Good ideas live forever

---

I was talking with Hive account@bluelightbandit (great guy, you should follow him) about his collection of lever action rifles. I began to think to myself about how sad it is that lever guns are essentially an outdated holdover of the westward expansion, and that's where it will essentially stay. And then it hit me: That's not true at all. The lever gun, not in external form, but in internal design had massive impacts on arms design for at least another century and beyond. It turns out that the lever gun concept unintentionally pioneered the toggle lock, an early semiautomatic mechanism.

What is toggle locking?

This is one type of locked-breach system for a firearm (cartridge is sealed in the chamber until extraction). How it works is incredibly simple. There are two linkages attached by an inline pivot. Once the lever is closed, the two links line up end-to-end directly behind the chamber. To show how sturdy it is, stick your finger out and lock your joint. Press on your finger and see that it doesn't move. A straight line between the chamber and the rear of the receiver is incredibly robust

(a side shot of the linkage pivoted downwards as the level is thrown)

Adaptation

Early developers of autoloading firearms saw the benefits of this system. It is strong, simple, and doesn't require any complex movements (like the early bolt action conversions had to contend with). Many famous weapons have used this system.

LMG's

Both the Vickers and Maxim guns used a toggle system and collectively span nearly 100 years of service life in various militaries. These are short recoil operated (they use the rearward momentum of the barrel to pop the toggle which then returns under spring pressure).

Handguns

This is where it has shined the most. As an improvement over the Borchardt, the P08 Luger was one of the most widely adopted military weapons in history. The design was ingenious. Instead of having the toggle flex downward, it was made to flex upwards under barrel recoil. With a significant amount of the action being built over the barrel, they have a very low bore axis. While not the most reliable, they were the first truly serviceable and mass-producible semiautomatic handguns.

(German P08 with toggle locked open)

Rifles

Not many semiauto rifles have been made with this system, but there is one notable entry: the Pederson rifle. This competed against the M1, but lost since it used a new cartridge and required more exact tolerances. The Japanese army ended up testing a copy of this gun as well. Do you see the resemblance?

Source

Where is it now?

Surprisingly, the action has recently seen some love. The Kriss Vector uses a toggle for its abnormal recoil reduction system. In research, I came across a great quote that sums this up very well:

Workable technology never dies, it just falls out of fashion until somebody figures out a new way to exploit it.
Source

-Hive account@roofcore

All uncited images are from Wikimedia and distributed under CC licence.