FAMAS Bullpup

 

The FAMAS (French: Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne or "Assault rifle of the Saint-Étienne weapon factory") is a bullpup-styled assault rifle designed and manufactured in France by MAS located in Saint-Étienne, which is now a member of the French government-owned Nexter group. It is the service rifle of the French military.

History

The first French bullpup rifles were developed between 1946 and 1950 at the AME (Atelier Mécanique de Mulhouse) and MAS, testing rounds such as .30 US Carbine, 7.92x33mm Kurz, 7.65x38mm (Made by Cartoucherie de Valence) and some other intermediate calibers[citation needed]. Since France was engaged in the First Indochina War at the time, and was also the second-largest contributor to NATO, the budgets for new types of weapons were reduced and priority was given to the modernisation and production of existing service weapons. Nevertheless, approximately forty different prototypes were developed between 1952 and 1962, most of which were designed for the 7.62x51mm NATO round notably the FA-MAS Type

Arquebus Rifle

 

The arquebus (play /ˈɑrkɨbʌs/ ark-ə-bus or /ˈɑrkwɨbʌs/ ar-kwə-bus) (sometimes spelled harquebus, harkbus[1] or hackbut; from Dutch haakbus, meaning "hook gun"), or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute. It then copied the Italian word archibugio, which gave arquebuse (French), arcabuz (Spanish), arcabus (Portuguese), and arquebus (English). In distinction from its predecessor the hand cannon, it has a matchlock. Like its successor the musket, it is a smoothbore firearm, but lighter and easier to carry[citation needed].