Hand-held firearm with recoil attenuation

A hand-held automatic firearm with a cartridge-chambering mechanism actuated by a breech assembly, comprising

• a) a barrel assembly, including two subassemblies, the first subassembly comprising a barrel having a fixedly attached projection and the second subassembly comprising a spring positioning rod and a fixedly attached barrel stop, the first subassembly being movable in relation to the second subassembly, and the second subassembly being movable along with the first subassembly between a forward stop and a rear stop disposed along a grip assembly;
• b) a breech assembly including a movable breech block having a forward end, a recoil spring positioned about the spring positioning rod and having a spring force, the breech assembly moving back and forth essentially in the same direction as the barrel assembly between a forward and closed position and a rear and open position, moving out of the closed position and into the open position against the spring force of the recoil spring and, upon completion of the moving back and forth, the breech assembly rests against the grip assembly;
• c) a buffering spring for tensioning the barrel assembly toward the forward stop and for buffering the contact of the barrel assembly on the rear stop;
• and wherein
• d) the movements of the closure spring and the buffering spring are correlated such as to ensure that the breech assembly strikes the grip assembly essentially at the same time as the barrel assembly contacts the forward stop, thus reducing the momentum of the breech assembly onto the grip assembly by the momentum of the barrel assembly.