Is FN EVOLYS an evolution or a mutation? So far, the answer is still unknown. But personally, I highly praise this spirit of innovation.
If the development of firearms is compared to life, then the days now are like water gently sliding by, without any wind or waves. In the ordinary years, we can neither see any bad eye-catching designs nor any revolutionary new works. However, last year, FN resolutely threw a big stone into the water, which scared people, including me, who were standing by the water in a daze.
The big stone thrown into the water by FN is called "EVOLYS", which literally means "evolution". From the name "evolution", it can be seen that FN has placed great hopes on EVOLYS, and even believes that FNEVOLYS represents the direction of future machine gun development. However, the word "evolution" also makes me fall into memories.
I remember when I was in high school, I asked my biology teacher, what is the difference between mutation and evolution? The teacher told me that successful mutations that are more adaptable to the environment are evolution, and failed mutations that are not adaptable to the environment can only be called mutations. In my opinion, FN EVOLYS is a "mutated" machine gun. Its unique design completely stunned me.
The inclined ammunition feeding that is as stable as an old dog
The inclined ammunition feeding is the characteristic mechanism of FN EVOLYS.
The ammunition feeding path of belt-fed machine guns has always been parallel to the gun body. The belt box is often located on the side or below the receiver. The ammunition belt must first "climb" nearly vertically, then make a 90° turn and enter the gun’s receiver from left to right or from right to left. This has been the "ancestral system" of machine guns for hundreds of years, and FN EVOLYS has changed all that. Its ammunition belt only "climbs" a short distance, then it turns an unusual 45° bend and enters the gun from the lower left to the upper right. As a hardcore gun fan, the first time I saw the inclined feeding, I vaguely felt that this was a very powerful mechanism, which is likely to bring a new trend in machine gun design. The feeding of traditional machine guns has always had a bug-shaking. From the ammunition belt box to the receiver, the ammunition belt has to make a 90° bend. The higher the ammunition belt climbs and the faster the speed, the greater the shaking amplitude, which will have certain reliability risks. At this time, the folk method-cans/canned food will come in handy. Some shooters will stuff cans between the ammunition belt box and the receiver to avoid excessive shaking of the ammunition belt. In contrast, the climbing height of the ammunition belt of the inclined feeding is very low, and the feeding path does not exist yet. The 90° turn makes the belt movement very stable, just like an old dog.
However, the gift of fate has already been secretly marked with a price, and the strange design also has its own price. The feeder and receiver of traditional machine guns are T-shaped, the feeder is "一", and the receiver is "|", which can be designed to be very thin, while the inclined feeding is "亻"-shaped, and the width of the receiver cannot be reduced. For this reason, FN EVOLYS Became a round fat man.
A small problem with tilted feeding
In addition, tilted feeding also brought a small accident. For machine guns that use a scatterable belt, the end of the belt is often unable to be discharged smoothly, but it will not have any negative effects. After the shooter opens the receiver cover, he can use his hand to pull out the end of the belt, or blow a breath with his mouth to blow away the end of the belt. But after using tilted feeding, the belt will fall into the gun under gravity. Therefore, FN EVOLYS A special mechanism must be designed to "kick" out the end of the belt.
In the designer’s expectation, the soldier should open the tripod, hold the machine gun and lie down to be a good "Voldemort". However, in recent years, there are more and more macho men in the army. Macho men will use light machine guns as rifles and shoot at various coquettish and strange angles. In this context, the end of the belt will still cause some problems. Therefore, I think FN The EVOLYS’s belt-end discharge mechanism can be extended to all machine guns with dispersible belts, which is indeed a very good design.
Super-long continuous rails
In today’s gun fans, there are always some people who suffer from "insufficient rails fear", and always think that the longer the rails, the better, and the more the rails, the better. For such people, real gun fans often sneer at them-too many rails are not used at all, not only adding useless weight, but also the sharp corners of the rails will cut your hands, so why do you need so many rails?
However, EVOLYS will definitely make people with "insufficient rails fear" feel comfortable. The receiver cover (receiver cover) of traditional machine guns is mostly flipped up, just to "cut the rails in half". FNEVOLYS uses tilted feeding, and the receiver cover is opened sideways, perfectly avoiding the space on the top of the receiver. Therefore, FNEVOLYS has an extra-long continuous leather rail on the top of the receiver, and the length of the leather rail is even longer than the barrel.
With this extra-long continuous leather rail, you can install extra-long sights and install tandem sights, as many as you want. The patients were happy, but I was confused. Machine guns are big guys! It has enough space, even if the receiver cover cuts off the leather rail, the remaining leather rail length is enough. What’s more, shouldn’t the miniaturization and lightweight of the sight be the trend? Is it necessary to design such a long leather rail? Is this going to install a highway on the leather rail?
The machine gun that pissed off the reviewer.
It is said that in every gun company, there is such an old employee who is not young, has been in the factory for many years, is experienced, and has retired to the second line. He knows the processing level of the factory very well and the profitability of the products. The plans put forward by young and middle-aged people must be reviewed by the old employees to determine whether the plans meet the "factory situation".
I personally like to call these old employees "reviewers". When the reviewer reviews your plan, if he is happy and does not express any opinions, then your plan is likely to be processed smoothly; if he frowns and says a lot, then your plan will be processed stumblingly; if he is at a loss and falls silent after reading the plan, then congratulations, your plan is simply an outrageous mother opening the door to outrageousness-outrageous to the extreme.
In comparison, the receiver of FN EVOLYS can no longer be described as outrageous, it can simply piss off the judges. I stared at the receiver of EVOLYS for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion in confusion: EVOLYS actually uses a typical super-large, super-high, super-wide integrated thin-walled structure receiver.
In recent years, the receivers of guns have become larger and larger like mobile phone screens. Larger receivers require larger blanks and more processing, and the cost will become more and more expensive like mobile phones. In order to reduce costs as much as possible, designers from all over the world racked their brains in the design of the receiver, trying to make the appearance of the receiver simple for easy processing, or make the receiver as compact as possible and not too large, or divide the receiver into several pieces for separate processing to improve efficiency.
The EVOLYS is the opposite. Its receiver is neither simple nor compact, nor is it separate, but has a complex appearance and a bloated structure. There are even exaggerated hollow structures designed in the front of the receiver. Such a receiver will make the draftsman cry and the machine toolman silent - it is too difficult to process.
I have always been very confused in my heart. Why does FN use such a receiver? I have summarized three possibilities: First, FN has mastered some new efficient and cheap processing methods, and is not afraid of the complexity of the receiver; second, FN has invited a professional marketing team to sell EVOLYS at the price of art; third, the FN reviewer was absent due to illness during the review. In short, I don’t understand the receiver of FN EVOLYS, but I am shocked.
The non-foldable SCAR buttstock
In addition, FN EVOLYS directly uses the snow boot buttstock of the SCAR rifle, which also shocked me. The SCAR rifle is the benchmark of rifle design in recent years, but its buttstock is really hard to describe. The snow boot buttstock is very functional, and its appearance design challenges the lower limit of human aesthetics. It is one of the most unforgettable magical gun designs in the past 20 years.
But the most important thing is that the snow boot buttstock is a rifle buttstock, not a machine gun buttstock. There is often a support plate at the end of the machine gun buttstock, which can be supported on the shooter’s shoulder to support the weight of the gun. When shooting in a prone position, the shooter’s other hand will hold the buttstock. Therefore, although the appearance of machine gun buttstocks today is not highly unified, they are definitely different from rifle buttstocks. The butt of FN EVOLYS is actually directly connected to the snow boot buttstock, which further shocked me.
By the way, as a machine gun, EVOLYS cannot quickly change the barrel
A machine gun that tries to be a rifle
What shocked me even more is that FN EVOLYS still retains the function of single-shot shooting.
In history, there have indeed been some machine guns that can fire single shots, such as the MG34 whose trigger is divided into two parts, the upper and lower parts, and the shooter can fire a bullet when pulling the upper part. However, people quickly discovered that machine guns are useless for firing single shots. Therefore, the single-shot function of machine guns was gradually eliminated.
But on EVOLYS, FN really developed a single-shot function. Not only that, EVOLYS also thoughtfully added a closed-bolt waiting function. When firing a single shot, EVOLYS uses a closed-bolt waiting function, and when firing continuously, it uses an open-bolt waiting function. Generally speaking, single-shot + closed-bolt is the design routine of rifles, while continuous firing + open-bolt is the routine of machine guns. Why does FN want to "buy one get one free"? Just when I was puzzled, my friend reminded me that FN might want to make a rifle-machine gun. This statement made me suddenly realize. In the publicity, FN has always emphasized that the center of gravity of EVOLYS is particularly excellent, the front and rear weight balance, and it is very convenient to operate. It also additionally promotes the low recoil and good control of this gun. In terms of weight, EVOLYS is equipped with a short and thin "pencil" barrel. The weight of the 5.56 mm caliber version is only 5.5 kg, which is one of the lightest belt-fed machine guns at present. Such publicity and performance make people feel that FN is completely promoting a rifle.
If EVOLYS really wants to go the rifle-machine gun route, then all the designs seem logical. The shooting state of the rifle-machine gun is more complicated, and the belt shakes more violently, so there must be an inclined feeding; the rifle-machine gun must not be too heavy, so EVOLYS is very light: the rifle-machine gun must consider single-shot accuracy, so EVOLYS has added a closed-bolt waiting function. As for EVOLYS using the SCAR rifle buttstock, it seems extremely normal.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the development of firearms today is unusually calm. The new machine guns developed by various countries all follow the old routine of "reinventing the wheel". In this context, FN chose to let machine guns follow the path of rifles. This spirit is indeed rare and precious. I personally agree with the development routine of rifles and machine guns, and I also think that the new generation of light machine guns should be easier to operate. However, it is hard to say whether the new generation of light machine guns will become like EVOLYS.
Summary
In this article, we talked about the many fantastic designs of EVOLYS. I really admire FN for daring to think and do. I hope they can provide some new ideas for the development of machine guns.
