Quote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
I guess I was thinking of the H&K rifles,the L85 (unless it does, never seen one up close), FAMAS, VZ-58, and FNC that has not bolt release button.
As for the XM8's rails...still doesn't quite make sense. There are rail covers and vertical foregrips that some would like to be further back and some people hold their rifles further up the handguard. I think this was more of a design choice than for sorta practical choice because a lot of guys hold their rifles closer towards the magwell
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I think the main reason is more the shape of the receiver extension beneath the handguard. Bear in mind that the XM8 was built as a modular weapon where the handguards could be switched out for different length ones in moments without tools so there is a pretty big thing under there with a lot of surface area to give it a secure fit, which could potentially have been an issue for mounting a more traditional aluminium extrusion type railed handguard. You can still make the argument that maybe they could have made the handguard less modular but longer/lower profile, but I think when they came up with this they were just throwing shit at the wall to see what would stick (this version actually sorta did, the sharpshooter version of this configuration is one of the guns that the Malaysians purchased).
FYI, the L85 along with all of the other SA80 weapons locks open on an empty mag and has both a bolt release and a manual bolt hold open. Rather uniquely they are not the same lever though, instead the bolt hold open is a tear-drop shaped lever behind the ejection port (you push it down with your left thumb while reaching over the top to pull the bolt back), whereas the bolt release is a square catch on the left side behind the magazine well just above the selector. They are in different places as you need one by the ejection port to lock the bolt open due to the cocking handle being mounted on the bolt, whilst this would be very inconvenient for releasing the bolt during a reload so they put the other by the magazine well.