– how bump stocks work

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I understand what bump stocks do from reading up on them, but I haven’t found an explanation of how they work. They allow firing a semi-automatic weapon more quickly by using recoil to move the rifle back and forth (“bumping”) against the trigger finger. What I don’t understand is what is different in a bump stock compared to a regular stock. In my mind, I envision a big cartoonish spring in the bump stock that moves the rifle back forward after the initial kick from recoil. How does it work exactly?

In: Physics

11 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The big cartoonish spring isn’t far from the truth. It’s not that big, but it is just a spring. The idea is that you hold your trigger finger really still, push it back just a bit, and the gun fires. The whole gun then moves back against the spring, the spring pushes it forward, and the trigger hits your finger hard enough to fire again.

With practice, you can do it with most semi-auto guns with regular stocks, but the spring makes it easier.