Mrkim Report This Comment Date: February 14, 2006 03:45PM
Just curious, anyone have an idea what the tube above the barrel is for?
MBE Report This Comment Date: February 14, 2006 08:00PM
This is RT-20 (hand cannon 20)
croatian antimaterial rifle.
Caliber is 20 mm Hispano Suiza.
And yes,it can fire AP and HE rounds (HE from AA purposes)
weight is 19.2 kg.
The tube above the barrel is for counter-recoil.
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: February 14, 2006 09:06PM
So does it vent gasses into the tube to act as a counter recoil device ?
MBE Report This Comment Date: February 15, 2006 12:51AM
The 20mm Hispano round generates about 4 times more recoil when fired from 20
kg rifle, compared to .50BMG (12.7x99mm) round, fired from 10kg rifle (such as
Barrett M95). To make the recoil more or less bearable by the average shooter,
the Croatian designers developed a quite interesting counter-recoil system, that
uses a reactive principle. The system consist of the large reactive tube,
located above the barrel. The forward end of this tube is connected to the
barrel at about its middle point. The rear part of the tube forms the reactive
nozzle. When gun is fired, some hot powder gases are fed from the barrel to the
reactive tube and back, forming a back-blast with reactive force that cats again
the recoil forces. The large muzzle brake further helps to decrease the recoil.
This reactive system, once popular in large caliber (about 80 - 100 mm and
bigger) recoilless rifles, almost never had been used in such relatively small
weapons.
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: February 15, 2006 03:09AM
Thanks MBE !