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Hoplite Arms

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Hi,

#wishfulwednesdays; as in wishing this was completely finished but still have a few things to touch up on. No point in tying the big machines up for that so off to the little 4 axis machines.

Sincerely,
Theis

Chassis 2.jpg
Chassis 3.jpg
Chassis 4.jpg
Chassis1.jpg
 
The more I look at those pics...I think I’m going to change my color to clear

That aluminum looks pretty cool

and I’m not being “Snipery” anytime soon, so it might as well look good
 
So when do we get to see a video of a Hoplite rifle with a highly compressed pistol powder round blown up for research 🧐 I can’t wait 😛

I'm guessing on a Hoplite rifle it wouldn't be dramatic at all.
Most likely there would be no big kaboom, but you may mess up the bolt / collar and other parts a bit.
Possibly gas and debris blasting out the magazine well at the worst case
 
Desert Tech did that right?!
The one he did was ok but there was no real data it was “expected pressure”

If I remember he said that one round was at 90-80k, which is possible but when he finally pulled the brass out it wasn’t totally destroyed.

At that pressure regular brass flows like water.
 
@orkan did many a moons ago

I had just got back from a hunting trip where I was sick as a dog... you could still hear me sniffling and my voice sounding like my head was inside a traffic cone. Science couldn't wait.



The one he did was ok but there was no real data it was “expected pressure”

If I remember he said that one round was at 90-80k, which is possible but when he finally pulled the brass out it wasn’t totally destroyed.

At that pressure regular brass flows like water.

You can always go do your own tests. :)
I don't recall speculating on the pressure. Not totally destroyed eh? What you call this? The ejector flow measures like an eight of an inch long. lol

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Ill rewatch the video...that was from memory...more than few years ago
 
After the pistol powder that chewed up the bolt face did you guys check the measurements / action lugs for set back, cracks and such?

be great to know if anything compressed etc.
 
I'm guessing on a Hoplite rifle it wouldn't be dramatic at all.
Most likely there would be no big kaboom, but you may mess up the bolt / collar and other parts a bit.
Possibly gas and debris blasting out the magazine well at the worst case
Bolt ain’t getting hurt. Aermet 100 bolt is going to be basically indestructible in this application.

that would make for an interesting video though. Put that 300nm BA in a sled, fill a case plumb full of bullseye and let her rip. I really am interested to see if it’s possible to make this rifle go down due to over pressure rounds with commercially available powders, my guess is no. I could have swore I saw somewhere in this thread that the failure point was north of 200kpsi
 
I had just got back from a hunting trip where I was sick as a dog... you could still hear me sniffling and my voice sounding like my head was inside a traffic cone. Science couldn't wait.





You can always go do your own tests. :)
I don't recall speculating on the pressure. Not totally destroyed eh? What you call this? The ejector flow measures like an eight of an inch long. lol

nDFCHU9h.jpg



Curious what the velocity of that Lapua was.
 
Bolt ain’t getting hurt. Aermet 100 bolt is going to be basically indestructible in this application.

that would make for an interesting video though. Put that 300nm BA in a sled, fill a case plumb full of bullseye and let her rip. I really am interested to see if it’s possible to make this rifle go down due to over pressure rounds with commercially available powders, my guess is no. I could have swore I saw somewhere in this thread that the failure point was north of 200kpsi

Add in plug the barrel with some dirt or dried mud just to make it more interesting.
 
I could have swore I saw somewhere in this thread that the failure point was north of 200kpsi
How do they know that? Have they tested one to the failure point yet?

I guess these questions are more for @THEIS

Have you guys tried to blow one up to see what it will do and how the shooter will fare and videoed it?
 
Several pages back there were still of computer sims they paid for during R&D.

I actually think it was well over 200k with out a bolt face issue.

if you scroll through it’s pretty easy to see them, big pics with blue/green etc.
 
Hi,

The destruction information will be coming soon but it is pretty simple to figure it out based on pure alloy strengths, elongation %, fracture resistance, etc etc.

NO firearm can ever handle more than the ultimate tensile strength of the alloy used....it just cannot!!

Some firearms cannot even handle their alloys ultimate tensile strength due to its' design features.

We know where to start with physical destruction testing based on the 100k dollars of 3rd party/independent engineering labs analysis, static FEA and dynamic FEA.

Dynamic and Static FEA has a crack starting at the firing pin hole in the bolt face at right over 240k cartridge pressures.

It is easy to just "O my god I am going to destructive test my rifle" but that doesn't mean jack shit IF you do not have the equipment to measure what it took to actually destroy it and more important the equipment to measure any stress fractures, microscopic cracks, lug setback, etc etc

There is a reason that the Nationally accredited facilities that do failure analysis and destructive testing (Not much for firearms industry because industry doesn't really do such) for a living cost what they cost.


Edited To Add: Found the previous thread of FEA chart of safety margins using 80k cartridge pressure as the ZERO.

This is FEA done with running Aermet 100 alloy for the bolt and breech cylinder with receiver body of 4140 HRC 45.
At 120k cartridge pressures we are at a safety factor of 4.26.
Notice at 130k cartridge pressures the analysis no longer follows a straight line decrease but then stabilizes back out at 180k cartridge pressures. When our engineering department first seen that it really intrigued us. So much that we ran it again, lol and got same results. We got same results from manually entering the Aermet 100 specs and auto entering from database.

Don't worry of "but that just software analysis"...we doing same test with real detonations, lol

Sincerely,
Theis

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Sincerely,
Theis
 
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So when do we get to see a video of a Hoplite rifle with a highly compressed pistol powder round blown up for research 🧐 I can’t wait 😛

Hi,

So just for shits and giggles, lol...
Here is Gordons Reloading Tool data of 338LM with 300gr Scenars with 70gr (Case cannot even take that amount of fill, lol) of Bullseye.
1620314881293.png


So prediction of 170k....which if using 80k as base zero, lol...... we would be at a 1.58 safety factor.

Sincerely,
Theis
 
So what your showing between the 2 posts is that even a full case of pistol powder the lugs will not shear.

Even though the extractors or plunger make take a beating in theory the bolt could be used again
 
But when will they be for sale?

Hi,

First production batch finishes up in about 2 weeks. Then they go off to coating. The barrel choice will dictate delivery timeframe.
Send me a PM or email with a good time to give you a call tomorrow to discuss what you are looking for.
I have a conference at 9-10CST and 3-4CST; anything else I can give you a call.


Sincerely,
Theis
 
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So what your showing between the 2 posts is that even a full case of pistol powder the lugs will not shear.

Even though the extractors or plunger make take a beating in theory the bolt could be used again
I believe what they said was that Mark Serbu is a quack, needs to immediately recall all of his 50s, pay mr Kentucky ballistics a pile of money for his negligently designed firearm, and go back to looking at guns digest magazine.
 
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I believe what they said was that Mark Serbu is a quack, needs to immediately recall all of his 50s, pay mr Kentucky ballistics a pile of money for his negligently designed firearm, and go back to looking at guns digest magazine.
Backyard ballistics did two excellent videos on the serbu worth watching.
 
Backyard ballistics did two excellent videos on the serbu worth watching.
Okay went and watched them both. A lot of speculation with no data. He even admitted that there needed to be design changes to the gun to prevent it blowing the users face apart.

To me what caused the failure is absolutely irrelevant. The problem is that when the gun experienced an over pressure there was zero thought put into to keep the user safe in the event it happened. Mark Serbu did zero testing to know at what point the gun would fail, and what would happen if it did. If that gun experience an over pressure it will likely kill the user every time.

The R&D process by @THEIS is how firearms should be developed. You can never say that Theis was negligent in his creation of his rifle system.

Mark Serbu created a dangerous product that will likely kill a user in the event of an over pressure. It’s not like an over pressure is a rare event either. How many threads are on this site alone of guys loading stupid hot and blowing their brass apart?

An inexperienced reloader makes a mistake on a Serbu and it can cost him his life.
 
Also, from what I gathered from the kaboom video was it wasn’t a bad handload, but a bad old military round. It’s not like those old .50 rounds are the same quality and consistency as a modern mass produced Hornady 6.5 Creed round lol

So you save money up front on a cheap .50 rifle, but one 80ksi round essentially kills the you. IMO he basically did die, if it wasn’t for for having his father there AND quickly thinking to stick his thumb in his new neck hole, he would’ve been dead in minutes.

Rifles like the Hoplite series or the AI magnum and .50 are designed and tested to NOT kill you. It’s laughable that the Serbu is potentially deadly at the same point the Hoplite has a multiple times safety factor.
 
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So what your showing between the 2 posts is that even a full case of pistol powder the lugs will not shear.

Even though the extractors or plunger make take a beating in theory the bolt could be used again

Hi,

YES. Will do the "home spun" destruction video series in a few weeks.

Will start with the current T&E rifle that has the large firing pin hole with the old style bolt stop/guide.... Just because we need to retire that old tired T&E work horse properly, lol.

Sincerely,
Theis
 
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Hi,

So I wanted to show you all something that very very few, IF any firearms manufacturer have shown publicly wise.

Yesterday we got all the tooling and fixtures lined out to start working on the receiver body in the DMU50.

Today we have started the very first stages of "roughing" the receiver body out.

Bet you that you will not find another firearms manufacturer willing to show the process(es) as we have from the very first day I posted this thread.

This is what it looks like in first roughing out stages of 4140 vacuum hardened to 43-48HRC with target of 45HRC.

Our entire receiver, bolt, breech cylinder, etc (All steel parts) are cut entirely AFTER heat treatment process.

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Sincerely,
Theis
 
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Bolt ain’t getting hurt. Aermet 100 bolt is going to be basically indestructible in this application.

that would make for an interesting video though. Put that 300nm BA in a sled, fill a case plumb full of bullseye and let her rip. I really am interested to see if it’s possible to make this rifle go down due to over pressure rounds with commercially available powders, my guess is no. I could have swore I saw somewhere in this thread that the failure point was north of 200kpsi

Add in plug the barrel with some dirt or dried mud just to make it more interesting.
Hi,

YES. Will do the "home spun" destruction video series in a few weeks.

Will start with the current T&E rifle that has the large firing pin hole with the old style bolt stop/guide.... Just because we need to retire that old tired T&E work horse properly, lol.

Sincerely,
Theis



Noooooo!
Send you poor, your old, your tired Hoplite rifles to me and I'll give them a nice warm Florida style retirement.
 
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@THEIS
When you start getting into the Phalanx series rifles, for the barrels, have you done any analysis on how the new Bartlein BB steel barrels would compare to the stuff from Aubert & Duval? which is supposedly what H&K uses?

Get a couple of pallets like this delivered to your production facility?
 

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Hi,

Figured some of you guys are tired of seeing "behind the scenes images of shop stuff" so here is quick picture of target during this weekends session of checking seating depth with the @bohem 212gr 30cal Senacas in the 300NM.

No "load development" done per say....just loaded some once fired and FL sized lapua cases up with 89gr of N570.

.020 off lands is a good starting point for further development.

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Sincerely,
Theis
 
Hi,

Welcome to Taco Tuesday :)

Yesterday was a whole lot of "cutting & checking" before anyone just starts securing shit in holders and pressing buttons.
Below are miscellaneous pictures taken during various operations/cycles while live time validation of processes continue.

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Sincerely,
Theis
 

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