Any kind of universal knife that can be fixed like a bayonet will never be effective to penetrate common armour like chain mail and will be a poor general utility knife, and the utility knife is incredibly important for everyday life in a world like this. Another problem is that the bayonet has to be long enough and positioned so that the suppressor does not interfere, which practically only gives an option if the bayonet is to poke out at least 20 cm, because mounting the bayonet on the suppressor is not optimal, even if the suppressor tube is rigid and with internal reinforcement that stiffens it up even more. So a long dagger like bayonet that is durable enough to stab and slash with is mounted along the top of the right side, as most are right-handed shooters, and thus place their left hand at the front, and would thus be on top of the bayonet. Just push in the latch, fold it out and forward, and snap and lock it in place. It is quick, stable and minimises rattling from the weapon, and the latch is designed so that it doesn't matter how violently the blade is pushed or pulled or forced in any direction. It will stay latched until something break. However, the user must be aware that if the bayonet has been used violently and the suppressor has been hit by violent blows, the next shot fired may hit the inside of the suppressor, and the suppressor should be unscrewed. It is easy to push in the latch and unscrew the suppressor to reduce the weapons length and weight, which also makes the bayonet significantly longer, and I believe the air rifle is hearing safe without the suppressor.

To get a decibel comparison, I need to record from a distance, where with just a few seconds intervals, unsuppressed supersonic black powder guns are fired, then a suppressed black powder gun, and then air rifles without and with suppressor. Too loud a sound will obviously be too much for the microphone and I believe there is an automatic gain control too, so the recording needs to be done at a distance where the overall sound does not change enough or the microphone reaches maximum peak, so a more accurate recording scale is obtained. Some kind of reference sound make might have to be used too.

Alith and Gunhild are so impressed and love the pump action air rifles. Alith is on the verge of drooling, and wouldn't surprise me if her lower lips do.

They don't understand and think of bullet energy the same way I do. They only see what the lead bullet does to wooden planks etc, and of course they mostly compare it to a bow and arrow, so even though the black powder rifles can have a much higher muzzle velocity and energy, lethal is lethal, and you can even quickly and easily change how 'lethal' the shot is. You don't shoot hares or larger birds with a hunting rifle if you expect to get something to eat, but with a pump action air rifle you can. And the air rifle will hardly care about weather, can withstand more rough handling than bows and arrows, and bows have no bayonet making it a short spear. In their eyes, the air rifle with its quick reload or semi-automatic fire is definitely a better military or bodyguard weapon than my black powder rifles, and also better for some hunting and definitely more flexible, with excellent weather resistance and easier maintenance.

So there will be a proper military pump action air rifle made, as these air rifles now proved that it will be a useful and good weapon. Pretty much the same, just with some improvements. Among other things, a better shoulder stock solution, because the spherical cylinder top is not comfortable against the shoulder, and different lengths of tanks gives inconsistent firing position.

While we start to clean up and collect all the lead residues and such to go home, I of course continue to think about the firearm and improvements.

I also want to improve the suppressor. Larger diameter and volume will make it a bit quieter, and should help if the sound can get a lower tone, because it will be perceived as a lower sound volume by human-elvish ears. Then I want to try making a suppressor that can use leather 'wipes' to really lower the sound, but that can also make the suppressor better to swim with. A cork pressed into the suppressor probably works reasonably well as a seal even if it's not perfect, but a very thin leather 'wipe' that is impregnated should keep water out better, and if necessary the leather can be shot through, although it probably won't do much for the sound. Lines of needle made holes in a cross or three line six-pointed star will weaken the leather, which very little water should find its way through, and a bit of rendered fat on the outside is even better. But it is also a good idea to prepare to be able to easily empty the suppressor of water, and need not be more difficult than internal design holes and a screw to loosen or just hatch to push aside. The suppressor will not see the incredibly high pressure, heat or corrosive gases and fouling that a black powder weapon's suppressor is exposed to. It would also be good to build a suppressor that can handle shots with 'padding' behind a bullet.

These prototype air guns have been given three locations and threaded holes as universal mounting for some type of tactical light source, and the proper military version will have that too. Making holes with threads is hardly advanced, and something like a wedge base or simplified picatinny rail is relatively easy. If we ever need to fight in the dark, it's just practical to have some kind of weapon light on the weapon even if the light by modern Midgård standards is poor, and as I will probably make other firearms sooner or later, weapon lights that can be easily moved between firearms are just practical, and all common firearms will probably have a universal mount. I have several different flashlights, so a universal mount is a good idea just for that, as each flashlight can get its special custom quick attachment adapter. The maglite gets its. My small pocket burner its, and I can make the adapter small enough that the adapter can always stay on the pocket burner lamp even when I have it in my pocket. Might as well make so my laser pointer ring can also be attached to the pocket burner and be more ready for low light combat or in darkness. I'm also likely to modify the flashlight I built into the Boomstick into a third weapon light, and modify the Boomstick grip and put a universal mount on the bottom of the Boomstick so that flashlight can be moved and become a weapon light on the Boomstick. I can actually make a better solution and also integrate the camera flash light into the Boomstick weapon light.

If only I could make acceptable small and efficient Alfheimr lightbulbs, and Alfheimr battery that can be handled a bit carelessly, shaken and not be affected by rotation and angle. I would have been happy to integrate a small battery into future weapon, where the battery could have been further back for better balance. Even if that light would only have lasted for 5 or 10 minutes, that would still be very useful and a big tactical advantage in certain situations. I'll probably experiment with trying to make a really compact arc light sooner or later.

Ugh. I need to experiment with some kind of flare, because even a bad one has its uses, just for a bit of area illumination or calling attention-signalling. Alarm mines with lights would also be desirable.

Besides using linseed oil on metal for rust protection, with these prototypes Olafr has shown that he knows ways to rustproof iron and brass by making the steel and brass blue-black, and beside rust protection, avoiding shiny metal is a really attractive bonus. I sure don't care if it is blotchy, uneven or there are differences in blue-black shades. So future air rifles will have blued metal and green lacquered wood parts, and will have hopefully similarly green coloured leather for the stock pouch and the rifle strap. I want bluing on most of future soldiers' steel-iron-brass equipment, and certainly on firearms, tomahawks, etc.

There will be a dedicated shoulder bag that will have an extra tank, extra magazines and bullets-slugs, a hand pump, mould, tools, lubricant, spare parts and a cleaning kit. Maybe with an extra pouch to carry an additional tank if needed. From a spare parts point of view, it is definitely an advantage that, for example, hand making springs by template has meant that I have designed to use the same spring in valves, regulators, for triggers etc, so an extra spring and hammer spring can be included in the maintenance kit wrapped in greased paper, and similar applies to screws and leather gaskets. The coil spring for the hammer is made of two coiled together wires, for what I hope is better durability, and partly easier manufacturing. More air rifles will be made, and there will definitely be many high pressure air tanks made quite soon as they will fit future air rifles, and we need to test out ballistics, and whether to change the rifling.

Humm... Should I increase the rotation speed to get more energy in the bullet? The bullet speed is relatively low, but rotational speed doesn't change air resistance, and the energy of the air expanding in the barrel should be used more efficiently by giving the bullet high rotational energy while accelerating the bullet forward, and especially a long heavy cylinder like hollow point bullet with most of the weight further from the centre, is much better from a rotational energy point of view than a ball shaped projectile, or a small diameter long ballistic shaped modern bullet like 5.56 NATO. But does it make enough difference on a living target to be worth it? How does it affect bullet speed and ballistics? How high a rotational speed do I need to achieve to give noticeable effect and advantage? Well, it's no more difficult than making two barrels with say 1 turn in 20 and 10 cm and testing against existing ones. If I remember my physics correctly, a doubling of the rotational speed gives a quadrupling of the rotational energy, so a 10 cm twist rate means four times more energy than a 20 cm twist rate. Maybe I should try octagonal rifling instead of grooves? Seems like octagonal rifling might be more efficient to grip the ball at high rotation speed, but it might be much harder to do. To verify how rotational speed affects a living target, I'll have to shoot a couple of pigs with the fastest rotating bullet and the slowest, but we need to kill the pigs to get ham and bacon anyway, and more ham and bacon is good, and firearms development always costs.

Mmm... bacon. Yep, we will absolutely have to do that firearms development.

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But will there be problems with improvised ammo?

Improvised ammo is something that needs to be tested more. I have made and tested wooden bullets, but with the heaviest wood available in the Nordic countries, some ballistic shape and maximum length, the wooden bullet weighs only 2.5-2.8 grams, which ironically is almost the same weight as the maximum weight of a round stone, so the energy in the bullet is the same, but the wooden bullet has better ballistics and less spread, and is much easier to manufacture than finding an optimal stone, and wood should have far less wear on the barrel than stone. Fire-hardened wood may be the best improvised bullet, especially if the wooden bullet is made longer than will fit in the magazine and hand loaded. However, the bullet weight is only a quarter of the lightest lead round bullet, a sixth of the standard hollow point slug, and a thirteenth of the weight of the long and heavy hollow point lead bullet, so although wooden bullets fly much faster than lead bullets, and I already know they can be shot through the sound barrier at the end of a series of shots and even medium power seems to be wasted air pressure, they obviously do not achieve the same high energies as lead bullets do, but 150-200 joules is still lethal. Also, significantly more energy if a longer and thus heavier wooden projectile is muzzle loaded into the barrel, but we need to test how much wooden bullets actually penetrate and damage a body, and an armoured body. However, improvised ammo and wooden bullets will only be used against people when there are no better alternatives, but it should be useful for small game hunting. Wooden bullets made of lighter and softer wood that are shorter may be suitable for making tactical shooting practice less dangerous, and should only weigh around 1.0-1.2 grams.

A potentially huge issue with airguns is if they become known as airguns, because they are firearms that do not require black powder, and with a hand pump and mould, only lead, zinc or tin is needed to fire many thousands of bullets until the gun is worn out or broken. A skilled blacksmith who understands the principle can probably copy an airgun well enough to be dangerous, because things like rifling, pressure regulation, magazines, suppressors and so on are not necessary, and thicker steel, larger air pressure tank and lower pressure compensate for poor iron in the tank. The air rifle is a very dangerous and relatively silent rapid-fire repeating weapon with a magazine that I don't want any outsider to have, even if the energy of a bullet is 'only' 150 joules. As a cover, the weapon will be called 'pump-action rifle' because of that mechanism, and the semi-automatic option will not be mentioned, and it is a secret that the firearm uses air and not black powder. Pumping air and filling tanks will be done in secret unless absolutely necessary, so my small compressor in Thrymheim is a good idea just for that, and I should make a better and more efficient high pressure air compressor driven directly by the steam engine. A wind pump system with several large tanks in a locked storage shed with targets etc on the range should also be discrete. A pipe to a discrete filling valve on the outside is not that difficult. Perhaps it is possible to build a compressed air pressure booster that driven by lower air pressure creates a higher pressure. However, it would feel better if all the advanced stuff is stored in the Thrymheim or under better control than a shed on the shooting range.

I'm going to give the pump-action rifle an external wooden buttstock and leather pouch partly to camouflage the tank, and if necessary, everyone that know or handle the pump-action rifles will pretend that the tank is filled with 'sejd' so that it can be assumed to be black powder or something else in the tank, and also, the mechanism is internal to protect against rain and dirt and hide how the mechanism works. It is actually an advantage that much of the mechanism's manufacture is metal turning, coil springs and threads, because that makes the mechanism harder to copy for someone who does not have a metal lathe. Most common people and craftsmen don't actually know what threading and screws are, because it simply isn't a thing in their lives, while in Midgård human lives it is everywhere. Olafr, who is a master swordsmith with extensive forging skills outside of weapons, only had experience with leaf springs and simple handmade screws to join something together. Not coil springs and metal turning and complex mechanisms like the air rifles are. Something like a suppressor also makes it harder to see or notice the barrel's rifling, and unscrewing the top of a metal cylinder is something few would even think of trying. Threads, however, will become more spread and common knowledge with anything I introduce.

It might be worth spending time trying to make a oxyhydrogen firearm or with pure hydrogen, partly as a cover for airguns, and frankly I should probably try to build one just because that technology might prove very useful for some purpose, just like high pressure tanks and airguns have, and I should learn practical applicable information for use for welding etc.

Any smaller airguns just for shooting hares, seagulls etc will need to have a small internal tank at the front and some form of lever action loading so there is a big difference in how they are used, and thus not associated in function with the pump-action rifles. A break action barrel that is also a lever and the bullet is loaded manually is an idea, especially if it is a small bullet. Maybe make a type of 'match pistol' with a long barrel to really do something completely different? If we're going to use it mostly to shoot paper targets or seagulls, a smaller and lighter firearm to carry and use is better.

An interesting thought is if I can make a really powerful air pistol where the pistol grip is the high pressure air tank or the tank is just a tube under the barrel, capable of 2-3 shots at 200 joules or something. However, a magazine in front of the trigger will make it longer and I need a fairly long barrel already to get high power, and reloading is hardly something that will be done quickly in the field, and unscrewing the tank and replacing it will take time, so I might as well make a small internal magazine, as refilling that magazine doesn't affect much in total time or usage. Maybe a revolver? Actually, I should be able do two power modes on the handgun as well, with one being really low for shooting hares, seagulls, rats and the like. Low power mode can also be good for practice shooting. The handgun doesn't need pressure regulation etc as more than 40 meters range is not the goal, and experience suggests that I can balance the hammer power against the pressure and valve size, so that the muzzle velocity makes an increasing arc over whatever the round count in the magazine or revolver becomes.

Ugh! So many guns and projects!

It's actually a little hard to keep track of them, especially when I try to refer any weapon to another person, even Alith.

Huummm...

I should give all firearms model names and serial numbers, just to distinguish them, especially when the guns are no longer prototypes and I get many different ones made?

Huummm....

It's probably a good idea that the first letter indicate what type of firearm it is, and I'm gonna have to use Norse, which is practically the Swedish words I introduced to describe it, since Norse didn't have word for most of it or the technology. Some of those words have foreign origin anyway. So G for Gevär (Rifle), P for Pistol. K could be for Karbin (Carbine), R for Revolver and B for Bullpup. S for Special and U for Understöd (Support). I can actually add A for Artillery i.e. Cannons. Second letter can say system, and I need to think of any systems that are or might be possible: F for Flintlock; L for Luft (Air); G for other Gases; P for Patron (Cartridge); H for Hjullås (Wheel Lock); E for Electric which Boomstick actually is; T for Tändhatt (Percussion-Primer). The L is taken, so Luntlås can use M for English Matchlock. The letter doesn't have to match the first letter in the word I use, it just makes it easier to remember. Likewise, it might be a good idea to add something for Fjäder, so S for English Spring. Oh, this is a mess of actual ignition system and propulsive force, but the system doesn't have to be perfect. Should I add A for Armborst (Crossbow)?

The third and possibly fourth letter will be whatever is appropriate to help describe the system, such as P for Pump action, M for Mynningsladdad (Muzzle-loading), D for Dubbelpipa (Double-barrelled), B for Bältmatad (Belt-fed), A for Automatic and S for Självladdande (Self-loading). Several future guns will have the same calibre or the same model will have different calibres, so better to add a number and only increase it for future models using the same letter combination, where the calibre can possibly be marked completely separately. I shouldn't have L for Luft (air) just to keep it more secret. A for Air is also dumb as several languages here have 'air' or somewhat similar word-sound for air. It helps pronunciation of the weapons 'name' if it's a vowel, so Y for 'Sejd' is better, because relatively few Norse words start with Y, and none that I currently associate with firearms. So pump-action air rifles becomes GYPS1. Heh, sounds almost like Swedish gips (plaster). Or the English nickname for Romani people. The black powder hunting rifle becomes Gevär Flintlås Mynningsladdad, i.e. GFM, and the double-barrelled shotgun becomes GFMD for Gevär Flintlås Mynningsladdad Dubbelpipa. Perhaps I shouldn't mark the Boomstick using the same methodology as few know it's actually a firearm, but I can do the markings under the wooden parts, and the Boomstick then becomes SE... I need to add H for Hylsa (Cased) as the third letter so the Boomstick becomes SEH.

However, the letter combination with a number behind it is bad for keeping track of the order that the firearm was made in overall, and there will be many that end in 1 and 2, so I should include separate order labelling with the serial number, and make it logical and reasonably future-proof for the next generations. For example, start the serial number with 3 digits for the order the weapon design was made, and increase by one for each, so first one in autumn is 001, and make a hyphen and then the serial number which will be four digits, partly to distinguish the serial number against the three which is the order of development. For example, Boomstick then becomes SEH 001-0001.

Yep, I'll really have to think this system through if there are problems with letters and the system as a whole, then retroactively mark all firearms according to this system, and make proper documentation for each, even if the documentation and this marking system will be kept secret. My little iron cannon for testing ballistics on the beach last summer is technically the first firearm, but it was only for ballistics testing of black powder and not to use for anything. However, it is worth saving that 'cannon' in my future museum due to its historical importance. It is somewhere in my workshop attic.

A system and all the markings and documentation should at least make future historians a little happier. Maybe frustrated, but at least it should be better than any other early firearms development.

"Robert.... "

Alith press her body against my side, and I feel a hand caressing my bum. Ah. The look on her face as she half-bites her lip, sinful and sexy, confirms what Alith wants, and frankly, I should have expected it. Well I sort of did, didn't I? The fact that she playfully taps her fingers on the camera makes the situation more interesting, but it wouldn't be the first time we use a camera. The shooting bench with its cover is hardly the most discreet place, but Gunhild is the only one who should be in the area, and she is more than 100 meters away and about to go through the bullet stops etc and will do the 200 meters after that. If we crouch down, or use the dry ground behind the bench, Gunhild will at least not see us.

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