Glad someone is playing with these. Maybe it will make 40mm interesting.
40mm Fun Rounds
Howdy!
Like most folks with a 1919, I have other projects always in the works.
The 40mm chalk rounds for the M203s out there are fun and easy to build/reload but I was looking for something with a kick to it. Inspired by some of the 3D printed rounds out there, I sourced some of the 14.5 artillery simulator projectiles. They used to be around the gun shows, loose or loaded in a shotgun shell but have mostly dried up. I got the awesome files from chevtec for 3D printing various rounds and handed them to a buddy with a printer. They were a great start and we tweaked and tested from there. The best solution we came up with was a zinc pusher with a point detonating projectile with a custom nosecone, revision # 9(I think, lost track of them all).
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Superglue holds it all together and we fill the void space with chalk. These do work well. They tend to "arm" 80% of the time and go boom when ya hit a solid surface at about a 90 degree angle. However, they are heavy at 234g without chalk inside vs 170g for the M781 rounds complete. The recoil is a bit firm(1/2 lb projectile, duh) but manageable out of my double barrel 40mm launcher.
So, being the tinkerer I am, I looked for a better solution. The good folks at Bonetti Ordnance Bonetti Ordnance offer a complete empty chalk round that screws together. They make really great chalk rounds, they are all CPVC and considerably lighter than a standard pusher and nosecone combo. The barrel rifling gets less wear and most of the time, they are re-usable. With a simple modification, drill one hole about .650", they accept the 14.5 projectiles perfectly and screw down tight with room for some chalk for fun. They weigh a lightweight 130g and fly great. The one in the pictures below is actually a 3 second airburst round, more on those later.
The big plus is they arm 100% and go boom on any reasonably hard surface. I tried to get a dud, no luck yet.
Tree branches? Boom! Soft sand? Boom! Glancing blow off top of grassy berm? Boom! ! ! Have not tried shooting a pillow but ya get the idea...
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Like most folks with a 1919, I have other projects always in the works.
The 40mm chalk rounds for the M203s out there are fun and easy to build/reload but I was looking for something with a kick to it. Inspired by some of the 3D printed rounds out there, I sourced some of the 14.5 artillery simulator projectiles. They used to be around the gun shows, loose or loaded in a shotgun shell but have mostly dried up. I got the awesome files from chevtec for 3D printing various rounds and handed them to a buddy with a printer. They were a great start and we tweaked and tested from there. The best solution we came up with was a zinc pusher with a point detonating projectile with a custom nosecone, revision # 9(I think, lost track of them all).
Superglue holds it all together and we fill the void space with chalk. These do work well. They tend to "arm" 80% of the time and go boom when ya hit a solid surface at about a 90 degree angle. However, they are heavy at 234g without chalk inside vs 170g for the M781 rounds complete. The recoil is a bit firm(1/2 lb projectile, duh) but manageable out of my double barrel 40mm launcher.
So, being the tinkerer I am, I looked for a better solution. The good folks at Bonetti Ordnance Bonetti Ordnance offer a complete empty chalk round that screws together. They make really great chalk rounds, they are all CPVC and considerably lighter than a standard pusher and nosecone combo. The barrel rifling gets less wear and most of the time, they are re-usable. With a simple modification, drill one hole about .650", they accept the 14.5 projectiles perfectly and screw down tight with room for some chalk for fun. They weigh a lightweight 130g and fly great. The one in the pictures below is actually a 3 second airburst round, more on those later.
The big plus is they arm 100% and go boom on any reasonably hard surface. I tried to get a dud, no luck yet.
Tree branches? Boom! Soft sand? Boom! Glancing blow off top of grassy berm? Boom! ! ! Have not tried shooting a pillow but ya get the idea...
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Oh we've been working on making if more fun for sure. Just don't have the free time I used to have. See below for my current project that I don't have time for.
Very cool idea bigtom. Seems like a great use for those plastic projos from Bonetti. Maybe they can offer then with the hole already machined in place.
Be careful. Some pictures from about 20 years back where someone loaded bird bomb stuff into a 37mm chalk round. I don’t think his hand was very salvageable.
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Oh yes. Very careful. My projos don't arm til they leave the barrel. And I'm doing a lot of reliability testing with no, or low, black powder charge from a remotely fired launcher.
The 14.5mm sims don't have enough power to blow your hand off like that. But I still recommend full safety gear when firing them.
Have you tried the ChevTec "SmokeV8" projectile for this? Gotta use a lot of glue with them, or even better, epoxy.
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