Its metallic cartridge case would have been very easily adapted to take a blowout disc in the base just as the M/42 has, as well. The Whitworth did this mote or less automatically. Most modern RRs have pre-engraved DBs on the shell and a ‘notch’ or something on the round’s case so it goes in the right way to make everything line up correctly. The Whitworth would have been especially suitable for this due to both its breech design Īnd the fact that its mechanically-fitted hexagonal bore required no “engraving” of a driving band to “take” the rifling. ![]() All either one would have needed was a venturi attached to the breech on the Whitworth, or a set of two or four around the breech on the Armstrong, and a larger powder charge to achieve the mass/velocity balance. But I have noticed that the British Armstrong and Whitworth breechloading cannon could have made entirely reasonable recoilless guns. I’m not aware of any experiments of this sort going back to the American Civil War as Ian stated. As long as momentum/KE values come out the same, you get the recoilless effect you want. 1 x mass of projectile in counterweight is fired aft at about 10x projectile velocity. Most later recoilless guns work on the principle discovered in several countries in the 1930s, in that about. ![]() The WW1 Davis Gun did it exactly that way, firing a shell forward and a ‘counterweight’ of small shot and axle grease (no, really) of equal mass backward at equal velocities. MV = mv, where capitals equal projectile values and lower case equal “countershot” values. Technically, mass and velocity should balance in both directions. It would, however, be the stepping-stone to the m/48 Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifle, which used a shaped charge warhead to perforate armor with a stream of molten melt instead of relying on velocity of a hardened projectile. The tradeoff was that much of the potential energy of firing was wasted venting out the back instead of pushing the bullet forward, which is why the cartridge case was so oversized.Ībout a thousand of the guns were made by the end of World War 2, at which time even it had been made quite thoroughly obsolete by the rapidly increasing thickness of tank armor. This created a counter balancing recoil impulse which prevented the gun and shooter from having to absorb the full recoil energy produced by a heavy bullet launching off at high velocity. This was possible because of its recoilless design – upon firing, the rear end of the cartridge case would blow out and vent out the back of the weapon, instead of being firmly sealed like a conventional rifle. ![]() ![]() This was on the high end of armor penetration for anti-tank rifles, and the m/42 was able to do this with a weapon weighing just 11.7kg (25 lb) – less than a quarter of a comparable 20mm conventional rifle. This was capable of perforating 40mm of perpendicular armor plate at 100m (a high explosive projectile was also made). The Swedish Pansarvärnsgevär fm/42 made by the Carl Gustav company was an interesting early hybrid antitank weapon – a recoilless rifle firing solid armor-piercing projectiles.
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