If everyone is looking for light weight, short overall length, and a lot rounds in the magazine.....what's wrong with the P-90 ? Magazines hold 40 rounds....it's a "Bullpup design "....good for room-to-room/house to house close-up work....don't know how accurate it is, but following the conversations,....it would seem that no one but us old soldiers and a few Marines are sold on the " One shot/one kill " ways....... It would seem that many favor the "Spray and pray " that burned up barrels and ammo back in the Viet Nam era..... I believe that a Soldier can live a week or more without food,,,,maybe 3 days or more without water......not very long without..... Ammo...and a working weapon..

First time I ever saw the AK close up.....I was at Ft Bragg, NC AIT ( Viet Nam era ) Instructor took an AK, loaded a magazine into it........threw it into a mud puddle,......stomped on it,....and ran his 151 ( Bronco ) over it.......Got out...pried the Ak out of the mud puddle......sloshed it in the water.......shook the mud off it........and fired it.... several rounds.....on full auto...... Then he faces the group and says,,,,, "That's what we are up against ! "........... I said, " Sarge, ......is it too late to get my M-14 back ?"......... " Yes , it is......trooper....." he says......." Can you get me one of those ???? " I asked.............. " Yeah, you can take it off your first enemy kill....." he says.. O.K......maybe Mikial K did plagerize it from the German MP-44.......but it's like a Timex.......it can take a lickin' and keep on tickin '......"

If cropping 4 inches from the barrel has severely reduced the velocity or the round....then I believe the problem is a slow burning powder.....switching to a faster burning powder should insure that it is used up while the bullet is still inside the barrel....slow burning powder will burn at the muzzle and create more flash after the bullet has left the barrel.... With such a light bullet,,,the powder should burn in the first 16 inches of barrel length... This something which should be tested and then addressed to the ammo manufacturer....