Bull I.

This is coolbert:

From this article as seen at the Internet web site American Shooting Journal some extracts regarding the topic of:

"Ugliest Guns of the Past"

"Not sure if these were the result of poor design, lack of materials, or sheer necessity, some firearms and guns are just ugly. Many early automatic weapons and pistols were designed without a complete understanding of what works, leading to strange and ugly guns that barely worked."

With regard to the various firearms as listed two in particular catch my instantaneous attention and are worthy of comment.

1. Duckfoot. Referred to as a volley fire weapon. A black-powder, muzzle-loaded firearm!

DUCKFOOT FROM THE TIME OF SAIL AND WOODEN SHIPS OF YORE. THE CAPTAIN AND MASTER OF A VESSEL DURING A VOYAGE WITH A CREW HE MIGHT PERCEIVE AS POTENTIALLY MUTINOUS CARRYING TWO OR THREE DUCKFOOT' WITH HIM AT ALL TIMES! DISOBEDIENT CREW MEMBERS BEWARE.

"Desperate times during World War II led to a need for cheap, easily made firearms, and there wasn’t time to make them with clean lines and beauty. The result? Some of the ugliest guns and weapons ever made."

2. Soviet Korobov TKB-022PM assault weapon. 

Soviet TKB-022PM bullpup assault weapon as "developed by the small arms designer German A. Korobov in the 1960s". Firing [depending on version] either the Soviet conventional 7.62 X 39 mm. round or the Soviet .220 "deer rifle" round. This weapon an advanced concept just does "look" weird. So "advanced" was rejected by Soviet military planners. The Soviet understandably already having a more-than-adequate assault rifle [AK-47] at their disposal.

For scale and comparison sake a modern Israeli Tavor X95 [also called a MTAR-21] bullpup. Optical sight of the reflex type only and no front and rear sights of the Korobov designed weapon. But Korobov went with was available at the time.

Korobov was far ahead of this time that much is clear. Advantages from the Soviet perspective to replacing the AK with the bullpup TKB-022PM found to scant. But the man [Korobov] was on the right track.

Optical reflex sights the greatest weapons advancement since the Roman gladius? So says one authority. You decide.

coolbert.