The Cost of Manufacturing

So the reader goes to their local gun dealer's shop and decides to purchase a firearm. Say, this dealer's shop has a brand new firearm with a manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of $1000. So what is the cost of manufacturing such a firearm and what justifies such a high price, the reader asks?

Here's how the cost breakdown is in the firearms industry. The MSRP is typically around 40% above what the local dealer got it for, therefore it means that the price that the dealer must have purchased it for works out to about $715.

Instead of selling it to the customer for the MSRP price of $1000 though, the dealer may sell it at a "street price", which is around 15-20% of what he paid for it. So the customer may only pay something between $820-860 or so, instead of paying $1000. However, the dealer still makes a profit of 15-20% here. The profit that the dealer makes goes to pay the rent, employees, electricity, gas etc. + a little profit for the owner. Gun dealers also make money from selling used firearms (where the margins are around 30-35%), ammunition, extra magazines, accessories, cleaning supplies etc. (which may sell at 50% margins or so), so that's how they manage to stay in business.

Now, we've figured out the dealer purchased the firearm for around $715 from a wholesale distributor. The wholesaler in turn, purchases the firearm from the manufacturer and sells it to your local dealer at 25-35% margin. Therefore, working backwards from $715, we calculate that the wholesaler purchased them from the firearm manufacturer for about $530-$570 each. Some of the profit they make goes into paying for warehouses, shipping to local dealers, advertising in trade shows, paying employees etc.

So, the wholesaler gets the firearms for $530-$570 each, but the firearms manufacturer sells them to the dealer with around 2x the cost for them. Again, working the math backwards, this means that it costs the firearms manufacturer about $265-$285 to manufacture the firearm. This cost includes not only the cost of the raw materials, but also cost of tools, research and development costs, factory cost, employee pay etc. Some of the profits go into advertising, paying lawyers, rent, future research and development, paying stockholders etc. If we count just the cost of raw materials and components, it is typically around 50% of the manufacturing cost, which works out to about $130-$145 for just the raw materials alone.

So, we calculate that for a cost of around $265-$285 to manufacture, the MSRP is $1000, which means the manufacturing cost is around 1/4th to 1/3rd of the MSRP. This ratio is also about the same as that of many other manufacturing industries as well.

Of course, these are just rough guesses, so what does the price look like for a real manufacturer. From a 2003 article in Forbes magazine, we find that a Glock pistol that retailed for about $500 then cost Glock GmBH only about $75 to manufacture. Which means that the sell price was over 6x the manufacturer cost! Remember though that Glock was actually wanting to retail for cheaper, except that a marketing guy persuaded the company to sell for higher margins, otherwise the gun would appear too cheap and not be taken seriously! Also, they sell very large volumes of products, so the unit cost is significantly reduced because of this.

Safety Mechanisms: Integrated Trigger Safety

In our last post, we looked at Grip Safety Devices. In this post, we will look at something similar, the Integrated Trigger Safety device. This device really became popular because of Glock pistols, and other manufacturers such as Springfield Armory and Smith & Wesson also offer some models with this feature.

 Public domain image. Click on image to enlarge.

The above image shows a typical Glock 17 Generation 2 pistol. If you were to click on the image to enlarge it, pay attention to the trigger assembly and notice that it seems a little thicker towards the bottom. That is because the trigger has a small spring loaded lever embedded into the lower half of the trigger. This is the integrated trigger safety device.

Similar to the grip safety, this spring loaded lever is automatically depressed by the user as a natural consequence of the user's actions, in this case, pulling the trigger. When the lever is depressed, it unlocks the main trigger and allows it to move. One cannot move the main trigger without depressing the small lever fully.

There are two additional safety devices built into Glock pistol models, which are also activated and deactivated by the trigger movement. One of these devices is a drop safety device. This guides the trigger bar in a ramp and it only releases by the rear-ward movement of the trigger. The other device is a firing pin safety, which is a small steel pin that sits in between the firing pin and the cartridge. The firing pin cannot strike the cartridge primer with the steel pin in the way. This steel firing pin safety device only drops out of the way, when the trigger is pulled. These devices get deactivated as a natural consequence of the trigger being pulled and are reactivated when the trigger is released.

Therefore, if the user were to drop the pistol accidentally, the safety devices would automatically activate and hopefully prevent the firearm from discharging. This design found widespread popularity among many users, who prefer not to move any manual lever or button to activate and deactivate the safety. The firearm still goes bang when the user pulls the trigger, but not if it were to be accidentally dropped.

Since Glock pistols became very popular, some other manufacturers took notice and used a similar feature in some of their products.

Pistols: Machine Pistols

In our previous post about semi-automatic pistols, we noted that while such a pistol is capable of shooting several times before reloading, the user needs to pull the trigger every time to take a shot. Now, we will study another class of pistols, where the weapon fires multiple times when the trigger is pulled and held down: the machine pistol. These weapons are capable of fully automatic or burst fire, unlike the semi-automatic pistols in our previous post. Some of these weapons are also capable of switching firing modes between single shot, three round burst mode and fully automatic modes.

In an earlier discussion about the differences between a rifle, SLR, submachine gun, carbine etc. we noted that submachine guns have similar features to assault rifles (i.e. capable of fully automatic fire, selectable firing modes, detachable magazine etc.), but use pistol ammunition. So then, what is the difference between a machine pistol and a submachine gun? The difference is indeed very hard to define, but it is now commonly accepted that if the automatic design was scaled down from an assault rifle to a weapon that fires pistol ammunition, then it is a submachine gun. If the original design was a semi-automatic pistol that was redesigned for full-automatic mode, then it is a machine pistol.

Some of the early semi-automatic pistols, such as the Luger P-08 and the Mauser C-96 were modified to produce automatic versions, so the concept isn't exactly new. After World War II, the Russians introduced an automatic pistol called the Stechkin VPS, intended to be used by artillery and tank crews. Due to its weight, it was gradually phased out of regular service. Another two examples of a machine pistol would be the Ingram MAC-10 and MAC-11, which we studied when researching straight blowback actions.

One of the main issues with any weapons firing multiple shots (not just machine pistols alone) is the tendency of the muzzle of the weapon to rise when shooting. We already studied the cause of this phenomenon earlier and some ways to counteract this. Most of the early automatic pistols like the Luger, Mauser and Stechkin came with a detachable wooden stock, which could help steady the weapon better to counteract the muzzle rise.

In the 1970s, Heckler and Koch produced the VP 70, which had a very interesting feature:

This weapon had an optional plastic stock that could be attached to the back of the pistol. The selective fire control was located on the optional stock and could select between single shot and 3-round burst modes, as can be seen in the top picture above. With the stock attached, the user could switch between the modes as desired, but if the stock was not attached, the pistol would only fire in single shot mode. The stock provided a higher degree of stability and accuracy and therefore made it easier to keep it pointed on target when firing multiple shots.

Yet another model is the Glock 18, which came out in the 1980s. The Glock 18 is a variant of the Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol, which is capable of selective fire in either single shot or fully automatic mode.

Note that this model has an extended magazine, capable of holding 33 cartridges. It also has a lightweight folding stock. It works around the problem of muzzle rise by having vents in the front of the barrel, which act as compensators and push the muzzle downwards. Glock 18 models are only intended for military use and are not normally available on the civilian market.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, Stechkin VPS pistols made a comeback, mostly used by personal bodyguards and special forces units.

Pistols: Semi-automatic Pistols

During the early and mid 1800s, single-shot pistols began to lose popularity as revolvers became more common. It was only close to the end of the 1890s, when they began to regain popularity, due to the invention of semi-automatic pistols. We've already covered the actions that these weapons use, such as toggle lock recoil action, blowback action, short recoil action, gas operated action etc.

Semi-automatic pistols use some of the energy generated by a fired cartridge to automatically extract the fired cartridge case, cock the pistol and insert a new cartridge into the firing chamber. The user needs to pull the trigger each time to fire a new bullet.

Most semi-automatic pistols use either blowback action or recoil action, as these are more suited for smaller weapons. However, there are a few larger pistol models, such as the Desert Eagle, that use the gas operated action.

All semi-automatic pistols come with a magazine to hold multiple cartridges. In semi-automatic pistols, the magazine is located inside the handgrip. The magazine has a spring inside it and cartridges are loaded by pushing against this spring pressure.

Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license by user Scoo on wikpedia.org.

After the magazine is loaded, it is slid into the handgrip of the magazine and then the slide is manipulated to chamber the first cartridge into the firing chamber.

There are different types of pistol actions (similar to what we already studied about revolver basics). In the single action type, the hammer needs to be initially cocked manually. This is usually done on most pistols by pulling the slide backwards, which also pulls the hammer back and cocks it. On some pistols with external hammers, such as the M1911, the pistol can not only be cocked by pulling back the slide, but it can also be cocked by pulling the hammer back separately.

Pulling on the trigger then releases the hammer, which strikes the firing pin and detonates the cartridge. The bullet is fired out of the front of the barrel. Meanwhile, the action of the pistol extracts the old cartridge and pushes the slide backwards, which cocks the hammer again. The old cartridge is ejected via a port on the side of the slide and the new cartridge is pulled from the magazine and shoved into the firing chamber and the pistol is now ready to fire again.

In a double action pistol, pulling back on the trigger cocks and releases the hammer in the same motion. In some double actions, the pistol is double-action only (DAO) and there are some where the pistol can either work in single action or double action mode (DA/SA type). In this type, the hammer can be cocked manually and then released by the trigger, or pulling the trigger cocks and releases in the same action.

The first semi-automatic pistol adopted into service was the Hugo Borchardt designed C-93, which was shortly followed by the Mauser C-96. The US military adopted the John Browning designed .45 caliber Colt M1911 (which was adopted into service in 1911, hence the name). The M1911 remained in mainstream US military service for over 70 years and is still used by some Special Forces and Marine Corps units. Most of the world's other military forces started to switch back from revolvers to pistols after World War II, followed by police and civilians as well.

These days, modern semi-automatic pistols come in a variety of calibers and sizes, with a wide variety of options.

Actions: Recoil Action: Short Recoil Operation

In our previous post, we studied the basics of recoil operated actions. In this particular post, we will study one of the types of recoil operated actions, i.e. the short recoil operation.

This action type has a long history, being the action that was used in the first machine gun ever invented, i.e. the Maxim machine gun. It is also the action of choice for most semi-automatic and automatic pixels that use 9 mm. Luger (9x19 mm.) cartridges or bigger. Smaller and lower powered cartridges are used with blowback actions that we studied last month, but once the cartridges get beyond a certain size and power, a blowback action cannot be used any more and most modern pistols therefore use a short recoil operation.

As we noted in our previous post, one of the key differences between a blowback action and a recoil operated action is that a recoil operated action has the bolt (i.e. the metal block that holds the cartridge in the chamber before firing) is locked at the point of firing, whereas a blowback action merely has it held under spring pressure. This enables the recoil operated action to fire heavier cartridges. Also, as we noted previously, in a recoil operated action, some parts of the weapon are allowed to recoil backwards, whereas other parts are held stationary relative to the recoiling parts. In a short recoil action, the parts that are allowed to recoil are the barrel and the bolt.

At the point when the bullet is fired, the barrel and the bolt are locked together and move backwards due to recoil. After a short distance of travel (a few mm. in the case of pistols and a few caliber lengths in the case of machine guns), the bolt and the barrel disengage from each other. How this is achieved is what differentiates various short recoil operation systems. In some cases, the barrel is slowed down, in other cases, the bolt is accelerated. In either case, the barrel stops moving, whereas the bolt continues to move backwards and compresses a recoil spring and also extracts the old cartridge case at the same time, which is ejected via a side port. The recoil spring then pushes the bolt forwards and as the bolt moves forwards, it picks up the new cartridge from the magazine and pushes it and the barrel forwards. When the barrel reaches its forward position again, the bolt and barrel lock again and the weapon is ready to be fired.

As was mentioned above, in some systems, the barrel is slowed down to separate the barrel from the bolt. Weapons that use this include the classic Colt M1911 pistol designed by John Browning, all Glock pistols, Smith & Wesson, FN Browning, SIG Sauer etc.

In the case of the Browning designed Colt M1911, the bolt, barrel and slide all move backwards together initially, but then a barrel link tilts the barrel downwards. As the barrel tilts, the barrel locking lugs unlock themselves from the slide recesses. The bolt and slide continue to move backwards and an extraction claw on the slide also pulls the spent cartridge out of the chamber.

An ejector strikes the back of the spent cartridge and pushes it out of the extraction port, as the slide and bolt continue to move backwards. When the slide and bolt reach the back of the pistol, the recoil spring pushes them forward and during the forward motion, the slide locks back into the barrel and the three pieces then move back together. The two animated movies below show how this works.

In the case of Glock, SIG Sauer and most recently designed automatic pistols, this mechanism is even more simplified. There is a downward inclined ramp attached to the back of the barrel. As the barrel and slide move backwards, the ramp contacts a fixed stud on the pistol's frame. This causes the back of the barrel to move down (and the front to tilt up), which moves it out of engagement with the slide. The rest of the action is similar to what was described earlier. The animation below shows exactly how this works:

In the above three animations, the one thing is common is that the bolt and barrel initially move backward together and are then separated by slowing down the barrel while leaving the bolt and slide free to continue moving backwards.

Another way to achieve this separation is by accelerating the bolt after they both move back together. This mechanism is most commonly used today in the 7.62 mm. and 12.7 mm. M2 machine guns invented by (surprise, surprise) John Browning! The 12.7 mm. M2 is still used in the famous Abrams tank, as well as most other western tanks, which shows the reliability and timelessness of this design. In the M2 machine gun, the barrel and bolt initially recoil together about 10 mm. backwards and then a rotating cam in the receiver disconnects the bolt from the barrel. The barrel has an extension in the back and bottom of the barrel. After the bolt and barrel are disconnected, this extension then strikes a short, curved lever. The lever is pivoted so that it has a mechanical advantage and therefore it pushes and accelerates the bolt rearward. A fixed stud stops the barrel extension, which also halts the barrel, while the bolt continues rearward. As before, we have an animation to show how it works:

We will continue studying short recoil operations tomorrow, where we will deal with some more historical short-recoil operated weapons such as toggle-bolt short recoil actions. It'll be interesting reading!