I have two friends who served in the Royal Marines, can confirm they can and will use their rifles for every single imaginable purpose that doesn't involve shooting.
Reminds me of tale of a pair trying to give a third a leg up with a rifle as a step, now the two have seen it in a war film but an SLR is mot as strong as an old enfield rifle, gun bends and the two end up on report for it.
Well... a soldier at the most basic level (infantryman) is trained in rifle-based problem solving. Can't blame him for extending this rationale to non-combat situations 😏
I think that the Stoner 63 system fell victim to bad timing. During that period, the military (Army), already had it's hands full with working the bugs out of the M16, while conducting combat ops in Vietnam. So, I can see why they would be reluctant to take on another weapon that would also need further development. It's too bad really. I always felt that once the bugs were worked out, the M63 would have grown into the better system.
That may have played a roll in it. I think the other reason was that the modularity is kind of a novelty imo. An M60 is always an M60, you know what it is, how it operates and how to maintain it. This guy would likely require some special training. Plus, you wouldn't be changing out parts in the field anyway. Odds are it would leave the arsenal in one config and stay that way. And id also bet it cost a bit more to manufacture, plus being heavier then an average M16. So lots of little oddities about it that likely hindered and eventually killed its adoption.
There is a point to that, but having one set of replacement parts and the ability to convert basically any gun into any role it needs to fill is great from a logistical standpoint, to the point that I think it might have been adopted on that idea alone even if it was slightly inferior to some of the other options. The ability to go "My squad support weapon just broke. Timmy! Bolt the other bits on and grab the ammo!" sounds like a quartermasters wet dream
+Arkhaan, Yeah from a quartermasters perspective this is great, only having to worry about one set of spare parts, for one weapon. Instead of the entire parts list for the M60, the M16, etc, etc. And I can see it being a special ops teams best friend, having the ability to configure it for a mission, possibly on short notice would be a god send. As opposed to being out in the field and possibly having to use a not so great weapon for the job. But to a soldier in the field I can't see any of that mattering. Other then maybe fast repairs back at base I guess. Because when shit gets real, you may want and need a light machine gun, or SAW. But worry about that latter and get out of there alive now, with what you have. Lots of possible uses and little oddities about this, it was well built and designed for sure, but I think maybe it was to universal if that makes sense.
Yeah it was definitely to complex for the war that was going on and is more than likely why it never got adopted, but the design makes a lot of sense to me in the terms of the war people feared was coming. A knockdown drag out between the USSR and the US where battlefield loss of weapons and a massive variety of battlefronts seem to be the world this gun was made for
Possibly. But id think that type of war would have been more decided by who had the most effective use of armor and air power then anything else. Thankfully, we don't have any actual battles to analyze and determine an answer. Just what if's and possibilities.
First time I heard about the Stoner was in a non-fiction novel about Vietnam Navy Seals. You can tell he loved his Stoner because he spent Tom Clancy amounts of exposition describing his LMG configuration Stoner. I would love to have one of these.
My favourite thing about this channel is just seeing the creative engineering that people put into these things, and this is an amazing example of that.
@@drenek1 Look closely at most avenues of life. You'll see a similar irony. No reason why we cannot appreciate our own engineering achievements regardless of the ends they were designed to meet.
Honesty their was this much engineering into anything old. They didnt have batteries computers to run everything like today. Swiss watches, grandfather clocks, firearms, steam engines, the model T. The world of mechanical objects is vast and satisfying in ways modern objects will never be. Things used to be made to last forever or be repaired/refurbished. now they are made to break after warranty so you throw it in the landfill and buy a new one.
My son was born three months premature. Amongst other problems, he had to be fed. So the hospital used a 'Complete Feed Formula'. It STUNK! Honestly your eyes watered. I was told by the Doctor, it had been developed for the Royal Marines, but even they wouldn't eat it. Must have done some good though my son is now a hulking great thirty year old, and I' have two Grandaughters.
51WCDodge That can't be true...we've seen Marines laugh off the gastrointestinal distress caused by potato salad MREs. No way a stinky supernutritional formula would put them off. 😂
there's is a British saying , "engineers have the dreams the rest of use get the nightmares". this gun seems to be a living example of that saying. a very clever idea but I would hate to be the guy trying to make it work in a real world military environment.
My jaw dropped when I saw this available, was just perusing the upcoming auctions and never expected to see one of these. Was positively giddy to see a video from you on it as well.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine I actually did hump the 249 for several years, and while it's a great gun, I don't see many reasons I couldn't have used this instead. In fact, it would have been super, since as a lefty, I always had to *tightly* fit my right cuff and never shoot without gloves lest my hand stray across the ejection port! I got hot brass INSIDE my uniform to figure out the first, and an extremely numb palm the first time I did the second.
The gun has an incorrect bipod in that its a 63 bipod not a 63A bipod as well the bolt carrier roller extension on this gun has a 63 extension instead of the correct 63A extension. The expected price seems a bit too high considering only one configuration that;s not beltfed and the incorrect parts. 14:00 The LMG/automatic rifle hand guard is not used in the rifle/carbine configuration as stated in the video. The rifle/carbine handguard is part of the magazine well that is used. 17:13 The second hole is used when the receiver was made and has nothing to do with the trigger group. The disconnector, used in the rifle/carbine is on the other side of the receiver when its inverted. The carrier extension must be inverted when going to the rifle/carbine configuration. Can't blame you for the errors since if you don't own one you would not really expected to know all these items.
Next time you are near Houston Texas, let me know and I'll let you do a full out Stoner video with all the configurations and you can shoot it to boot.
In reason why ww2 lmg had a top mag is simple you had to keep the gun aim at a target but when you reloading but you lost your targets in the middle of your reloading is simply design for you to reload faster
James "Patches" Watson was a SEAL in Vietnam and he wrote 2 books, Point Man and Walking Point. He used the Stoner quite a bit and wrote about it in one or both books. He was in Richard Marcinko's platoon, a very famous SEAL. They picked up the ammo links in the field when possible because they didn't have enough of them, according to what I read.
Ironic how the holy grail after WW2 was a universal gun, yet when they really had a gun that could serve as a Universal Gun - especially if it had been fully adopted with the extended development that goes with that - would have been the potential “one gun that rules all guns” gun.
I have been wanting to see a video of this gun by you, these guns have wildly fascinated me since I saw them. Now knowing how much more versatile they are at least on paper is incredible that all this was planned out.
I've had two Robinson M96's for many years, both the rifle and Recon carbine. They are beautifully made re-engineered firearms, extremely accurate and totally reliable. I'm sure Alex Robinson never made a profit making them. That being said, even with the improvements they are most certainly not GI friendly. Whoever won this auction absolutely stole this weapon. It is the nicest by far of the very few originals I have seen.
I love this weapon and it's name. I love guns and cannabis and as a stoner as they call weed heads i like Eugene Stoner and his weapons designs more. Thanks for all you awesome videos Ian! The best weapons channel on TH-cam.
If you ever get a chance Ian, please do one of your longer format videos about the stoner 63 and as many of the configuration pieces as you can. I would love to see you rearrange and shoot each type. I do think that with enough R&D put into this system it could have been amazing for the military to have many weapon roles in one package. Especially now with the USMC wanting to give everyone a M27 IAR to make every Marine an automatic rifleman instead of rifleman. Amazing content as always, keep it up as long as your TH-cam overlords will allow you!
Anything that loads from the top gets my vote, but the whole concept has always seemed brilliant, with incredible attention to design. Shame it wasn’t adopted in numbers. I’d love to own this!
Stoner was nothing short of a genius. What an amazing design. I wonder though if logistic supply concerns would arise in mass production applications with a system requiring so many parts to convert between the available set ups? Still love it though👍
Thanks Ian for your channel! I love to learn the stuff beside the usual semi-informative content on many other channels! Thanks again and greetings from Switzerland...if you are ever here you can use my hole arsenal...not much forgotten but a lot of fun!
There was Robinson's M96 that even take AR magazines, but those (and their parts for both spares and different configs) are a little scarce and they don't make them anymore. No sure if they still at least service them either.
This would have been amazing today. A Arms room could have just a drawer of spare parts for literally every weapon in there. Anyone who's dealt with spare parts in the Army knows how amazing this sounds.
I've been watching Ian's videos on this channel over a year now. Of course I have watched his older videos too. Though this is the first video where, in my mind where he is super excited about a projectile weapon (when you listen to his voice, the excitement can be clearly heard).
I would love to own this and a full kit for it. Well, almost all the full kit. Don't need the fixed MG version. I can see why it wouldn't take off though. To have it so modular, I can't help but wonder about the tolerances, how the parts fit together, even the endurance, reliability of some of the parts. I don't think you can have something so modular, from carbine to full AR, belt fed, without some trade offs, somewhere. Though, I still like the idea, quite a lot, actually. No chance people know of some after action reports, studies on this? I would like to do some more reading on and about.
He sure knew how to make a modular system. If this thing went on, just imagine what modern parts, Magpul for example, would look like today. It'd probably be quite a bit lighter too.
The one thing I want to see more than any video, Ian, is a video where you put a Stoner 63 in different configurations on camera. That is one thing I've never seen done.
Ah, Stoner 63. Can practically be a different amount of guns. Mgs3 had some fun lore on the MG configuration and how one can change out parts and make different versions. It's a modular weapon system. It's perfect. Like those Republic commando blasters from starwars or a morph gun from jak 2 and 3. It's beautiful weapon
"...broken ball bearing" and that's when I lost it completely. Only half an hour later, was I able to haul myself up off the floor, with horrendously aching sides ;-)
I Wonder if that's where the inspiration for the "Johnny Seven Gun" came from, It was almost Every Small Boys dream Gun In the 1960s , As always another great history lesson from Ian . Thanks !
I Always wanted one but My folks couldn't afford one back then, I Still can't really afford one even now ! I have bought Motorbikes for less than a complete functional Johnny Seven gun costs now , You could buy quite a few Air rifles or even half decent Powder burners for what they cost Now .
I had a Johnny Seven for Xmas 1965 . I took tea to my grandmother who was sat up in her bed and I had my toy strapped to me . Gran asked what the red button was for on the side of the toy and I had not noticed it . She suggested I pressed the button . The anti-tank red rocket knocked out her left boob quite effectively ! Best Chrisey present ever ! Lol
I have an Cadillac Gage Company original pamphlet that describes the Stoner 63 system and shows all the weapon setups from 1964. The photos for the Assault Rifle, Carbine, both Light Machine Gun setups originally had wooden grips and butt stocks. The Carbine version had a folding butt stock. I guess you could go out with whatever configuration struck your fancy that day.
Has a College or University ever offered Ian a PHD for all the work and research he has put into the subject of Firearms History? Seems like he ought to have earned one or two by now.
Ian, I'm glad you finally got to do a 63a this is one I've been wating for. I hope you could do a series on these with all the diffrent configurations.
I would agree but I think he over-engineered it. There was no need for the rifle & carbine configuration. The belt-fed & top-mounted magazine would've been enough. Wonder if that'd make it require less maintenance.
@@lepmuhangpa Depends on what the purpose of the weapon is. Modularity was the whole point of his design, but it would not be suitable for uneducated conscripts.
@@hairydogstail Ah, thinking like that is why this gun was so special & specific that it essentially wasn't widely adopted. I don't think Eugene Stoner was going for practicality anyway.
This is one of my dream guns. I was able to be graced by the presence of a Robinson M96 in the rarer top feed configuration, but sadly it was out of my price range. Maybe someday!
I think side, or side-down mags are really cool. Things like the johnson and the side mag option of the m249. A side-dum makes the m249 look like its from ww2 or somthing
If they ever allow registering new machineguns they need to make some of these, although preferably with more standard magazines rather than proprietary.
A couple of detail questions: First is, how does it fire in closed bolt operation? It looks like the firing pin is "fixed", so that when then bolt head is locked, the pin automatically protrudes and fires the cartridge. But if the same bolt/carrier is used in the rifle/carbine, how does it operate then? I am looking at the bolt camming groove, and I am assuming that the fire control group would catch the carrier group right when the bolt locks, but before that final...1/4" of travel to expose the firing pin? Second is, I wish I could see more detail of the QD barrel system. Just looks like a tab locks onto the ring around the barrel.
Nice toy after winning PowerBall... Jack Lewis, a gunwriter from the '80s and earlier, was an active-duty Marine when the Corps evaluated the Stoner. He said the Marine Corps liked it, but was pushed toward the M16 by the Army. ---- On a tanget: I wonder how closely George Kelgren looked at the Stoner. The bolt carrier group made me think of the SU16.
How much does the entire kit weigh with all the conversion parts? Was it shipped as an “all the options” kit, or was it provided as a single option with other parts delivered as needed (e.g. automatic rifle with parts to convert to carbine but without the LMG parts, etc...)?
I have two friends who served in the Royal Marines, can confirm they can and will use their rifles for every single imaginable purpose that doesn't involve shooting.
Reminds me of tale of a pair trying to give a third a leg up with a rifle as a step, now the two have seen it in a war film but an SLR is mot as strong as an old enfield rifle, gun bends and the two end up on report for it.
Well... a soldier at the most basic level (infantryman) is trained in rifle-based problem solving. Can't blame him for extending this rationale to non-combat situations 😏
MAXIM 48: If it ain't broke, it hasn't been issued to the infantry. I think that the general rule for marine safe.
The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries would make murphy proud.
I think that the Stoner 63 system fell victim to bad timing. During that period, the military (Army), already had it's hands full with working the bugs out of the M16, while conducting combat ops in Vietnam. So, I can see why they would be reluctant to take on another weapon that would also need further development. It's too bad really. I always felt that once the bugs were worked out, the M63 would have grown into the better system.
That may have played a roll in it. I think the other reason was that the modularity is kind of a novelty imo. An M60 is always an M60, you know what it is, how it operates and how to maintain it. This guy would likely require some special training. Plus, you wouldn't be changing out parts in the field anyway. Odds are it would leave the arsenal in one config and stay that way. And id also bet it cost a bit more to manufacture, plus being heavier then an average M16. So lots of little oddities about it that likely hindered and eventually killed its adoption.
There is a point to that, but having one set of replacement parts and the ability to convert basically any gun into any role it needs to fill is great from a logistical standpoint, to the point that I think it might have been adopted on that idea alone even if it was slightly inferior to some of the other options. The ability to go "My squad support weapon just broke. Timmy! Bolt the other bits on and grab the ammo!" sounds like a quartermasters wet dream
+Arkhaan, Yeah from a quartermasters perspective this is great, only having to worry about one set of spare parts, for one weapon. Instead of the entire parts list for the M60, the M16, etc, etc. And I can see it being a special ops teams best friend, having the ability to configure it for a mission, possibly on short notice would be a god send. As opposed to being out in the field and possibly having to use a not so great weapon for the job.
But to a soldier in the field I can't see any of that mattering. Other then maybe fast repairs back at base I guess. Because when shit gets real, you may want and need a light machine gun, or SAW. But worry about that latter and get out of there alive now, with what you have. Lots of possible uses and little oddities about this, it was well built and designed for sure, but I think maybe it was to universal if that makes sense.
Yeah it was definitely to complex for the war that was going on and is more than likely why it never got adopted, but the design makes a lot of sense to me in the terms of the war people feared was coming. A knockdown drag out between the USSR and the US where battlefield loss of weapons and a massive variety of battlefronts seem to be the world this gun was made for
Possibly. But id think that type of war would have been more decided by who had the most effective use of armor and air power then anything else. Thankfully, we don't have any actual battles to analyze and determine an answer. Just what if's and possibilities.
First time I heard about the Stoner was in a non-fiction novel about Vietnam Navy Seals. You can tell he loved his Stoner because he spent Tom Clancy amounts of exposition describing his LMG configuration Stoner. I would love to have one of these.
Tom Clancy amounts of exposition haha love that
how can a novel be non fiction? you mean a memoir or what?
@@alexm566 stay in school
@@keymold4405 A novel is by definition fiction.
My favourite thing about this channel is just seeing the creative engineering that people put into these things, and this is an amazing example of that.
Yeah, so much creative engineering put in death machines. We are a weird species...
@@drenek1 Look closely at most avenues of life. You'll see a similar irony. No reason why we cannot appreciate our own engineering achievements regardless of the ends they were designed to meet.
@@MarcusFenix50 I totally agree, that is why "Forgotten Weapons" is the only firearms chanel I watch. Ian's work is excellent.
Honesty their was this much engineering into anything old. They didnt have batteries computers to run everything like today. Swiss watches, grandfather clocks, firearms, steam engines, the model T. The world of mechanical objects is vast and satisfying in ways modern objects will never be. Things used to be made to last forever or be repaired/refurbished. now they are made to break after warranty so you throw it in the landfill and buy a new one.
Eugene Stoner was truly a genius
Pretty neat gun. Looks like a Bren and an M60 had a baby.
looks kinda like a FAL with an upside down extended mag
Too bad it didn't have any way to store crayons in the stock. I know Marines can get grumpy if they don't have any snacks.
Wait, Marines have crayons as 'snacks'?
My son was born three months premature. Amongst other problems, he had to be fed. So the hospital used a 'Complete Feed Formula'. It STUNK! Honestly your eyes watered. I was told by the Doctor, it had been developed for the Royal Marines, but even they wouldn't eat it. Must have done some good though my son is now a hulking great thirty year old, and I' have two Grandaughters.
51WCDodge That can't be true...we've seen Marines laugh off the gastrointestinal distress caused by potato salad MREs. No way a stinky supernutritional formula would put them off. 😂
I thought the same, but was solomley assured that it was true! If you can't trust a Doctor who can you trust? :-)
mukmuk723 nothing like infighting between military branches to make you feel secure
sooo the main problem with this gun is that it requires triple digit IQ to operate
It requires training above what the military deems reasonable for one platform.
Well the average Marine has the speed of a racehorse, the strength of a carthorse, and the brains of a rocking horse.
So the only people that can operate it are Solid Snake and Rick and Morty fans. Got it.
Gryffin DarkBreed yeah, but I doubt most of the soldiers breaking shit are of average intelligence. Learn how a bell curve works, brainlet.
migkillerphantom Too bad Rick & Morty wasn't invented yet
there's is a British saying , "engineers have the dreams the rest of use get the nightmares". this gun seems to be a living example of that saying. a very clever idea but I would hate to be the guy trying to make it work in a real world military environment.
My jaw dropped when I saw this available, was just perusing the upcoming auctions and never expected to see one of these. Was positively giddy to see a video from you on it as well.
They turn up periodically.
Eugene was the most creative Stoner ever.
It's amazing how technologically advanced the Stoner was. It was basically the 1960's version of the Vector.
What really amazes me is that it took two MGs, the SAW and the M240, to do pretty much the same jobs the Stoner 63 could do.
those Belgian guns are pretty good.
I wouldn’t consider a Stoner as a replacement for a General Purpose MG like the M60 or M240.
Jake Anthony the M-41johnson could be recaliberd to 7.62x51mm.
I'd rather lug around an FN mag or m240b than a Stoner 63.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine I actually did hump the 249 for several years, and while it's a great gun, I don't see many reasons I couldn't have used this instead. In fact, it would have been super, since as a lefty, I always had to *tightly* fit my right cuff and never shoot without gloves lest my hand stray across the ejection port! I got hot brass INSIDE my uniform to figure out the first, and an extremely numb palm the first time I did the second.
I'm reminded of the McNamara and the two words he spoke in regards to the development of the F-111:
_'Maximum Commonality'_
The gun has an incorrect bipod in that its a 63 bipod not a 63A bipod as well the bolt carrier roller extension on this gun has a 63 extension instead of the correct 63A extension. The expected price seems a bit too high considering only one configuration that;s not beltfed and the incorrect parts. 14:00 The LMG/automatic rifle hand guard is not used in the rifle/carbine configuration as stated in the video. The rifle/carbine handguard is part of the magazine well that is used. 17:13 The second hole is used when the receiver was made and has nothing to do with the trigger group. The disconnector, used in the rifle/carbine is on the other side of the receiver when its inverted. The carrier extension must be inverted when going to the rifle/carbine configuration. Can't blame you for the errors since if you don't own one you would not really expected to know all these items.
I will do better next time!
Next time you are near Houston Texas, let me know and I'll let you do a full out Stoner video with all the configurations and you can shoot it to boot.
Mongo63a i need this so much now.
Please take Mongo63a up on his offer! I would love this!
Mongo63a Houston? I'm right by you in Brownsville haha
Hey, I think your Stoner 63 is upside down.
... Oh. Oh no. Ooooooh. Now that's something
In reason why ww2 lmg had a top mag is simple you had to keep the gun aim at a target but when you reloading but you lost your targets in the middle of your reloading is simply design for you to reload faster
James "Patches" Watson was a SEAL in Vietnam and he wrote 2 books, Point Man and Walking Point. He used the Stoner quite a bit and wrote about it in one or both books. He was in Richard Marcinko's platoon, a very famous SEAL. They picked up the ammo links in the field when possible because they didn't have enough of them, according to what I read.
Truly one of the most ingenious designs in firearms.
Just when I started worrying that there are less videos about technically interesting guns, Ian brings out this gem! Thanks!
This weapon system was truly ahead of its time. Today, ideas of modular weapons systems are the norm. The 63 is more or less the progenitor of this.
Ironic how the holy grail after WW2 was a universal gun, yet when they really had a gun that could serve as a Universal Gun - especially if it had been fully adopted with the extended development that goes with that - would have been the potential “one gun that rules all guns” gun.
I really want to see all the other ways this can be configured.
Mica T Vickers did a video on the stoner with a few different configurations.
That is an outstanding invention. I'm always in awe of people like Stoner who could think of such a thing.
I have been wanting to see a video of this gun by you, these guns have wildly fascinated me since I saw them. Now knowing how much more versatile they are at least on paper is incredible that all this was planned out.
I've had two Robinson M96's for many years, both the rifle and Recon carbine. They are beautifully made re-engineered firearms, extremely accurate and totally reliable. I'm sure Alex Robinson never made a profit making them. That being said, even with the improvements they are most certainly not GI friendly. Whoever won this auction absolutely stole this weapon. It is the nicest by far of the very few originals I have seen.
It's a shame Alex couldn't get out of his own way. Great gun, wrong company to bring it to market.
Wow, my uncle was in Army Special Forces in the 1960's and liked the Stoner System. Politics killed it.
I love this weapon and it's name. I love guns and cannabis and as a stoner as they call weed heads i like Eugene Stoner and his weapons designs more. Thanks for all you awesome videos Ian! The best weapons channel on TH-cam.
As God sent Stoner to change the world with his ingenuity. He sent Ian to make us understand that ingenuity!
My jaw hit the floor when Ian put the gun together with the magazine pointing down
If you ever get a chance Ian, please do one of your longer format videos about the stoner 63 and as many of the configuration pieces as you can. I would love to see you rearrange and shoot each type. I do think that with enough R&D put into this system it could have been amazing for the military to have many weapon roles in one package. Especially now with the USMC wanting to give everyone a M27 IAR to make every Marine an automatic rifleman instead of rifleman. Amazing content as always, keep it up as long as your TH-cam overlords will allow you!
Anything that loads from the top gets my vote, but the whole concept has always seemed brilliant, with incredible attention to design.
Shame it wasn’t adopted in numbers. I’d love to own this!
why's all new guns load from the bottom then?
So i could make a belt fed carbine :D this really is a tinkers dream come true!
.50 BMG drum fed pump-action bullpup pistol
@@ironraccoon3536 Nonononono, A 22.cal APFSDS caseless helical mag bolt action hip firing config. Marksman, sub-compact, riot control, hand grenade.
Straight up one of the coolest guns I've ever seen. Super stoked it was you who's showed it off
Well now I see why you didn't want to do a video on my Robinson M96. I'm going to go home and cry now since I want this gun badly.
YarickZan for what it's worth, I sent you a sub.
I know a Vietnam seabe vet who got one issued to him as well as the mk-18 GL and he said it was the best us weapon in Vietnam.
Stoner was nothing short of a genius. What an amazing design. I wonder though if logistic supply concerns would arise in mass production applications with a system requiring so many parts to convert between the available set ups? Still love it though👍
Thanks Ian for your channel! I love to learn the stuff beside the usual semi-informative content on many other channels! Thanks again and greetings from Switzerland...if you are ever here you can use my hole arsenal...not much forgotten but a lot of fun!
Ingenius! So impressed by this weapon system. Too bad it's not commercially available as a semi-auto only rifle or carbine.
There was Robinson's M96 that even take AR magazines, but those (and their parts for both spares and different configs) are a little scarce and they don't make them anymore.
No sure if they still at least service them either.
I agree! Fun to take out and shoot! 😃
The idea of modular system - really brilliant! In Soviet Union there was a similar system by Corobov. It's not managed to become a serial too.
This would have been amazing today. A Arms room could have just a drawer of spare parts for literally every weapon in there. Anyone who's dealt with spare parts in the Army knows how amazing this sounds.
I've been watching Ian's videos on this channel over a year now.
Of course I have watched his older videos too.
Though this is the first video where, in my mind where he is super excited about a projectile weapon (when you listen to his voice, the excitement can be clearly heard).
That has to be 1 of the best weapon designs I've seen, it is so versatile
I would love to own this and a full kit for it. Well, almost all the full kit. Don't need the fixed MG version.
I can see why it wouldn't take off though. To have it so modular, I can't help but wonder about the tolerances, how the parts fit together, even the endurance, reliability of some of the parts. I don't think you can have something so modular, from carbine to full AR, belt fed, without some trade offs, somewhere.
Though, I still like the idea, quite a lot, actually.
No chance people know of some after action reports, studies on this? I would like to do some more reading on and about.
He sure knew how to make a modular system. If this thing went on, just imagine what modern parts, Magpul for example, would look like today. It'd probably be quite a bit lighter too.
Drooling over the background Thompsons. Some serious design thought went into that Stoner.
I was looking for modular weapon because I like the idea of a All-in-One kind of weapon.
This is cool as hell.
The one thing I want to see more than any video, Ian, is a video where you put a Stoner 63 in different configurations on camera. That is one thing I've never seen done.
I live in Maine and until a while ago I didn't realize how many MG's are in the state- pretty fantastic!
8:48 Wow that's some neat welding.
Look, the Madsen has had an illegitimate grandson with Stoner. :))
A beautiful piece of machinery.
Ah, Stoner 63. Can practically be a different amount of guns. Mgs3 had some fun lore on the MG configuration and how one can change out parts and make different versions. It's a modular weapon system. It's perfect. Like those Republic commando blasters from starwars or a morph gun from jak 2 and 3. It's beautiful weapon
If this was given time and more support, can you imagine what this could have been
"...broken ball bearing" and that's when I lost it completely. Only half an hour later, was I able to haul myself up off the floor, with horrendously aching sides ;-)
This gun is such an engineering marvel but I can completely understand why something so complexly simple wasn't adopted
Reminds me of the CMG-3. Such a beautiful gun.
The way they designed the receiver to work upside down and downside up is magic to me
What 11 people would dislike this awesome thing?
Its ironic that Stoner felt he had to design "the ultimate modular firearm" when he already had with the AR.
The early AR where much less adaptable , no tac rails or m203s, let alone sights.
There the result of decades of civil ar 15 platform used.
I Wonder if that's where the inspiration for the "Johnny Seven Gun" came from, It was almost Every Small Boys dream Gun In the 1960s , As always another great history lesson from Ian .
Thanks !
I Always wanted one but My folks couldn't afford one back then, I Still can't really afford one even now !
I have bought Motorbikes for less than a complete functional Johnny Seven gun costs now , You could buy quite a few Air rifles or even half decent Powder burners for what they cost Now .
I had a Johnny Seven for Xmas 1965 . I took tea to my grandmother who was sat up in her bed and I had my toy strapped to me . Gran asked what the red button was for on the side of the toy and I had not noticed it . She suggested I pressed the button . The anti-tank red rocket knocked out her left boob quite effectively ! Best Chrisey present ever ! Lol
I thought the top mounted mags were so the assistant gunner could keepem coming due to the small capacity of mags.
Yeah, it's just easier.
I have an Cadillac Gage Company original pamphlet that describes the Stoner 63 system and shows all the weapon setups from 1964. The photos for the Assault Rifle, Carbine, both Light Machine Gun setups originally had wooden grips and butt stocks. The Carbine version had a folding butt stock. I guess you could go out with whatever configuration struck your fancy that day.
I was always curious of how the modularity of these guns worked, it's pretty fascinating.
Has a College or University ever offered Ian a PHD for all the work and research he has put into the subject of Firearms History? Seems like he ought to have earned one or two by now.
I suppose the books he published qualify as PhD material 🤔 if I was making a PhD I'm sure would use them as references
He doesn't need one.
If a semi auto only fire control group was offered, this would be a fun rifle with all the attachments to configure in whatever way you liked.
Been waiting for you to get to this since forever. Loved it ever since I was a kid. Thanks.
Ian, I'm glad you finally got to do a 63a this is one I've been wating for. I hope you could do a series on these with all the diffrent configurations.
The Stoner 63A system is still Eugene's pinnacle design in my opinion.
I would agree but I think he over-engineered it. There was no need for the rifle & carbine configuration. The belt-fed & top-mounted magazine would've been enough. Wonder if that'd make it require less maintenance.
@@lepmuhangpa Depends on what the purpose of the weapon is. Modularity was the whole point of his design, but it would not be suitable for uneducated conscripts.
@@hairydogstail Ah, thinking like that is why this gun was so special & specific that it essentially wasn't widely adopted. I don't think Eugene Stoner was going for practicality anyway.
The definition of a Lego gun.
More like what the modularity of current NERF guns are. They're almost as complicated as a real weapon now!
I love all the Stoner models, but my personal choice is the model with a 20" barrel. I wish I can have one!
It'd be really cool to see a Stoner and all the attachments and show the dirrent configurations being changed in video
brb gonna go break some ball bearings
Price estimate: $50.000-$100.000!! Top video as usual Ian! Good job :)
HEYZOOS-CGR I wonder if the Stoner 63 has a Vectrex configuration.
Lol, But can it play Truxton? EDF EDF!
This is one of my dream guns. I was able to be graced by the presence of a Robinson M96 in the rarer top feed configuration, but sadly it was out of my price range. Maybe someday!
The worlds first transformer good thing its a autobot
Joe Baker
Lol
Decepticon will replicate this soon.
It'd be really cool to see a Stoner and all the attachments and show it being changed in video
Been waiting for this one from you for a long time, excited.
Cue this exceeding the top end of the estimate
Alex Agius an excellent auction
Awesome piece of gun engineering!
I am surprised that it took you this long to do a video on the Stoner 63. Thanks
Has a nice retro-futuristic LMG look to it.
The aresfightlite shrike is a modern centerpiece to the 63. I wish the shrike would be adopted by the military.
Very cool modular weapon system.
my father was a navy SEAL in vietnam and did 2 tours, i'll have to ask him if he ever had any experience with the 63
It also had a fixed wing aircraft application.
Been waiting for this one !! Thanks Ian !
I think side, or side-down mags are really cool. Things like the johnson and the side mag option of the m249.
A side-dum makes the m249 look like its from ww2 or somthing
If they ever allow registering new machineguns they need to make some of these, although preferably with more standard magazines rather than proprietary.
Looks fun to shoot and would love to own one! 😃
Wow, a real Johnny Seven. Neat!
A couple of detail questions:
First is, how does it fire in closed bolt operation? It looks like the firing pin is "fixed", so that when then bolt head is locked, the pin automatically protrudes and fires the cartridge. But if the same bolt/carrier is used in the rifle/carbine, how does it operate then? I am looking at the bolt camming groove, and I am assuming that the fire control group would catch the carrier group right when the bolt locks, but before that final...1/4" of travel to expose the firing pin?
Second is, I wish I could see more detail of the QD barrel system. Just looks like a tab locks onto the ring around the barrel.
Jack of all guns and master of none! Great weapon all the same.
Nice toy after winning PowerBall...
Jack Lewis, a gunwriter from the '80s and earlier, was an active-duty Marine when the Corps evaluated the Stoner. He said the Marine Corps liked it, but was pushed toward the M16 by the Army.
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On a tanget: I wonder how closely George Kelgren looked at the Stoner. The bolt carrier group made me think of the SU16.
TH-cam keeps trying to recommend me this particular Forgotten Weapons video for whatever reason. I’m cool with that but why this one in particular?
It would be realy interesting to actually see the whole complect together and actual modulating different types with it (sorry for my bad english)
How much does the entire kit weigh with all the conversion parts?
Was it shipped as an “all the options” kit, or was it provided as a single option with other parts delivered as needed (e.g. automatic rifle with parts to convert to carbine but without the LMG parts, etc...)?
Sir...you have a awsome job.. hanging out at auctions checking out unicorns lol that is pretty awsome.
wait, Jim Sullivan from rifle Dynamics??!
the recruits in USMC bootcamp in '64* were very lucky