If you went back and time and gave a truckload of M16's

>>34587957
>Perhaps even copy the design and mass produce it?

No fucking way

But something like a pipe gun or other thing thats made in some favela, sure, if you teach them how to make gunpowder.

>>34587957
>would he be able to figure out how to use them?
You could always teach him yourself

>Perhaps even copy the design and mass produce it?
The technology was nowhere near advanced enough for anything like this

A blacksmith can't just hammer out an M16 at his forge

>>34587957
we can't even make decent AKs in the US

Use them maybe but I doubt they could produce more. There are a couple issues but the two main ones are gunpowder and forging bullets

>>34587957
he might understand that it throws things, but the mechanics behind it, not a chance, even less a reproduction of them.

>Figure out how to use it
Yes

>Reverse engineer it
Not into anything man portable, but iirc it is possible to make wooden cannons.

Might get the ball rolling on cannons but that'd be about it

Would depend on if cannons are worked on enough that they surpass existing catapults/ballista in effectiveness

>>34587957
Understand and use sure, reproduction would be a no, especially trying to figure out gun powder.

>>34587957
watch some forgotten weapons episodes on the Chinese pistol clones. Motherfuckers are handed a gun, metal, and files and told to replicate the gun. They did it, even replicating the serial numbers and words they didn't understand.

>>34588030

Yeah, but that is with much more modern metals than what the romans had

It wouldn't be too hard to teach them how to make steel though

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>>34587957
>he thinks the Romans were stupid
ask me how I know you have a middle school grasp of history

They'd probably figure out the functioning of it, but wouldn't be able to replicate it in any meaningful way. They wouldn't have the materials technology to make the right kinds of steel and aluminum, nevermind the chemistry needed for smokeless powder and wtfever primers are made of.

The brightest scientists and engineers of Rome could likely figure out how to load one and make it go bang through trial and error, but...

Metallurgy would not be advanced enough to create strong barrels nor rifled barrels. Machining to tolerances required to create a semiautomatic firearm impossible. Ability to conduct rigorous quantitative chemistry on gunpowder unavailable in terms of equipment, techniques, or procedures. Inability to perform sufficient chemical process control or quality control on gunpowder manufacture if the chemical composition was deciphered. Engineering knowledge possibly not sufficiently advanced to understand the mechanical principles of the design and adapt them to period technology. No developed military doctrine for use of such a weapon and would require time and testing to develop. Legionnaires unfamiliar with mechanical devices and would require extensive training in use and maintenance.

So no, they'd be a nice curiosity but that's about it.