At the close of WW-2 the Nazis built the Sturmgewehr 44 with what they called a Krummlauf attachment over the barrel to help them shoot around corners in the street by street fighting with the Russians who were kicking their collective butts. They found that the longer 7.92x57 round did not work very well in a curved barrel and developed the short 7.92x33 round on which Kalashnikov later based the Soviet 7.62x39 round.
The original Krummlaufs did not work well at all and neither, as far as I know, have any subsequent versions. The ISraelis introduced a variation on the theme attaching a small swiveling screen and a camera to some of their Tavor rifles to avoid a curved barrel and consequent accuracy problems and that seems to be the only product of it's kind in service.
On the whole this is a fascinating series of experiments and someday there may be a version that works satisfactorily, I guess.
Re: Details Required.
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:37 pm
by kanwar76
There is a program on Discovery channel “Future Weapons”. Few days ago they were showing a gun of this kind. It was developed by a retired Israeli commander and its worked quite well as per them. They had some kind of mechanism where they can convert any gun to shoot around corners. They fired everything from assault to shotgun with that system. Looked like quite useful gun for urban warfare.
-Inder
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:50 pm
by eljefe
Badshah-
very ROBOCOP-ish!
simple idea to start with-that looks like a glock in the second snap-two different , connected platforms and voila, you dont have to worry about how to make the bullet take the curve and work efficiently.
Simple, yet amazing comcept.
Wonder how the lock time is affected? what kind of servo/camming system is in use and more importantly, how long will the battery last?
While this is for very special applications, the nightmare of a rapid reload is not yet a part of the design teams KRA ...
Best
Axx
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:03 am
by badshah0522
Thanks to everyone for the Info..Is it availble in the market for civilian?(i guess not)I ll check the link for more info.
badshah
Re: Details Required.
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:45 am
by Mark
Ya know, I think the reason why they've been experimenting for the last half century with these gizmos is the fact is that they never seem to work!
Even if you can shoot around a corner, fighting around a corner against thinking and moving objects are a different story.
Re: Details Required.
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:10 am
by penpusher
Heard somewhere that the process of going through a curve also breaks up the bullet.Not very good for anti terrorist operations as this would result in hostages also being hit.
Another thing,remember hearing on Discovery that the device the Germans had developed was basically to allow the crews of a tank destroyer that they had produced but which lacked a machine gun,to hose Soviet infantry.The Soviets had quickly realised that the lack of a machine gun meant that the crew of the tank destroyer could do little against them.They would clamber on to the vehicle and plant explosives and blow it up.The device was to enable the crew of the tank destroyer to tackle this.So they would pop the bent barrel form the turret (or what ever)and while remaining in the the safety of the vehicles armor,shoot Soviet infantry men on the vehicle.
