (not to be confused with the ’18 or the G18 or the other M18) is a ten-round straight-pull bolt action rifle for standard infantry use. In order to fit a ten round internal magazine, it extends vertically through the bottom of the rifle next to the trigger guard. The magazine is prone to mis-alignment, resulting in an internal jam if dropped or jostled.
The M18 uses a straight-pull action. This means the user does not need to lift the bolt or lock it back down, simplifying the action and increasing firing speed. The M18’s straight pull action does leave a little to be desired, however – the user must be certain the action is all the way forward before firing or the rifle may experience an out-of-battery fire. In this case, the rifle can be damaged or even wound the user, and the stiff nature of the M18’s bolt makes it difficult to be certain it’s fully forward without visually checking. The accuracy of the M18 is sub-par, though the reason is as-of-yet unclear. Though it won’t be winning any sharp-shooting awards, the VL M18 can reliably hit a man-sized target at up to 300m or so. The rifle can be field stripped with some difficulty, as the straight-pull bolt is reluctant to leave its housing and testers often resort to using leverage to pull it free.
Cost: $16 per Shipment
Vaux and leander Manufacturing
Revision: VL M18 A1Rifle: VL M18
Gunsmith engineers adjust tolerances on the straight-pull bolt of the M18 (no, the other M18). The bolt slides much more smoothly now and it's obvious once it reaches all the way forward - though it is still possible to fire out-of-battery if the bolt isn't seated all the way forward for some reason. The bolt can be removed without the use of leverage now, assuming the user knows what they're doing.
No price change.
VL M18 A2Minor flaws noted in the rifling are likely the cause of the VL M18's poor accuracy - particularly near the muzzle, where the rifling simply...stopped. The rifling is improved and the barrel is lengthened slightly, giving the weapon accuracy comparable to most major rifles of this era. The extra attention to performance and material slightly increases the M18's expense.
Cost per Shipment: $17
Design: Machinegun VL mg21 A1
7x50mm Ammunition
The VL mg21 is a belt fed machinegun chambered in 7x50mm, and operates with recoil action. To keep the weight down the machinegun is air cooled, in order to ensure sustained fire it has a heavy barrel and a barrel shroud to help disapate heat. Additioanly the barrel is designed to be quick change to ensure that once the barrel does over heat a machinegun crew can quickly replace the barrel with a fresh one instead of having to wait for the gun to cool down. The mg21 come with two mounting points one at the end of the barrel shroud too attach a collapseable bi-pod and one at the bottem of the reciver for mounting the gun on tripods and emplacments. Much like the VL M18 the mg21 come with an adjustable sight that starts at 50m increments by 50 up to 400m. The reciver is designed to be somewhat spacious to make it easier for the guuncrew to access the internal components for ease of maiintenance.
Overall the VL mg21 is designed to be a somewhat light machine gun that is man portable and somewhat easy to maintain on the field.
Machinegun VL mg21 A1The smallest caliber machinegun to come out of Occassio yet, the VL mg21 fires 7mm belt-fed ammunition. The weapon is recoil-operated, which means the entire barrel rocks back with each shot in order to cycle the action. The moving barrel gives the weapon a stiff penalty to accuracy, but this type of action is fairly common and not difficult to pull off. The weapon is air-cooled, so the barrel is designed to be quick-swapped once heat buildup has become an issue. A simple bipod keeps the muzzle elevated, and the sights are standard ladder sights going up to 400m. The receiver case is large and held together with simple clasps - not particularly elegant, but easy to access.
Separating the barrel from the heat shroud proves to be a bit tricky - initial designs don't specify much in how the quick-swap is supposed to be performed, and conflicting design schematics result in the bipod, barrel, and shroud being one whole piece. To swap the barrel, the entire front-end is unlatched and then unscrewed. This is quite cumbersome and awkward, and the new barrel must also come with its own shroud and bipod. This, obviously, increases weight. Additionally, if the barrel gets too hot before it is swapped, the tight tolerance in the screw threads will cause it to bind and become stuck, making it impossible to quick-swap altogether.
The belt is simple canvas with rimless ammunition. If the round slips too far forward or back in the canvas belt, it will cause the weapon to jam. The mg21 does not have a box magazine, and relies on a second operator to "smooth" the feeding process. It's not a particularly accurate weapon, and repeated heat warping can cause the lid of the belt feed cover to not close correctly.
Cost: $33 per Shipment Revision: VL mg21 A1.1
work is done to rework the receiver of the MG21 to make use of disintegration belt instead of a fabric belt.
Revision: VL mg21 A1.2
rework the gun body firstly adding bit more material into the feed cover to make it more rigid, secondly mounting fixtures are added to the side of the machine gun to allow for an Ammo container to to attached. finally the bipod is now to be attached to the front of the gun body instead of the barrel shroud, the shroud will have a catch at the bottom to hold the bipod when it folded.
Revision: VL mg21 A1.3
reworking the quick release to use locking lugs instead of normal screws which should resolve the issue of the threads binding when over heated. The latch is still retained to ensure the barrel does not rotate out of position during operation.
Revision: VL mg21 A2
VL mg21 A2 consolidates all of the above revisions into one design
The VL mg21 A1 features a number of revisions this turn, rapidly improving the weapons capabilities.
The fabric belt is discarded in favor of relatively new disintegrating links. These mechanical links fall apart once the round is removed, and are discarded along with spent brass. This requires the mg21's feed system to be redesigned, and it now will no longer be compatible with the previous canvas-based belts. This minorly increases cost.
The bipod is moved back to the gun's body, meaning the weapon now pivots closer to the center rather than at the muzzle. It can be collapsed and clipped to the forward shroud for easy storage. Adopting a box magazine and reworking the feed cover would require their own revisions, unfortunately.
The barrel no longer screws into place, but instead uses quick-locking lugs. The latch ensures it will not come lose unless disengaged.
Testing indicates the new lugs will not bind during temperature changes.
These changes are all unified under one name: the VL mg21 A2.
Cost increase: $1
Cost: $34 per Shipment
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Topic: RISKY ARMS VENTURE - Winter, 1929 (Read 28145 times)