Firearms secret projects

[MechanicalMay]

Czech prototype semi auto rifles at the VHU Praha museum. I’ve identified the left one as a Krnka, and the other two are ZH-29 variants.

Does anyone know what the one in the middle is? The Heavy handguard makes me think it could be an automatic variant.

 

[jsport]

These tiny, Vietnam-era mini-grenades were known as 'Hooch Poppers'

A former Navy SEAL who carried the V40 mini-grenades in Vietnam said they were good for rooms and small buildings and not much else.

taskandpurpose.com

 

[Ravinoff]

Czech prototype semi auto rifles at the VHU Praha museum. I’ve identified the left one as a Krnka, and the other two are ZH-29 variants.

Does anyone know what the one in the middle is? The Heavy handguard makes me think it could be an automatic variant.

Left is a ZB-Krnka Model 1925, and the right is a ZH-29, but I'll be damned if I can figure out the middle one, and I can't find it on the VHU Praha site either. Absolutely weird.

 

[MechanicalMay]

Granatabüchse 43, Single shot breechloading grenade launcher built in the Nazi occupied Brno factory. Taken at VHU Praha.

 

[Ravinoff]

Granatabüchse 43, Single shot breechloading grenade launcher built in the Nazi occupied Brno factory. Taken at VHU Praha.

Okay, this I did find some more info on, because I initially thought it was mislabeled (there was a Grantabüchse 39 single-shot launcher, and a few Czech-made antitank rifles, but nothing by that exact name). There's not much known about them, but that's one of four grenade rifle...things developed by Waffenwerke Brünn, the German occupation name for Zbrojovka Brno. All four use the known 46mm and 61mm Grosse Panzergranate rifle grenades designed for use with the ubiquitous Schießbecher launcher cup - and as an aside, I think the shell pictured next to it may be an earlier Gewehr-Panzergranate as the Grosse Panzergranate rounds look a bit more like Panzerfaust or RPG rounds (see picture).

If you don't want to read that linked Small Arms Review article, here's an abridged version. You'd think at a glance that these are some form of rocket launcher, an obscure branch of the Panzerschrek family tree maybe, but you'd be wrong. They work in exactly the same way as any other rifle grenade: a 7.92mm blank is loaded into the chamber, which opens by either a rotating or tilting barrel, and the grenade shell is then loaded into the muzzle. What makes them different compared to a normal Schießbecher is recoil reduction. All four have different implementations of a kind of "floating" barrel and breechblock assembly that recoils against what I think an engineer would call "bigass coil springs", which to be technical don't reduce the recoil but spread out the impulse of it to be more tolerable.

 

[MechanicalMay]

Okay, this I did find some more info on, because I initially thought it was mislabeled (there was a Grantabüchse 39 single-shot launcher, and a few Czech-made antitank rifles, but nothing by that exact name). There's not much known about them, but that's one of four grenade rifle...things developed by Waffenwerke Brünn, the German occupation name for Zbrojovka Brno. All four use the known 46mm and 61mm Grosse Panzergranate rifle grenades designed for use with the ubiquitous Schießbecher launcher cup - and as an aside, I think the shell pictured next to it may be an earlier Gewehr-Panzergranate as the Grosse Panzergranate rounds look a bit more like Panzerfaust or RPG rounds (see picture).

If you don't want to read that linked Small Arms Review article, here's an abridged version. You'd think at a glance that these are some form of rocket launcher, an obscure branch of the Panzerschrek family tree maybe, but you'd be wrong. They work in exactly the same way as any other rifle grenade: a 7.92mm blank is loaded into the chamber, which opens by either a rotating or tilting barrel, and the grenade shell is then loaded into the muzzle. What makes them different compared to a normal Schießbecher is recoil reduction. All four have different implementations of a kind of "floating" barrel and breechblock assembly that recoils against what I think an engineer would call "bigass coil springs", which to be technical don't reduce the recoil but spread out the impulse of it to be more tolerable.

View attachment 754989

Ah, I assumed it was a self propelled grenade that would be loaded into the breech but this makes more sense

 

[MechanicalMay]

Garand submission to the 1941 Light Rifle trials, select fire .30 carbine. The magazine sticks out at a 30 degree angle like a Pedersen device. Magazines with up to 50 rounds capacity were created

 

[Scott Kenny]

Garand submission to the 1941 Light Rifle trials, select fire .30 carbine. The magazine sticks out at a 30 degree angle like a Pedersen device. Magazines with up to 50 rounds capacity were created

That's wild, but it didn't meet one of the important parts of the Light Rifle requirement: weight.

 

[MechanicalMay]

British army using Vickers machine gun with bipod and stock

 

[Christopher Wang]

In an alternate timeline, the US military adopted the T48 FAL instead of the M14 and used it alongside the M16 in the Vietnam War and beyond.

 

[Firefinder]

With the FAL getting the same rep as the M14 due to Nam being that much hell on weapons. As seen by the Australia use of the FAL in that Conflict. They had just as many issues with the FAL as the M14/M16 did.

 

[Scott Kenny]

With the FAL getting the same rep as the M14 due to Nam being that much hell on weapons. As seen by the Australia use of the FAL in that Conflict. They had just as many issues with the FAL as the M14/M16 did.

No, the FAL is a far better rifle than the M14. Not least because it actually holds zero. You need to rebed an M14 every ~3000 rounds, and every time you take the action out of the stock. How do you properly clean an M14? Take the action out of the stock. Every day in a combat zone.

Did the M16 have issues? yes. Not least among them was ammunition being loaded with UNTESTED powder of a different type to that used during trials, which left much fouling and was over 10,000psi over-pressure at the gas port!!!!!

Jim Sullivan has strong words on the subject.

 

[Rickshaw]

With the FAL getting the same rep as the M14 due to Nam being that much hell on weapons. As seen by the Australia use of the FAL in that Conflict. They had just as many issues with the FAL as the M14/M16 did.

First I have ever heard of problems with the L1a1 SLR during the Vietnam War. I served in the Australian Army for over 10 years in the late 1970s to the late 1980s. I served with many Vietnam vets, none spoke of any problems, so what were they? We had problems with the M16, it was prone to stoppages and dropping magazines.

 

[Christopher Wang]

Battle Order: "The future that was stolen from us. An alt history #USArmy Rifle Squad from the 1960s had it adopted the T48 (FN FAL) to fill the M14 Rifle requirement rather than the T44 (what was actually adopted). Organization & ranks are what it was in 1965."

 

[MechanicalMay]

Indian bullpup bolt-action rifle from 1944, designed and built by Yuvraj Hanwant Singhji.