Sharp as a Marble - Do they make those in a bolt action?

The bullet for the 30x173 Avenger has an aluminum jacket around a spent uranium core and weighs 6560 grains (yes, over 100 times as heavy as the M16 bullet, and flies through the air at 3500 fps (which is faster than the M16 as well).

My God, a projectile that is just south of a pound, moving at 3500 feet per second. 178,427 foot pounds of energy / 242,661 joules. I guess if I have to be shot, I want to get hit with one of those as there would be no pain, nor a need for a burial. I know Anzio Iron Works makes a 20mm rifle, I wonder if they’d be willing to commission one of those puppies?

Hat tip The Puppy Blender

Incoming Fire

30mm Avenger | Snowflakes in Hell on 6/21/2011 5:06 PM

Comments

Weer'd Beard says:

on 6/21/2011 at 2:03 PM

I'd have to imagine shooting one of those in a bolt-gun would be just as deadly as getting shot with a .50 Projectile.

I can imagine the rifle stock carving your shoulder clear of your torso, and you laying in the dust bleeding out thinking "Well that was cool!"

Shepherd K says:

on 6/21/2011 at 2:42 PM

I have to agree with Weer'd. As I understand it, pilots in an A-10 strafing run actually LOSE airspeed when the gun is fired. Think about it, it SLOWS DOWN an aircraft that weighs in at several tons with ordnance. I imagine that a person shooting a bolt action version would be pasted against the nearest object of any substance behind the gun.

exurbanKevin says:

on 6/21/2011 at 4:20 PM

I had the opportunity to pickup and fondle a dummy round for the GAU-8 at an airshow. It's about the same size, weight and shape as an old-fashioned glass quart milk bottle. Impressive doesn't BEGIN to describe that gun.

Weer'd Beard says:

on 6/21/2011 at 9:36 PM

Kevin, a Buddy of mine had a paid of Blue-tip training rounds (I believe they were live but don't quote me) and it was heavy enough to serve him well as a pair of book ends.

Yep the size and shape of an oldschool glass milk bottle.

Cornelius says:

on 6/22/2011 at 12:10 AM

During the Gulf War, a couple A-10s went on a strafing run over an Iraqi convoy that couldn't leave Kuwait quickly enough. Remember seeing some graphic pictures of the result. IIRC they called it the "Highway of Death".

Ever since then, the Warthog has been my favorite. The cannon's rate of fire was so fast, it emits a loud hum rather than your stereotypical machinegun noises. Unfortunately, the hum doesn't last long- if the pilot held the trigger down, there would be about 12 sec before going from full to empty... though the barrels would melt way beforehand.

emdfl says:

on 6/22/2011 at 12:33 AM

Mike also made up a couple of guns chambered for the 14.5mm Russian heavy machine gun round. With a 1000 grain projectile moving at 3300fps, it makes the .50BMG round look like a piss-ant cartridge.

Jake says:

on 6/22/2011 at 10:14 AM

That would be one heck of a big rifle.

Shepherd K: It only slows it down by "a few miles per hour", nothing significant, really. :)

But, yeah. I suspect that the 10,000 pounds-force of recoil would be a bit... uncomfortable for anyone holding that rifle.

Jay G. says:

on 6/22/2011 at 11:10 AM

I wonder if they could make a snubbie for it...

Jake says:

on 6/22/2011 at 3:46 PM

I wonder if they could make a snubbie for it...

But what would they call it? "Snubbie from Hell" is already taken?

Maybe "Fist of an angry God"?

chris says:

on 6/22/2011 at 3:46 PM

Shepherd K: I believe that the reports of the plane slowing down were due to early testing where the vapors from the round being fired were causing loss of power in the engines.

Jake says:

on 6/22/2011 at 3:59 PM

Chris: That was an issue, yes (in fact, it is capable of causing a complete flame-out in the engine, but this was fixed with a modification to the engine design), but the gun actually produces enough recoil to essentially completely nullify the thrust of one of the engines. From Wikipedia (I know, but this article does cite what appear to be legitimate sources):

The recoil force of the GAU-8/A[14] is 10,000 pounds-force (45 kN),[3] which is slightly more than the output of one of the A-10's two TF34 engines (9,065 lbf / 40.3 kN each).[15] While this recoil force is significant, in practice cannon fire only slows the aircraft a few miles per hour.[13]

Tam says:

on 6/23/2011 at 1:43 PM

Popgun.

The depleted uranium long-rod penetrator from the main gun of an Abrams weighs the next thing to 18 pounds and is tooling along at 5500 ft/sec or so.

Let's see... 18 pounds is... 126,000 grains at fifty-five-hundred feet a second comes to... carry the one...

About 8,465,485 foot pounds of muzzle energy, which is definitely going to make Major.

Gareth A says:

on 6/23/2011 at 8:40 PM

Think the Japanese used that in one of their mangas.

The Hellsing series had their lovable sniper vampire use a gun called the Harkonnen. A 7-8 (rough guess) foot long, break action sniper rifle for "true" vampire hunting.

Fired a 30mm D.U. round and had optional incendiary-burst ammo for crowds.

Then later, the Mark 2, which was two of them converted to belt-fed with optional keg-sized incendiary rifle grenades.

The Mark 2 would be taking the piss a little, but wouldn't mind seeing a .50 version of the original.

DukkButt says:

on 6/25/2011 at 2:51 AM

It just needs a good compensator, then the bolt action version would be totally manageable. :)

Will says:

on 6/25/2011 at 8:22 AM

They found that a 3/4 second burst gives the best chance of a kill on a tank. More than that lead to wasting ammo due to shot dispersal caused by aircraft movement from initial aimpoint alignment.

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