Finnish Lahti L-39 converted to fire 20x102 Vulcan

This is one of the better clips of an L-39 rifle being fired, it shows lots of detail, but the fellow loading it should never put his hand in the open action, it is strong enough to remove his fingers if it should slip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xh2tfZrhB0

My shoulder hurts just by watching the clip!:shock:
Weren’t you the owner of one of these Lahti’s yourself?

I do at present own one, all original. Sadly, there is no local range that will allow it to be used, and the neighbors complain when their windows blow out.:slight_smile:

Here is a clip of a British Boys .55 A.T. rifle,one of the earlier marks using the round muzzle brake. not long, but entertaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZheQexrFX8E

I do at present own one, all original. Sadly, there is no local range that will allow it to be used, and the neighbors complain when their windows blow out

With that muzzle brake the sound must be like…auch !!

Interesting rifle, I suppose he converted the electrically primed 20x102 ammunition to percussion primers.

there may be a percussion primed version, The Anzio 20 mm gun uses the same round, I imagine that it would be a pain to swap out primers,unless he reloads. The 20x138 can be converted to use the primer for the .50 cal. The original is a Berdan primer with the case holding the anvil. As to the noise, well it is more than one expects especially from the sides. :shock: :slight_smile:

Thanks you for the info tank G.

did you notice the shitty comments in the video ? some like the one saying blue ammunition is “depleted uranium” …very funny actually :mrgreen:

First off, shooting prone is the worst way to fire a hard kicking gun. Your whole body is behind the recoil and it pushes you back. He would have been better off sitting and having the gun mounted on a very low table.

Also, being a simi-auto, it would have been better to have a second round in the magazine. That way the action would have sprung back instead of locking open. That locking open kept the bolt from serving as a recoil reducer.

I presume they rechamberd the weapon to the 20mm M50 series round.

Usually fires a 3.5 oz projectile at a muzzle velocity of about 3,380 ft/s and that ain’t hay. So even at 109 lbs, it needs some dampening to fire!

I don’t think it was the PGU-28/B round as the round they put in looked a bit blunt and not aerodynamically sleek as it could be. I bet it was ‘just’ API.

You guys know a few hundred FULLY AUTO Finnish Lahti L-39’s were made? I bet that really was fun to shoot.

Deaf

You are correct, the full Auto version was designated the L-39/44 it was not up to the stress of full auto operation, and the receivers failed after a short time. The 20x102 Vulcan ammo is training practice. Which is a plain steel projo,painted a light blue,(all T.P. ammo is light blue)
with perhaps an aluminum nose cap in place of a fuse. It is completely inert, and will not do much against armor. It was meant only to mimic the ballistic behavior of the service projectiles. Most standard A.P. ammo is fairly blunt looking, the “point” has to be in order to remain intact during penetration.
Anti-Tank rifles are meant to be fired from either the prone, or sitting position. in most cases, it was prone, as frequent moves to other firing positions was required for survival,and to continue to engage the enemy as the battle progressed, and not all positions were entrenched.The Lahti is not that bad in recoil, just a stout shove. The Boys is sharper. In the captioned clip, the rifle was being fired from its skis, which is never a good idea. the dampers will do no good like that,as the whole gun just slides back. They only work properly with the bi-pod down. Single loading, or full mag does not influence recoil to any noticeable degree. (personal experience)

Agreed my friend, some people will just say whatever pops into their heads, The Gov’t does not allow DU ammo to be sold openly. (it is still a bit radioactive) Not to mention that the price per round would be out of the range of the average person. I watch some of the clips just to see all of the bad info being spread , it is entertaining. :slight_smile:

I think the lesser caliber using DU ( not to miss with DIU) is the 25mm Oerlikon KCB used by the LAV-25 armored personal carrier. Also there is the famous 30mm Gatling for the Avenger inside A-10 Thunderbolt II but again no 20mms…