The Thorneycroft carbine was one of the earliest
bullpup
A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the Chamber (firearms), breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, ...
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 ...
s, developed by an English gunsmith in 1901 as patent No. 14,622 of July 18, 1901. This
bolt-action
Bolt action is a type of manual Action (firearms), firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt (firearms), turn-bolt via a cocking handle, bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (a ...
rifle featured a bullpup action in which the retracted bolt slid back through the stock nearly to the shooter's shoulder, maximising the space available in the body of the firearm. The rifle was chambered in the contemporary
.303 British (7.7 mm) service cartridge, and held five rounds in an internal magazine.
The Thorneycroft was shorter and 10% lighter than the standard
Lee–Enfield rifle
The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of the ...
used by the British military at the time. However, when tested at
Hythe the firearm exhibited excessive recoil and poor ergonomics, and was not adopted for military service.
See also
*
List of bullpup firearms
The following is a list of firearms designed in a bullpup (i.e., action behind firecontrol/trigger group) configuration.
See also
*Semi-automatic shotgun
*Automatic shotgun
*Combat shotgun
*List of combat shotguns
*List of multiple-barrel fir ...
Sources
*
* ''The Lee-Enfield Story''. Ian Skennerton. page 89.
External links
- MilitaryImages.Net - Thorneycroft carbine- MilitaryImages.Net - Thorneycroft carbine- Youtube video of an example at the Royal Armouries, Leeds
Bolt-action rifles of the United Kingdom
Bullpup rifles
Trial and research firearms of the United Kingdom
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