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So what is everyone's favorite Grenade Launcher?

Mine is the M-203 pi as it can be mounted on just about anything from as the pictures show an MP-5 to the M-60E4 rail interface.

Either the HK GMG, or the Mk19. Why? Their belt fed. Do I really need to say more?
On a more serious note I would go with the M-203 or the HK79. But I would lean towards the 203 more. I like the fact that the 79s has a hinged breach (as opposed to the sliding style on the 203) that allows a larger range of specialty munitions. But it is expensive and more importantly heavy. So I think the 203 wins out.

There was a grenade launcher developed in the former Czecslovakia called the LCZ B40. As automatic grenade launchers go, it's light and ocmpact (almost rifle size) and, by swaping out a few key components, could be converted into a .50 calibre anti-materiel rifle/light machinegun.

I like the Russian GP-25/30 series. The ar esmaller and lighter than a lt of wester style launchers and being muzzle loaders can accomidate rounds of a variety of lenghs if needed. I think they are also able to be loaded and fired faster than western launchers. I rememeber reading about how one GP-30 can be used to hit a target with 2 grenades simultaneously by launching one in high tragectory, reloading, then launching another in low trajectory.

The Russians also developed a neat silenced grenade launcher.

M-203 is nice for hand held, multipurpose combat rifles but for my money it's all about the Mk-19 when it comes right down to needing a grenade launcher.

Lucky wrote:Mk-19. nuff said.

ditto

(what is up with us Jarheads liking the Mk19?)

Maybe it's the amount of destruction they cause.....

Yeah, there is definately something about the Mk-19 thats hard not to love if you were one of Uncle Sams Misguided Children. Personally, it's the sheer destructive potential it represents - plus white phosphorous is really hard to ignore when yer firing for effect.

A little off topic. Do any modern armies use rifle grenades that slip over the end of a rifles barrel? I could see advantages and disadvantages. Just a thought.

Grey Death wrote:A little off topic. Do any modern armies use rifle grenades that slip over the end of a rifles barrel? I could see advantages and disadvantages. Just a thought.

Yes, you can add a tear gas/smoke grenade launcher attachment to a Remington (or Winchester) 870 shot gun which can be fired through the use of a blank, such as described here by Lucky:

Lucky wrote:Rifle Grenades are fired with a special round that is basically just powder and wadding, like a super-blank. regular blank cartridges put about 15x the amount of carbon into a weapon as a regular round, so Id imagine a rifle grenade cartridge would put significantly more than that.

They still make rifle grenades, so someoen must use them.

A lot of modern grenades are "bullet trap" or "bullet through" designs allowing them to be fired with standard ammunition still in the rifle - though generally you still have to set the gas regulator to a special grenade firing mode.


One of my favourite rifle grenades is a round the Israelis have developed for their troops patroling along the fencelines. It's an anti-ambush round and is desinged not to require any changes in the rifle's settings or in the use of ammunition, the soldier just slides it on his weapon at the start of the patrol so it's ready to use when an ambush happens.

What makes this grenade so special is that it doesn't launch - but is basically the equivalent to a rifle mounted claymore mine.

It's a flechete round that fires in a pretty broad arc. The use of the flechettes alows the shooter to fire through chain link fence without worrying about loss of effect.



BTW, in regards to grenade laucnhers, what do you all think of the Lacroix Samourai Urban Fighting Weapon. Fires a 76 mm grenade (read mortar round) from the shoulder. A little heavy to carry, bit of a recoil issue, but no back blast.

Jefffar wrote:BTW, in regards to grenade laucnhers, what do you all think of the Lacroix Samourai Urban Fighting Weapon. Fires a 76 mm grenade (read mortar round) from the shoulder. A little heavy to carry, bit of a recoil issue, but no back blast.

I would much rather take the EX-41( often confused with the earlier and similar China Lake Pump action Grenade launcher). it's a four shot HV 40mm pump action launcher, hense the mix up by people who don't do their homework.

The extra range of the HV is nice, but I think I'd rather shoulder soemhtign with less recoil and a higher magazine capacity for a shoulder fired repeating grenade launcher.

Jefffar wrote:The extra range of the HV is nice, but I think I'd rather shoulder something with less recoil and a higher magazine capacity for a shoulder fired repeating grenade launcher.

Well I know the lancher is not the EX-41 but a FNH single shot but check out a couple video's from the shootout at blackwater.

http://armedforcesjournal.com/blackwater/?s=2003_videos

http://armedforcesjournal.com/blackwater/?s=2004_videos

the video's you want to watch are named "76mm" and "40mm". The rest of the video's are nice to see as well( My preferances are the MK-14 and M60E4).

That 76mm is the Lacroix Samurai I mentioned earlier. I heard they were looking at 40 mm systems and 81 mm systems with the 40 mm system being the one presented.

Lucky wrote:
...That might explain some of the civilian casualties in Lebanon.

Well I hate to say this but there are alot of cases where the Palistinians fake evidence in order to discredit Israel. the most blatant attempt recently uncovored was a faked attack on an ambulance. Needless to say if the vehicle had really been rocketed by an Israeli Helicopter, there would no have been an intact vehicle.

I agree, the baddies (in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanstan) have learned to manufacture collateral damage for the western media.


I also think that the Israelis still gave Hezbolah a lot of good stuff to work with that required little spin doctoring.

Lucky wrote:take the weapons off a dead hezbo militant, and presto! you have an unarmed, innocent civilian murdered by the zionist infidels.

Daisy Cutters solve that. There's nothing left...

Interesting new product

What y'all think?

I am wondering about the recoil myself.

Interesting item. I bet that recoil is like 3" mag 12gauge. But thats pure conjecture on my part. The set up of the grip looks strange. It doesnt look to be very comfortable or stabile. I like the round though. Sounds like a poor mans XM-25, XM-29.

That would be interesting for urban warfare.

Grey, somewhere between that and a 10 guage shotgun (20 x 75 mm or abouts)

Jefffar wrote:Grey, somewhere between that and a 10 guage shotgun (20 x 75 mm or abouts)

That would sound about right.

I'm curious about the ammunition. Does any one know what the blast radius on the HE and/or the HE-I? They mention in the article that it would be useful for attacking unarmored and lightly armored vehicles. I wonder what the penetrative value (ie, how many mm of steel it can pierce) of it is?

Well they say that the just tok a 20mm cannon round ad mated it wuth a new, shorter cartridge case, so the same blast as a 20 mm cannon.

Since it's the HE/HE-I rounds being used, and the muzzle velocity has been signifigantly reduced, I suspect armour penetration is pretty minimal.

Yeah, the South Aficans, forced to develop their own gear by an arms embargo, did some pretty impressive stuff.

I suppose I should point out that the work that led to the G-5 and descendants was done by rogue Canadian artillerist Gerald Bull to rise money for his space launching cannon project.

Too bad Mr. Bull fell in with the wrong crowd.

CS Jarhead wrote:The MK-19 is classified as a Machine Gun. Of course Jefffar will now ridicule US weapons classifications lol

Well if they didn't make it so easy for me to . . .

Oh well, not like there haven't been other armies guilty of that.

Alejandro wrote:Let him. Considering Canada's extreme military budget, I'm kinda surprised they upgraded from muskets. HA!

Hey, we were the 4th largest military in the world at the end of WW2.

Too bad we haven't bought anything since then