why not a bullpup configuration.

Every body is screaming for shorter weapons in the U.S. military. The military aproach as far as the U.S. is concerned is to chop barrel length and as a result chop 5.56 or any other cartridges performance. This is madness, you have a least 3 weapons in military service right know ( Steyr Aug, British La1, and french famas ) as well as the Israelis developing a bullpup right now.
We have the awnser right in front of us : Bullpup config in 6.5 grendal :D

Welcome Rich, great to see new members jump in as enthusiastically as you have. :)

There was an issue many have with bullpup configurations other than ejection...I can't remember what it was for sure now. It may have had to do with trigger location in relation to the chamber and some effect it has.

China is going to thier own 5.8mm bullpup as well.

The complaints regarding the configuration besides left hand ejection are mag changes, long trigger linkage, proximity to KBs, balance, and a long length of pull. All of these issues already have been or can be overcome by design or training. The loud arguements against the design are actually very week as the benefits overcome the negatives for a military firearm.

I'm with ya Rich.

The FN2000/F2000/FS2000 does away with most of the complaints of the bullpup.

I have handled an FS2000 and the balance, though somewhat tail heavy, is not so bad as to turn me off to it. A bit more weight up front would improve the balance characteristics, and that is easily done by attaching the underbarrel 40mm or some of the other front end gear that is so popular these days.

Ergonomics, though a bit bulky, arn't too bad. Slimming down the rifle in a few key areas will improve this, but its not completely nessicary.

Ejection is not a factor, in fact its better than standard rifles in some ways because its controlled, slow, and out the front. Also, because of the construction, and shielded ejection port/tube, if you DO have a kaboom, the rifle will direct it away from your face and protect you somewhat...assuming someone didn't load the shell with RDX...not much you can do about that.

A properly designed trigger bar solves the issues with trigger pull.

Length of pull is dependant on the design of the action. A short action, similar to an Mini 14 length action would minimize the amount of space needed for the bolt to recoil. Designing the weapon around it, you can actually have a couple of inches of adjustment in your length of pull...maybe more. The F2000 design is somewhat short, but that is good for a military arm since soldiers generally wear load bearing gear and body armor, and need a shorter length of pull. To lengthen the lenght of pull for those not using armor and gear, a simple extension, either in insert form or an adjustable stock would solve this problem. I am about 6 ft and though short, I found the length of pull on the FS2000 comfortable.

the only issue is still reloading. Reloading a bullpup can be significantly slower than reloading a conventional arm, but with practice, it should be quick enough, and with a high cap magazine and judicious ammo control, this shouldn't be an issue.

my only issues with the F2000 are a lack of bolt hold open (fixable) and a left side only cocking handle (instead of ambidexterous, and I could ignore that with a bolt hold open/release as you would only need to work it once).

All in all, with a decent length barrel in a "sub gun/carbine" sized package and decent ergonomics and balance, as well as improved balance with a secondary "underbarrel" weapon, I see the F2000 as being an excellent modern combat rifle...put 6.5 grendel it would be even better.

China is going to thier own 5.8mm bullpup as well.

The complaints regarding the configuration besides left hand ejection are mag changes, long trigger linkage, proximity to KBs, balance, and a long length of pull. All of these issues already have been or can be overcome by design or training. The loud arguements against the design are actually very week as the benefits overcome the negatives for a military firearm.

I'm with ya Rich.

ditto! +1 that idea! If you look at the velocity vs barrel length analysis I did on the reloading thread this idea strongly suggests itself as the Grendel generates so much extra velocity with a 20" barrel over a 16" barrel.

In addition to a bunch of other things, like biometric security on the weapon firing, going to electric primers, similar to the primers Remington is already selling as COTS systems, makes the trigger a switch and solves the trigger lag and location problems and makes the gun more accurate too as the elapsed time from the thought of firing the gun until the bullet leaves the barrel is cut in half iirc by eliminating the firing pin and its travel time. It also makes the gun easy to tele-operate, like from the bottom of a trench or around a corner with suitable mounting options.

This would also make it possible for a standard infantry assault rifle to be fitted to a robotic sentry a'la Aliens and used to defend choke points without endangering the crew - perhaps while the infantrymen got some well-deserved sleep. As computers and optics have continued to get more capable and cheaper we need to start thinking about such things. I personally hate the idea that a robot has to be a dedicated piece of hardware. Much better imho to make manned weapons man & robot ambidextrous. If I were driving a HUMVEE I'd love to be inside armor and have my AR mounted on a cheap CROWS turret so I could use the weapon to defend myself from a relatively safe position. The low recoil and long range of the Grendel make it the perfect weapon for such a cheap, lightweight remote turret system. Add oil cooling to the barrel and you can double the duty cycle of the weapon for a few oz of weight.

The existing bullpup I would most like to work with is the old British EM-2.

It looks like the balance is better than most of them, and has a 25" barrel in .280 British.

I keep thinking that a 4 column magazine would cut down on the need to make rapid magazine changes...

Just things to work on when I get around to trying to build MY bullpup. It will be primarily a personal hunting rifle, but... :D

One complaint about the bullpup is that its a pain to use a beta mag or drum since it gets in the way of shouldering a weapon, and therefor you can use it as a SAW. One novel solution I saw was a drum type cassette that was turned sideways. the feed path of the rounds turned 90 degrees for proper feeding when it got up to the feed ramp. With all the empty space in the lower rear section of the F2000 you could concevably redesign the mag well to accept a drum like that, thereby giving it SAW capabilities