M67 90mm recoilless rifle

[Legbreaker]

Not everyone carries a .50 cal in their back pocket though. Against an enemy force without anti-armour of even pitiful capability, those things would be true battlefield bullies.
Of course there's not many places on the planet any more where the soldiers don't routinely carry weapons more capable than a water pistol.

[Brother in Arms]

Id like to know how many M67's are in private hands in the U.S. it would be something one could reload for if they knew how. I like the low tech aspect of that weapon but the Carl Gustave M3 is by all accounts a much better weapon.

[Schone23666]

It's those huge government warehouses! (Like on Raiders of the Lost Ark.) We probably have old Kentucky Long Rifles packed in Cosmoline in them, along with powder and ball.

It does make you wonder what ELSE they still have locked up in some of those vast depots and warehouses, doesn't it

[Schone23666]

It may be comparing apples to oranges, but if one is surprised that certain old weapons get occasionally dusted off for refurbishment and use:

The Browning M2HB heavy machine gun began undergoing designs and trials around 1918, and began seeing mass production in 1933, and can be found around the world these days, including in the U.S. military. They've been fudging around with possible replacements here and there, but it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.

The M14 rifle began seeing use in 1959 or so and has continually popped up here and there, recently thousands of these were reissued to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as DMR rifles (with refurbishment and modifications), though I'm sure anyone on the boards here who's been over there knows more about this.

These are just two examples, and granted they're firearms compared to the M67, but it's important to remember that one of the weapons that sees more use nowadays in this role, the M3 Carl Gustav ("Goose") came out around 1948 or so itself.

I guess the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here.

[Brother in Arms]

Schone

Lets not forge the venerable but Awesome M-79 grenade launcher.

Marine Meu (SOC) Force Recon have used upgraded 1911 and 1911A1 since about 1985 to 2012.

I fully agree with you if aint broke don't fix it and the "Goose" as you put it sure aint broke.

[Schone23666]

Schone

Lets not forge the venerable but Awesome M-79 grenade launcher.

Marine Meu (SOC) Force Recon have used upgraded 1911 and 1911A1 since about 1985 to 2012.

I fully agree with you if aint broke don't fix it and the "Goose" as you put it sure aint broke.

Heh, good point. I was a little surprised as well when I started seeing pics of M79's still in use in Afghanistan. I'm assuming they did so because the M79 can accommodate some of the specialized longer 40mm rounds as compared to the M203

Also, said discussion applies to the OPFOR side as well. The AK47's been around since the beginning of the Cold War, and isn't likely to go away anytime soon either.

[DigTw0Grav3s]

If we're discussing launchers, which 40mm grenade rounds are considered long, and don't work with the M203

[raketenjagdpanzer]

If we're discussing launchers, which 40mm grenade rounds are considered long, and don't work with the M203

Behold!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_40_mm_grenades

[WallShadow]

I was under the impression that the longer 40mm grenade casings were of substantially higher power and designed for the automatic grenade launchers. Use by small-arms launchers was ostensibly dangerous and therefore prohibited due to severe recoil forces.

[Schone23666]

I was under the impression that the longer 40mm grenade casings were of substantially higher power and designed for the automatic grenade launchers. Use by small-arms launchers was ostensibly dangerous and therefore prohibited due to severe recoil forces.

You're referring to the 40x53 round. That is correct, that's the high velocity round used for automatic grenade launchers like the Mk19. The low velocity rounds used by handheld launchers such as the M79 and M203 is the 40x46.

The problem, as far as I know, is that some new specialized 40x46 ammunition use particular shells that are a little longer than the "standard" and hence it's a bit more difficult to load them into a traditional M203 that has the breach/barrel slide forward only to a certain point in order to load the entire shell(though I've read of some improved variants that allow the breach/barrel to slide forward further, may be wrong on this). The M79's break-open action allows easier loading of rounds of varying length, though as stated one probably shouldn't try it with a 40x53...

[.45cultist]

I think that it would lend to the sense of decay to reissue the older items. Modern>Vietnam/Falklands>WWII/WWI.