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It's a RIFLE, and I want one!!

4K views 42 replies 25 participants last post by  lysander 
#1 ·
There's a guy up the road a couple of miles from me, who has a rather large collection of militaria. His dad was a Marine, and has passed, but he did the collecting and restoring. Many of these pieces are used in parades, or for specialized photo shoots, and even get used as movie props.

He had this one out in the driveway today, cleaning it up for an upcoming photo shoot . It's a Vietnam-era M40A2 Recoilless Rifle, mounted on a M38 Jeep. It is still functional, and he fired it for me while I was there. It doesn't have the huge fireball, of course, just fires a primer round through it, but it sounded like a super-loud 12 gauge shotgun. The rifle has its M8 12.7x77 spotting rifle on top, which is also still functional.
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The gun is a breech-loader, and has a vented breech for the propellant gases to exit. It isn't a rocket, but uses a ventilated cartridge. You can see a shell partially in the picture above under the tripod. The rear legs of the tripod fit in the back corners of the jeep body and clamp in place. The front leg of the tripod fits between the seats and has a wheel on it. Supposedly, four men can lift the tripod in place, and then place the 11-foot barrel in place. The gun can also be operated out of the vehicle, just sitting on the tripod. Forgotten Weapons has a great video, link below.

The owner of this rig has a small tracked weapons carrier, another Jeep with a M2 on a pylon mount, and a Power Wagon ambulance, and a wall full of small arms that have been demilitarized and are used for props. He's also got another M2 with a scope hanging on the wall, fully functional in single shot
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(2) 106mm M40 Recoilless Rifle, History and Firing - YouTube

(2) A Gun For Aiming: M8C .50 Caliber Spotting Rifle - YouTube
 
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#9 ·
I was trained on the M40A1 in Small Arms Repair school back in '73, and worked on a few of them during my first assignment on the DMZ in Korea. That brings back a lot of memories!
 
#12 ·
Be careful with “practice rounds”. While at Camp Shelby in the in the early 80’s I think another company was practicing in the company area with practice rounds. The practice rounds fire like real rounds with a non explosive projectile. I think it either killed 2 or 3 by the back blast and the projectile landed in the parking lot in Hattiesburg of Forrest General Hospital after skidding across same and hit a car door. Bad practice.
 
#19 ·
It refers to the fact that the weapon does not recoil when the weapon is fired. Enough such that it can be mounted on small mounts and vehicles. The propelling force on the projectile is countered by the rearward blast that is forced out through venturis in the rear of the barrel/chamber.

My Dad first mentioned them to me for some reason years ago.
 
#20 ·
Check this out...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recoilless_rifle
They can kill you if your standing behind it when it goes off, They had a RR that fired a atomic round called "The Davy Crocket"! Supposedly the blast zone was bigger then it could shoot so it was fired by remote control or a timer IIRC.

eQ
 
#23 ·
There's a guy up the road a couple of miles from me, who has a rather large collection of militaria. His dad was a Marine, and has passed, but he did the collecting and restoring. Many of these pieces are used in parades, or for specialized photo shoots, and even get used as movie props.

He had this one out in the driveway today, cleaning it up for an upcoming photo shoot . It's a Vietnam-era M40A2 Recoilless Rifle, mounted on a M38 Jeep. It is still functional, and he fired it for me while I was there. It doesn't have the huge fireball, of course, just fires a primer round through it, but it sounded like a super-loud 12 gauge shotgun. The rifle has its M8 12.7x77 spotting rifle on top, which is also still functional.
View attachment 484275 View attachment 484276

The gun is a breech-loader, and has a vented breech for the propellant gases to exit. It isn't a rocket, but uses a ventilated cartridge. You can see a shell partially in the picture above under the tripod. The rear legs of the tripod fit in the back corners of the jeep body and clamp in place. The front leg of the tripod fits between the seats and has a wheel on it. Supposedly, four men can lift the tripod in place, and then place the 11-foot barrel in place. The gun can also be operated out of the vehicle, just sitting on the tripod. Forgotten Weapons has a great video, link below.

The owner of this rig has a small tracked weapons carrier, another Jeep with a M2 on a pylon mount, and a Power Wagon ambulance, and a wall full of small arms that have been demilitarized and are used for props. He's also got another M2 with a scope hanging on the wall, fully functional in single shot
View attachment 484280

View attachment 484281
View attachment 484282

(2) 106mm M40 Recoilless Rifle, History and Firing - YouTube

(2) A Gun For Aiming: M8C .50 Caliber Spotting Rifle - YouTube
we had those when I was in the Seabees in the early 70's, we had two jeeps that we set up to mount the 106 in it. the windshield was a two piece so when the gun was mounted the barrel would stick out between them.
 
#25 ·
I've got another view that shows the split windshield, I'll post it later. The frame is still one piece, and the large slot for the barrel is offset to the right of middle. If it were dead in the middle, the barrel crowds the driver when in the transport position. There's a U-shaped cradle just behind the windshield at the bottom for the barrel to rest in.
 
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#29 ·
Cool!
I saw on a Nat Geo program once that they had those mounted on platforms out west in Ski Country. They were welded down & pointed up at an Avalanche area & a ski team would ski in after a big snow & launch a round up & dislodge the snow to make the area safe for skiers.
Later I read someplace that they needed those for some war we had going on & pulled them up & made off with them. Seemed Bill Clinton had all the available ones cut up when he was prez...
 
#33 ·
I see a lot of ruptured barrels in that pile, the most common failure mode for those guns after several years of use. That posed a real danger for the gunner, as he sat at the left side of the rifle barrel, where the azimuth and elevation wheels are, and the firing mechanism for both the sighting rifle and the main rifle are.
 
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