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Any 37mm Reloading enthusiasts?
- Thread starter JohnWaterman100
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- 37mm
I just got a stamp back for my 37mm. Going to start reloading soon. I'm looking at the new "cannon" cases from reloadableshells for buckshot loads.
good results with 580gr lappua scenars over 160 gr varget. still waiting on K&M for custom carbide tipped mandrel so i can turn my necks consistently.
was hopping to get some reloadable 37mm grenades but powder valley has been backorded on these for 10 years. supposedly there is a supplier in mexico but he wont export.
edit to add, i use this for hunting dinosaurs of course..
was hopping to get some reloadable 37mm grenades but powder valley has been backorded on these for 10 years. supposedly there is a supplier in mexico but he wont export.
edit to add, i use this for hunting dinosaurs of course..
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Never loaded for the 37mm.
Here is my 217.49mm launcher with 308,000 grains of projectiles (or 44lbs).
Bowling ball cannon - YouTube
Here is my 217.49mm launcher with 308,000 grains of projectiles (or 44lbs).
Bowling ball cannon - YouTube
Not sure if these guys have grenades, but Exotic Firearms (37mm Reloading Kits & 37mm Launchers | Exotic Firearms) have a ton of 37mm reloading products. Maybe you could contact them if you need something special and they could work it out? I have had good experiences with their customer service.
As far as that bowling ball cannon goes…. that is sick!!!! I'd love to play with that
I've loaded a lot of 37mm but it was all for stuart tanks, M3 anti-tank guns or Bofors anti-tank guns. The Stuart and M3 gun shoot the 37 X 223 R which fires a 1 to 1.5 lb projo at about 2500 ft/sec the way we load. They use about 6 ounces of M1 powder....powder is really not powder, it looks like Purina bunny chow. The Bofors short case 37mm is the 37 X 257R firing a 1lb projo at about 2600 ft/sec with our load of 7 ounces of M1 bunny chow. Neat guns to shoot. Imagine a 1000 lb gun jumping a few inches off the ground with each shot.
On the other hand if you mean flare launchers than no.....never had an interest in them.
Frank
On the other hand if you mean flare launchers than no.....never had an interest in them.
Frank
NFA tax stamp. Its a registered destructive device, so I can load antipersonnel ammo and also so I can swap a 40mm barrel.
I know quite a few guys loading for the 40mm grenade launchers but none of them will deal with the 37 because they're afraid ATF will decide that since folks are using it as a DD they'll declare them all to be DD's.
Not really unprecedented and knowing ATF its not an unreasonable expectation. You'd be better off tossing the 37mm tube and going 40mm as there is a lot more load data and supplies available.
Frank
A buddy of mine had a bowling ball mortar that was on a base plate about 2 feet square, the mortar itself was only about 22 inches long, but it had side walls about 2 inches thick. It's inside looked just like a bowling ball radius with a little hole for the fuse. There wasn't a powder section like on the one shown in the video above. He had it in his garage storing it, and he wanted to get rid of it because it weighed around 200 pounds and wasn't practical. I never saw it in action, but he said they would take it out near the Columbia river that runs between Oregon and Washington and shot it on some BLM land near there.
We used to see bowling ball mortars at machinegun shoots out west all the time. Most of them were made from old oxygen or other compressed gas tanks with the bottom cut out. They used a trailer hitch ball screwed into the valve end as a rear mount, a car wheel with a ball hitch socket welded into the middle as a baseplate and some sort of bipod made from steel tube or rod. We went to a mortar shoot here in indiana some years back and watched a lot of guys with bowling ball mortars trying to hit a flag 200yds away. We had a 60mm mortar that was actually a registered DD drop fire mortar and thought we had it won with a shot 13 ft from the target. One of the bowling ball guys nailed the flag however and won it all. After that they had a contest to see who could get the longest time from launch to landing. The winner was about 33 seconds if I recall correctly. The bowling balls were going up about a thousand feet and landing about 400yds downrange.
Lots of oddball stuff out there if you look.
Pics are my 60mm WWII era M2 mortar. Shown also is a practice bomb weighing about 4 lb. We typically get about 200yds out of these with the standard charge and can add increment charge to up the range though we don't normally do that. The bombs cost about $30 ea and are easy to lose if they go too far. They bury themselves if the ground is soft and are tough to keep track of.....
Frank
Lots of oddball stuff out there if you look.
Pics are my 60mm WWII era M2 mortar. Shown also is a practice bomb weighing about 4 lb. We typically get about 200yds out of these with the standard charge and can add increment charge to up the range though we don't normally do that. The bombs cost about $30 ea and are easy to lose if they go too far. They bury themselves if the ground is soft and are tough to keep track of.....
Frank
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I posted that scarcasticly as I thought he was talking about a flare launcher. That one actually uses compressed air. The "tank" is an old hot water heater, 40 gallon. It is cheap to reload though.
The BP mortars work similar to shooting anvils in the air. A two inch diameter hole, two inches deep in a 6" solid steel block welded to a tube. The tube is just there to make sure it goes in the direction it is aimed.
Like Frank said its an old cylinder with the bottom cut off.
Some other photos of the pneumatic one are here.
http://s121.photobucket.com/user/jmorrismetal/library/reloading/bbc?sort=3&start=all&page=1
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