INNOVATIVE (groundbreaking, breakthrough?) NEW FIREARM!

Boberg Engineering (St. Paul MN ?) ^ | Boberg Engineering

[mamelukesabre]

A Revolution In Cartridge Feeding

The Boberg XR9 Introducing the world's most powerful 9mm pocket-sized pistol.

Summary

Basically, the XR9 is a pocket pistol with a full length barrel, having the magazine located directly under the chamber. The patent-pending feed mechanism grabs a cartridge from the magazine and delivers it straight into the chamber. This allows the chamber clearance to be significantly less, causing less energy and noise to blast out the back. With this combination, kinetic energy is maximized, and in many cases will exceed the energy produced in full-sized pistols.

Just an FYI to all of you out there that prefer other calibers to 9mm - be patient! The first offering will be in 9mm because it remains highly popular, is relatively inexpensive to practice with, provides a decent round count in the magazine, and delivers a lot of power in many styles of +P. The key point here is that the Boberg XR9 will always provide superior power to any same-sized gun, and many larger guns in any caliber it is offered. Other calibers will be offered pending the success of the 9mm version.

[hiredhand]

No thanks

John got it ‘right’ with the 1911....

I was just sort of thinking the same thing. The concept of the pistol is amazing, but my Series 80 Colt is as well. :-) I'll stick with what's proven until it's shown beyond reasonable doubt that what I have is deficient.




:-)

Actually, I like what my daughter says. She came up with this little saying one afternoon when we were reloading and she was measuring cases as we were setting up the sizing die for headspacing. She picked up a FMJ bullet, measured it, and thought for a moment, and then said -

The .45ACP is 48 thousandths of an inch from being a fifty!

Then again, a 9mm is only .143 smaller in diameter than .5.

I never really thought it about that way. I rather always thought of ALL pistols as glorified rock throwers. :-) People get "stuck" in fascination with terms like "fifty" and forget that it merely means "fifty one-hundredths of an inch". Big deal. I've been temped to convert over into binary just to freak everybody out so I can say that I have a "110010", which really makes less sense than being enamored with the term "fifty" because there aren't decimals in binary numbers. Some years back, the pistol shooting world was virtually taken over by the 9mm. Old skeptics like Col. Cooper stayed cautiously in the rear while everybody ignored them. Every LE agency in the nation switched over. How many of them have gone back to the .45ACP now?....a LOT. Now granted, I don't see a lot of Colt pistols in holsters, but I think you understand what I'm trying to say.

I remember the last time we all got into a huge heated discussion about the merits and disadvantages of our favorite handgun calibers. I spent some serious time in the reloading manuals as well as researching real world stats, courtesy of people like Col. Jeff Cooper. I came to the conclusion that to argue the merits of 9mm .40S&W, and .45ACP is sort of like arguing about which brand of kitty litter your cat is crapping in.

I've got a friend who's the LEO in charge of CID at a Sheriff's Dept a couple of counties over. He's a former SEAL and owns a small company that teaches people to shoot. They train HRT shooters, air marshals, and knuckle heads like us. :-) He carries a small .380 and I can't even remember what kind it is, but I wouldn't want to be within about 80 feet of him if I were the object of his aggression. He convinced me that consistent and steady practice, combined with building good habits are critical in surviving a gunfight. No amount of technology that is able to pack a slightly longer barrel in a shorter overall package can compensate for a human problem.

Just my opinion of course. :-)

[Tainan]

"Is that a Boberg XR9 Shorty in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

[green iguana]

Watch the action video. The feed ramp is the black leaf spring looking thing behind the top cartridge as shown in post 13. The cartridge gets pulled back onto it and then it cams up, lifting the cartridge up to barrel height.

[ctdonath2]

Nifty! I’ve been imagining such a design for years, but not being a mechanical engineer didn’t run with it. Glad to see someone actually built one. Now I have to get one...

[ASOC]

LOL

I like to do the math

230 gr
900 fps
490+ ft lbs of energy
dumped into ‘about’ a half inch.

I like those numbers....

[supercat]

I've been temped to convert over into binary just to freak everybody out so I can say that I have a "110010", which really makes less sense than being enamored with the term "fifty" because there aren't decimals in binary numbers.

No, there's a binary point. A half an inch would be 0.1" in binary; a quarter inch would be 0.01". A value of 0.357" (decimal) would be 0.010110110110 in binary. The big five-o in decimal represents the difference between having a zero or a one in the first digit to the right of the binary point.

[hiredhand]

Wouldn’t .5 decimal be .101 binary? Sheesh...that makes my head hurt. :-) Where’s the LSB in a binary number with a “point”? I never thought about it to be honest. :-)

[BCR #226]

This is a nice re-application of part of the feed design of the Browning 1919 and M2 machine guns. Instead of a belt that is being stripped, the rounds are stripped back from a magazine.

It’s a real cool idea and I’d love to see one in the flesh so to speak.

Mike

[hiredhand]

LOL

I like to do the math

230 gr
900 fps
490+ ft lbs of energy
dumped into ‘about’ a half inch.

I like those numbers....

I know people are just going to think I'm gross. But if I MUST stop another human being by issuing deadly force, bearing in mind that this action of stopping them is probably going to kill them... I don't want to have to watch them squirt blood everywhere from a smaller handgun wound, and cry and shout and thrash around for a couple of minutes before finally dying. I just don't want the mental anguish and aggravation.

That's the main reason I carry a full sized semi-auto (Colt Series 80, .45ACP). It's gross I know, but that's the reason!

[supercat]

Wouldn’t .5 decimal be .101 binary? Sheesh...that makes my head hurt. :-)

In decimal, the first place to the right of the decimal point is 1/10^1, the second is 1/10^2, the third 1/10^3, etc. In binary, the places are 1/2^1, 1/2^2, 1/2^3, etc. So 357/1000 is roughly 1/4+1/16+1/32+1/128+1/256+1/1024+1/2048 (that's actually 731/2048, or 0.35693359375).

[DuncanWaring]

I think .5 decimal would be .1 binary.

.5 decimal = 1/2 = 2^-1. The first position to the left of the decimal point would correspond to 2⁰, the first position to the right would be 2^-1.

Therefore, 0.5₁₀ = 0.1₂.

Disregarding entirely, for now, the legitimacy of a "decimal point" in a binary counting system.

< /geek>

[hiredhand]

O.K...I got it now. :-) It just “clicked”. I do believe .5 decimal is .1 binary. ...strange way of thinking indeed! :-)

[DuncanWaring]

Halloween = Christmas

31_Oct = 25_Dec

QED

Ducking

[mamelukesabre]

I don’t think your numbers add up. I don’t think 230 grains at 900 fps will give you more than about 400 lb-ft of energy.

here’s the formula:

E=1/2 mv^2

To use units common with bullets and firearms, you need to do some pretty heavy duty conversions(to a non-math person)

Use mass in grains, and velocity in ft/sec

since grains is weight, not mass, you need to divide it by the acceleration of gravity(32.1739 ft/sec/sec). Also, there are 7000 grains in a pound, so divide it by 7000 as well.

That formula will give you 413 lb-ft of energy for your 45ACP bullet.

Now, compare that to a 9mm +P round.

90 grains
1500 fps

energy works out to 450 lb-ft.

413<450 so the 45 loses and the 9mm wins.

Also, I would like to point out that not many 45 ACP rounds weighing 230 grains actually acheive 900fps. Most will be right about 800-850 fps. That yields an energy value in the neighborhood of 300-350 lb-ft...maybe slightly higher.

To put that into perspective...a top performing 22 magnum rimfire bullet has an energy value of 330 to 345 lb-ft.

Theoretically, the 45ACP is pretty weak. In the real world though, the 45 drops bad guys way better than the numbers would seem to indicate.

[ASOC]

I forgot the whole gavity thing -thanks.

It really boils down to a matter of trust -

45 worked for Gramps in France

45 worked for Dad and Uncle in North Africa and the PTO -

I carried a 45 for a number of years

and my son wished the Corps wold have issue him a 45 and not the POS M9 he did get..... (he does now have a 45 at home as do all my sons)

SO, the 9mm is good if you wish to carry one, but for serious late night social encounters, I’ll stick with Mr Johns best product..... a 45 ACP Kimber compact carry....

[mamelukesabre]

There's no searching. The problem is staring you right in the face, just open your eyes.

The problem is very very short barrels of tiny pocket pistols. When you get down under 3” of barrel length, this design will add to your barrel length an amount approximately equal to the cartridge length without adding anything to the overall length of the pistol.

So for a 9mm cartridge, that means you lengthen a three inch barrel to a 4 inch barrel AT LEAST.

If you think that is meaningless in terms of muzzle energy, you better consult some ballistics data.

For longer cartridges, like a 10mm, the effect will be even more impressive.

[Lurker]

The problem is very very short barrels of tiny pocket pistols.

If you want a 'pocket pistol' with a short barrel, there are plenty of those on the market. The only people who are going to buy this thing, assuming they ever actually produce one of course, is suckers with more money than brains.

L

[Trailerpark Badass]

So, for all the added complexity, with the resultant possibility of malfunctions, you get a whopping total of 1.170 more barrel length? Or, put another way, 1.170 or so less slide length? The handle is what's hard to conceal on a handgun, not the slide.

Also, the energy contained in the cartridge will now have to do double duty, in that it has to extract/eject the fired case, but it also now has to "extract" the next round from the magazine.

[mamelukesabre]

Not if it acutally works reliably. If it does work reliably and price isn’t out of line, it’s going to take over the pocket pistol business.

[mamelukesabre]

Huh?

What the heck do you think extracts the next round in a conventional pistol?