Demro XF-7 Wasp - An Open Bolt Semiauto From the 70s
Semiauto Rifles
•
16m
Designed by Gerry Fox in the early 1970s, this carbine saw production sequentially as the Fox Carbine, the TAC-1, and the XF-7 Wasp, as it went through several different manufacturers. It is an open bolt, semiauto carbine sold in both 9mm Parabellum and .45 ACP - and you could get caliber conversion kits consisting of a bolt and barrel assembly to swap caliber on an existing gun. In 9mm they used Sten magazines, and in .45 then used M3 Grease Gun magazines.
The gun was marketed to law enforcement audiences as well as civilians, but never found any LEO success. A fully automatic version was also made, but similarly saw little popularity (because of the cost of NFA registration in the 1970s and 80s). Mechanically, the gun is somewhat akin to the Soviet PPSh, which an upper cover that hinges open and a bolt which is square on the bottom and rounded on top. The TAC-1 version had a few neat additional features, namely a combination lock built into the receiver and a battery in the fixed wooden stock to power a stun gun/baton device for police use. The Wasp replaced the wooden furniture with a fairly clever collapsing metal stock. In total, about 3,500 Fox carbines of all types were made, with production ending in 1983 when the ATF determined that open-bolt semiauto designer were too readily convertible into machine guns.
Up Next in Semiauto Rifles
-
Colombian 7.62mm NATO M1 Garand Conve...
After World War Two, Colombia adopted the .30-06 cartridge as standard, purchasing a thousand .30-06 FN49 rifles and 19,000 surplus American M1 Garand rifles. With the subsequent development of the 7.62mm NATO cartridge, Colombia experimented briefly with converting their existing Garand rifles t...
-
Karabiner-S: The East German Unicorn SKS
One of the rarest patterns of the SKS is the East German type - the Karabiner-S. Total production quantity is not known, but their survival rate is quite low and most of the examples in the US are Vietnam War bring backs. At any rate, the Karabiner-S is not quite an exact copy of the standard SKS...
-
FAL Paratrooper 50.63
FN introduced the paratrooper folding-stock version of the FAL rifle in the early 1960s, and it became a very popular addition to their rifle line. Since the recoil spring on the standard pattern FAL runs down the length of the buttstock, fitting a side folding stock required a redesign to the in...
