Extra large rifles - anybody own one?

vanity ^ | 02/04/08 | self

[blackie]

"No problem; some advice: be careful about whom to rely on to defend gun rights. Some of the most ignorant, bigoted people around are...other shooters who don’t own the same types of firearms that you do and cannot see any reason why you should have them. They also think their property will be safeguarded if you lose yours. :-("

I know what you mean.

[wjcsux]

Cooper's "Baby", fired by yours truly:
COOL! Were you at Gunsites when you did this? I have never been there. I hear it is really nice.

[ctdonath2]

It was at NRA’s Whittington Center. He was there for a week teaching Cooper General Rifle (during the Great Exile) in 1999. He brought it and a few rounds, which we had to compete for. Photos & commentary at http://www.donath.org/Defense/Guns/CooperRifle/

[archy]

That means the available weapons, such as the 20mm Lahti are highly controlled and registered with the goverment.

Is that the South African weapon? The one chambered for 20mm Mauser?

Not Quite. The l/39 *Lahti* Norsupyssy and its German Counterpart, the Solothurn S-18/100, fire the 20mm x 138b round also used by the German FlaK 30 and FlaK 38 Flakvierling quad-mount AA guns. The Finnish use was as an antitank rifle for use against the then-light Soviet Armor of the 1939-40 period, particularly the amphibious variants and armored cars, whose armor skin was thinner. By the 1950s, the guns were hopelessly obsolete against main battle tanks, but still offered useful performance against armored attack aircraft, particularly the fixed-wing Soviet IL-2 Sturmovik of the WWII and postwar period, followed by the rotary-wing Mil Mi-24 and other helicopter gunships. Though as designed the l/39 came with skids very suitable for prone deployment on firm or rocky ground that could also be augmented with skis for firing or transport on snow, it required only the design and adoptation of a vertical *fencepost mount* that allowed high-angle firing at aircraft.

The first selloff of around a thousand antitank Finnish L39s came around 1960, the last bunch of Model 39/44 AA versions disappearing from the reserve stock arsenals and warehouses by the early 1990s, when replaced by ground-to-air, shoulder-fired guided AA missiles.

Sixty years of good service for Finland made the l/39 a pretty good deal for the Finnish taxpayers! There's a little more interesting info on the L/39 and its ammo *here*

[archy]

Here's mine:

Good news for you about your ammo *here*.

[archy]

“Sorry, annything over 50 Browning is under the NFA of 1934”

That’s just a technicality. I’m thinking wildcat..necked down...we’ll call it the “5Aught-2Aught Varmit Killer”

There's a variant of the 20mmx138b Lahti round necked to .50 caliber that's a very interesting little round. Velocities, as you might expect, are high; barrel life is not. But happily, the chamber end of a .50 M2 Browning HB has a VERY thick and stout base, with room for the larger cartridge case, and barrel changeout is as easy as changing barrels on an M2.

We began the project around 1998, and it's just now coming into the light of day. But we're getting there....

[wjcsux]

You keep your guns at Aberdeen? LOL!

[archy]

You keep your guns at Aberdeen? LOL!

Not since Col. Jarrett ran the museum there. After he died, I got them [and the bicycle!] back.