Interesting Unusual Guns
 

Pretty interesting article with photos from an otherwise mostly comedic website:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19702...ally-used.html

And decidedly anti-gun, anti-gunner, as well.

Roger That

Yup!

I was visiting Gettysburg back in the early 90's just after they finished the motion picture of the same name, one of the souvenir shops had replica LeMat revolvers (made by F.Llipietta, I think) for $500...All steel; proofed; and fully functional...Beautiful repros...

And as for the hand mortar, the movie "A Bridge Too Far" was on The Military Channel a few nights ago with British soldiers shooting mortar bombs out of a clever contraption that looked like a blunderbus...

The 'key' gun actually got bought on Gun Broker along with a ring also fires a round! Eric

What you saw on "A Bridge Too Far" was a British PIAT, (Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank), one of Her Majesty's less attractive or effective bits or gear.

I found a pic of that on Google Images, but it didn't look like the one in the movie...the movie one looked more rifle-like...here's the one I found on Google...(below)...

There are variations in some of the pics online...In the shoulder pad, mostly...

If it's the scene where two British troops load the weapon with a large, mortar style round and are firing at the German tanks coming over the bridge, it was a PIAT. The technical term is a "Spigot Mortar"

BTW, the PIAT is the only "Bazooka" style weapon from WW2 you can own without any ATF approval or other permits.

Yeah, that was the scene! here's another pic, a cut-away showing the 'propelling mechanism', that is slightly different...

The reason it looked a bit like a rifle was the angle it was filmed at. From behind, with the operator holding the weapon to his shoulder and looking through the sights, it looks like a big rifle. The PIAT must be cocked for the first shot. I have done this in the past and have actually fired non HE rounds through one. Thankfully, the mortar round cocks the launcher for subsequent shots That big spring is a lot of tention to overcome. The projectile is launched with a charge similar to a mortar round. The disadvantage of the weapon is that it essentially has no barrel, but only a tray the round sits in. It therefore has no ballistic coeficient, but simply "lobs" the shell in a more or less predictable arch. True effective range is really 100 yards or less. This is a little close when you are staring down a Koenig's Tiger.

This thing reminds me of the Japanese 'Knee Mortar", in its o/a length.

How do you c0ck it for the first shot??? (Or first lob)... :D

You unlock and turn the "shoulder stock" a quarter, (or half, I forget) a turn, which frees it from the launcher tube. You then place the shoulder stock flat on the ground and place both your feet on it, like a bycicle pump. You then grab the pistol grip and anything else you can get a good hold off and pull up as hard as you can on the launcher tube until the firing mechanism locks into place and the spring is under tension. You can then slide the shoulder stock forward and lock it into place. As I mentioned, you only have to do this for the first shot. I believe the seriously beefy spring is to help give the mortar round a solid strike to prevent it from lifting off the small ring it is placed into. The hard strike will overcome any inertia issues with hitting an object that is literally free to travel forward. You cannot launch anything through this thing other than the proprietary mortar rounds. This is why ATF does not consider them a Destructive Device, like they do most other mortar tubes or Bazooka type devices. I have several friends who own them and are fanatic enough about DDs that they have made rounds with lifting charges but no HE. They are interesting to shoot and I greatly admire any British troop who actually scored kills with these.

I seem to remember from one of my gun books that it took about 200 pounds of force to **** that puppy. Does that sound about right, Alanint?

If it wasn't it sure seemed like 200 lbs. It takes a heap of heaving while holding onto awkward surfaces to yank the launcher away from the anchored base.