This is the first time I’ve ever seen an image of this rifle.
The picture came from this Twitterx post.
Original post caption:
Personnel of Vietnam Public Security capturing the brother of a drug ringleader as well as his arsenal. Noteworthily, the guy owns a QBZ-97B chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO. From what I know, it’s the second Chinese carbine that Vietnam Public Security comes across.
This rifle is an export variation of the more well known QBZ-95.
The QBZ-97 is mostly the same in operation as the QBZ-95, with the difference that it is chambered in 5.56mm rather than China’s domestically designed 5.8mm cartridge. The QBZ-95B variant is a carbine version, with a shorter barrel and a gas expansion chamber similar to an AKS-74U.
That thing is seriously compact for a 5.56. Most Bullpups are small - for their barrell length. But this thing it actually mega compact.
But I guess the usual bullpop issues apply as well.
We aren’t used to seeing shorter versions of bullpups, because for all the other downsides, usually a bullpup makes the rifle length barrels acceptably short for the vast majority of uses.
There are options for shorter bullpups, they just aren’t commonly seen (forgotten weapons, if you will).
SA80’s variant L22 series.
X95 Micro Tavor.
AUG Commando.
