A takedown gun (typically a takedown

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

or takedown

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

) is a

long gun A long gun is a category of firearms with long Gun barrel, barrels. In small arms, a ''long gun'' or longarm is generally designed to be held by both hands and braced against the shoulder, in contrast to a handgun, which can be fired being held w ...

designed to be taken apart, significantly reducing its length, making it easier to store, pack, transport, and conceal. A variety of

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

, and receiver designs have been invented to facilitate takedown. For example, the hinged design of many

break-action Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel(s) are hinged much like a door and rotate perpendicularly to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of cartridges. A separate operation may be required for ...

firearms allows takedown. Some regular firearms can be modified to allow takedown after custom

gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very ...

ing.

Rifles

American gun manufacturers including Marlin, Ruger, Savage, and

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

have made takedown rifles since the late 19th century. Some early examples include the Browning 22 Semi-Auto rifle, Remington Model 24, Remington Model 8, Winchester Model 86, and Winchester Model 94 by Fabrique Nationale,

Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC, was an American firearms manufacturer, manufacturer of firearms and ammunition. It was formerly owned by the Remington Outdoor Company, which went bankrupt in 2020 with its lines of business sold to several purchase ...

, and

Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...

. Many militaries in the early 20th century also experimented with takedown systems, particularly for the use by paratroopers. An example of this is the Japanese experimental TERA Rifles. A more modern example of a takedown rifle is the DRD Tactical Paratus, a Clandestine Break-Down Rifle (CSR) requested by the Joint & Special Operations Program (JSOP).

Machine guns

The AA-52 machine gun has takedown capabilities. The Ohio Ordnance Works REAPR (Recoil Enhanced Automatic Precision Rifle) has a takedown capability that can take around 20 seconds.

Shotguns

Most single-barrel and double-barrel shotguns readily break down to separate the buttstock and action from the barrel and forend and are often transported cased as takedown guns. Among repeating shotguns, the Winchester Model 97 and Model 12 shotguns were factory-made as takedown guns. Savage also makes a series of takedown over/under rifle/shotgun combination guns.

Submachine guns

Submachine guns, usually used for clandestine warfare such as the Patchett machine carbine, MCEM 3 submachine gun, MGD PM-9, Hotchkiss Type Universal, and UC-9 have takedown capabilities. A semi automatic carbine exists as the Stemple takedown gun manufactured by the BRP Corp.

Survival guns

Survival guns such as the ArmaLite AR-7 may be disassembled and their barrel, action, and magazines stored within its plastic butt-stock. This lightweight , .22 caliber (5.6 mm),

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single round each time the Trigger (firearms), trigger is pulled while automatically loading the next Cartridge (firearms), cartridge. These rifles were developed Pre-World War II, and w ...

measures overall when assembled, when disassembled, and can even float. Although the AR-7 was designed as a pilot and aircrew survival weapon, it is commonly used by target shooters and backpackers and is frequently stowed away in vehicles and boats.The AR-7 exotic weapons system, Paperback: 63 pages Paladin Press (1982),

References

External links

* Carmichel, Jim

Outdoor Life. Feb 1, 2004. Accessed 2008-06-16.

John Stemple's collapsible weapons & Tolstopyatov ball machine
{{Firearms Firearm construction Rifles Submachine guns Shotguns Takedown gun