gahooten@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Greg A. Hooten) (07/06/89)
From: gahooten@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Greg A. Hooten) This was sent to me by a reader while I was on vacation, and thought that people might be intrested in it. It is from Ken Young. >From auspex!auspex.com!kyoung@uunet.UU.NET Thu Jun 29 19:15:58 1989 From: kyoung@auspex.com (Ken Young) To: gahooten@ames.arc.nasa.gov Subject: Re: Tanks and Finns (was: Re: Unconventional Warfare) >Wasn't the British Boys ATR of 20mm also? I seem to remember >rumors of it being for sale just after or just before WWII >along with the Thompson SMG. Any other better memories than >mine? I have fired the Boys ATR. It is .55 ca. As far as WWII ATR's go, it is the wimp of the bunch. It has a shock-absorber type recoil mechanism, and a hefty recoil pad. The grips for holding it are improbable looking, but facilitate firing while in prone, and on your elbows (it has a bipod). It kicks about as much as a 6 guage shotgun with a really heavy load. Oh, yes - this is with a muzzle- brake, the recoil mechanisms, the big pad,etc. After being rechambered to fire .50 cal machine gun ammo, the kick was large enough to be intolerable (to me). The US army WWII .50 cal anti-tank rifle was a sholder-breaker. It had little or no recoil protection. Thus, the rate of fire was about 1 round per person per 30 minutes. The new us army version has interesting recoil mechanisms (the shock-absorber deal again), but I havent fired it. I can't post to the net, so you can do so for me, if you think this is valuable. Ken Young uunet!auspex!kyoung