I can only imagine the “shock wave” impact of thousands of large rounds being fired over a short time. That has shake your head a bit.
I can only imagine the “shock wave” impact of thousands of large rounds being fired over a short time. That has shake your head a bit.
Around 2000 I was taking a martial arts class with an Army veteran who was either in Vietnam, or had enlisted some time in the 70’s. I can’t remember what his MOS was, but I do remember him mentioning something about firing the old .50 machine guns. “Ma Deuce” Somehow we got to talking about hearing loss, and he brought up some issued he had with his hearing, and the long term effects of firing a .50 M2. My 20 year old self respectfully asked him if he was using earpro, which he was, but he pointed out that the concussion of firing that thing, combined with actually jostling his entire body to include his head had all kinds of effects on his hearing. The machine gun was shaking up the small bones in his ears.
It's not the shoot-er who gets beat up by the shock wave, it's the shoot-ee. For the shooter-er, all it is is muzzle blast (which ordinarily will have a shock wave associated with it). It's a pretty good thump but it's also directional. The bulk of it goes down-range along with the round. The crew standing behind the gun only get a secondary effect.
The largest artillery barrages in history were in WWI, some of which lasted months. If the gunners were susceptible, it should have showed up then. But it din't. Shell shock generally only gets to the guys on the receiving end.
Yes, during the testing in 80’s guys had blown ear drums, blood running from their faces, etc., just from the concussion of firing. They had limits of the amount of rounds you fire, like one a minute and such. Eventually they got the shock absorbed from the cannon, but in peacetime their is a limit on how many rounds a crew can fire.
They definitely need to look into this and help the soldiers.