I guess this would fit in the category better than any other. I have read about how bad some rifles kick, well, boys, let me tell you about my story.

I'm a gun nut and have been since I can remember, so in 1967, I join the Marines, 'cuzz, they've got lots of things that go bang. I'm going through my Infantry Training Regiment (ITR)and we're at the explosives range. The instructor is of course a multi tour Vietnam vet and he's holding an M1 Garand with a rilfe grenade launcher, complete with one Willie Pete (white phosphorus) grenade on the end. In his other hand he has a rifle grenade launching cartridge. He's tell us about the why's, where's and other things, but I don't hear a thing. I keep thinking who's going to be the lucky SOB who gets to fire the grenade. I come back to reality, when I hear him say he needs a volunteer to fire the Willie Pete from the Garand (I forgot you should never volunteer for anything). I'm 5 rows up on the bleachers and in one leap, I clear the heads of the other Marines, I land in front of him. Not waiting for anyone else to cheat me out of this "get to fire a rifle grenade" opportunity,I snatch the Garand from his hands, grab the launching cartridge, place it in the chamber, throw the rilfe to my shoulder, and fire it at an old Japanese tank. Now I do remember the confusion, besides the excruciating pain, as I saw him, the bleachers, the ocean, several times in rapid succession. I nearly screwed myself in the ground from the recoil, the rifle is dangling from my left hand, my right arm is limp and I'm unable to move it. Sympathy, no way! He says in that "Marine" voice, "Now that stupid here has demonstated the complete wrong way to employ this weapon, I'll now show you the correct way." With my shoulder hurting worse than my pride, I exit to see a Corpman, and see 200 other Marines, pissin' their pants with laughter. So .460's and .458's kick, but they are nothing compared to that M1, Willie Pete!

great story!!! sorry it happened to you..

and a perfect demontration of heavy weight bullets (even excluding the wp) have more recoil than light weight ones, even at different velocities.

btw, what this demostrates is LEVERAGE or TORQUE rather than recoil, as the 30-06 grennie round is still a blank, and no secondary charge on the gren. the recoil was literally the inertia of the gren vs the gas of the 30-06.. and that a 18oz slug can really push back on a 9.5# rifle.

for what's it's worth... most of the big NE's have more recoil energy.... my 500 jeffe does, 470's almost all do... and a 458 lott in a 8#er SUCKS to shoot

jeffe

Tom,
Whatthehell were the Marines still doin' with M1's in '67? The M14 had been standard issue for the Army for years and the 16's were in the pipeline. Did they do anything else besides launch obsolete grenades with it? Other people were using M79s . . .

hack,

That was a life long experience you will never forget... I will just keep enjoying the Lott I just got from Ruger...

Mike

Freedom is not Free

Jeffeoso, Torque, leverage, hell it just plain hurt no matter what law of physics applied. I promised myself never volunteer for anything again, of course I failed to heed my own painful lesson, though I never fired another rifle grenade in that fashion.

Oldsarge,

Boot camp was M-14's, Infantry training M-1's and BAR's. Staging prior to WesPac (VN) it was M-16E1's. VN was M16E1's and Browning 1919A4's. We did get M-79's but still carried 3.5" rocket launchers! I didn't know it at the time but some of my web gear was pre WWII.

hacksawtom,
I went in 69, had 14's in bootcamp and 16's for ITR and StagingBn. Trained with Bazookas at ITR, didn't get to play with the 79's and LAWS until we got to Staging. Did they do the demo/famfire of the 105 recoilless with the stack of empty ammo crates behind the gun for you guys? A lesson I never forgot and probably never will. Semper Fidelis.

Old Sarge,
In those days the Corps got the leftovers (if we were lucky). We had to sandbag the floorboards in our vehicles, the Army had prefitted armor plates, our web gear was WWII and Korean vintage and well used by the time we got it. A lot of our C Rats were ten years old at least. We still had a lot of pineapple grenades too. Marines weren't allowed to buy booze at the in-country PX's either. Thank God our guys are gettin' better stuff these days.

Tom ,

send me a PM.

Thanks

eric