Lee Eilers writes:
> Speaking of large caliber rifles, I recall that the Finnish in WWII had a
> excellent 20mm Anti-Tank rifle, called the Lahti, I believe. It was bipod
> mounted and semi-automatic, also. I'm not quite sure how they handled the
> recoil, or anything else about it, however. Anybody know anything more?
20mm sounds about right. I saw one once when I used to work in a gun
shop. Those things are BIG! They had a bipod on the front, and I
believe that the butt of the weapon was somehow emplaced in the ground
also. I think they were fired by either two or three man fire teams,
like machine guns.
They have a short banana-shaped magazine which is mounted above the
weapon, curves forward, and holds (I think) 5 rounds. The rounds are
huge, looking proportionally like long rifle or machine gun ammo, except
that they are about an inch in diameter. Actually, the whole gun looks
remarkably like a giant assault rifle, although it is 5 or 6 feet long
(my memory may be exaggerating) and has the magazine on top.
The weapon I always thought was rather impressive is the Israeli
Galil assault rifle. It fires 5.56mm shells through a very heavy
barrel for an accurate shot. I forget the details, but I believe
it held an impressive amount of ammunition and had some thoughtful
additions such as an integral bipod which doubles as a wire cutter.
,-----------------.
|Gerald S Williams|
|[email removed]|
| [phone removed] |
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P.S. Ask me someday about armored RVs (ala Stripes) and assault
ultralites. It's amazing what's out there in use today.