Successful lever-action rifles are a late-TL5 weapon, and the early milled receiver AK-47 is certainly no harder to make than a Winchester '66. Using blackpowder and a heavier all-lead bullet would allow ammunition to be made at late-TL5 as well, though it would lose some power and the gas and recoil system would need tuning for the different round (easy enough to do before going to mass production).
Fouling would be an issue with sustained fire, though with the AK's loose tolerances you'd still be able to cycle the weapon by hand in most cases, making it the equivalent of a level-action with a very large magazine.
The same applies to the various cheap and simple SMGs designed and produced in WWII (e.g. the Stengun), though you'd want to in .45 ACP rather than 9x19 or 7.62mm Tokarev for the same reasons that 7.62x39mm would superior to 5.56x45mm - lower operating pressures and that larger bores tend to foul more slowly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth
Hand-loading ammunition is no big deal, as I understand it, and not all that rare for private citizens.
Obviously manufacturing propellants, primers, and brass (any of which can jam or damage your gun if they misbehave) is another matter, as already discussed at length.
|
Brass wouldn't be too hard to make. Powder, easy for a chemist, dangerous to mass-produce unless you're trained in such things. Primers - fiddly, slow, and somewhat dangerous without a precision mass-production line, preferably automated. Bullets range from dead easy (solid lead or brass) to a bit tricky (jacketed, multi-component cores).