Blow-Forward Firearms

[Purpelia]

Here is an interesting question I have for you all.

Recently, I have been researching how firearms work and have stumbled upon an operating mechanism called blow-forward. Now, my sources were rather limited but from reading the different designs on Wikipedia I have managed to understand fully how it works.

However, there are really very few weapons using this type of operation so I feel the need to ask why is this the case? Is there some inherent flaw or lacking to the blow-forward mechanism? Becouse my research so far has pointed out nothing.

Also, how would the mechanism be suited for a fully automatic weapon like say a short barreled machine pistol. With anything larger my guess is that the barrel mass would become problematic.

[Andorianus\Dystopianus]

IIRC the recoil is a bit wobbly, as it does the exact opposit of recoil ops; the barrel mass moves forward instead of backwards. But I am not sure about that.

Other then that, it has all the downsides and good sides of the blowback mech, and most likely some other flaws as well. The good thing however is that there is no bolt travel, so that you can get a short weapon that does remain a long barrel. (Something obviously most useful in bullpups, but not so much for anything else. Machine pistol is most likely a no, since it should already have enough space for the bolt to move.)

That is all I can say about it. Personally I wouldn't try, I like gasops much, much better then any blowback.

[Purpelia]

Well, I was looking for a mechanism to fit on an automatic handgun, something like the glock 18. And this seemed like a good idea since the design has very little moving parts.

Now, I am looking to find all the flaws so that I can weigh it against blow-back since gas operated really is not an option in such a small weapon if I understand it correctly.