German anti-tank rifle,WWI

[Michael J]

Soo, uhh.. Frank, best buddy of mine, i see theres an empty space in your will, just big enough to fit my name into it, lucky eh... *hint hint*

[BigBoy99]

BigBoy99,

Are you machining all this stuff on a metal lathe?

Pretty cool to be able to make your own shells. Not sure how much the raw material cost...but if you were to make brass cases, you are confident in it being strong enough to handle the charge pressures?

I imagine you know quite well what you are doing, but it all kind of blows my mind to be honest!

I'd love to be more 'self-suficiant' with things like this. Been wanting to take a gunsmithing course...learn how to reload ammo...etc etc...

time and money!

Yes. These cases were made by hand on a South Bend lathe that left the in factory in 1945.

The 50 cal case can handle the pressures and I would be making an adaptor piece to make up the "shortness" of the 50 cal case to fit into the chamber.

If you are intersted in machine tools, try taking an evening course at your local vocational school or community college. That is how I started out. This thread has been hijacked by others. If you would like to communicate directly with me contact me at: i422twains@earthlink.net

Bill

[bmg17a1]

Anyone interested in purchaisng any of the several types of DDs seen in this thread, please e-mail me or call 802-226-7204. I have a list of DD's for sale including Mauser 1918, PTRS, PTRD, Boys rifles, Lahti and Solothurh 20mms, and a number of 25/37mm cannons.

Bob Naess
Black River Militaria CII

[IMBLITZVT]

I would be interestered in buying a T-Gewehr 1918 if anyone has one for sale at a good price.

[sc413]

All these guns with bores over .5" are perfectly legal in the US as long as they are registered. They are classified as Destructive devices and require the same paperwork as a machinegun or silencer. My FFL allows me to deal in and manufacture MG's , Silencers, Short barreled rifles and AOW's but for DD's I have to pay the same tax as any normal Joe for transfers or manufacturing using a form 1.

The costs of shooting a lot of these are relative. Most of them don't get fired a lot but the cost per round is high. 100rds through the bolt action can cost you $50 or you can fire a round or two from a big rifle. I reload the 20mm for the Solothurn and there are guys who have made steel, stainless steel and brass cases for these guns. I've got 25 or 30 original cases and 20 or so stainless ones. I've got a few original cases that have been fired 7 times or more. Powder is available as pull down powder from the US 20mm vulcan as are the projectiles. We have to turn the driving bands down on the US projos since the groove diameter on the US stuff is bigger than the european spec.

On the Boys rifle in either .50 or .55 there is ammo available as well as projectiles though the .55 projos are not too common and frequently are made from barstock bronze, brass or ledloy steel.
Now i need one of those haha,that would piss the neighbors off big time lol..

The PTRS is another story altogether. I can make projos with ease but there is no powder in the US that is suitable for loading this round. I know guys who tried the US 20mm vulcan powder but its a bit fast for the round and in cold weather can cause problems. The russians used a very large grain size powder in the WWII ammo and it was pretty slow. The WWII rifles are not something I'm willing to risk experimenting with as the bomb of the 14.5mm round could do some serious damage if it popped wrong. The locking system of the PTRS is not super strong. Thats another reason I don't shoot that one. I do have a .50 cal barrel in the works for the PTRS so it can be fired safely. Its a back burner project though as I'm buried in paying work right now.

I have a 60mm mortar and we shoot it a lot. It is very cool and doesn't need nearly as much room as any rifle or even pistol. I can set it up in the front yard and shoot at a flag we put 100yds down range. The individual mortar rounds are not required to be registered unless they contain more than 1/4oz of explosive. We shoot practice rounds mostly and they are cast iron weighing about 3.5lb. They are propelled by a 20ga plastic shell primed normally with a shotgun primer and loaded with pistol/shotgun powder. These cases are pressed into the fin assembly for the mortar bomb. The fins screw onto the bomb and the whole shebang is dropped down the tube to fire. The primer hits the firing pin at the bottom of the tube and sets off the powder. The powder burns building pressure and blows out the sides of the shell case venting through the ports in the fin assembly. The gas pressure pushes the bomb out of the tube like any other gas propelled projo.

So there you go. You can do any of the above if you live in the US in most states. If you live in the peoples republik of kommiefornia, illinois or a couple other kommie states you are prohibited.


Other artillery rounds are fired with some frequency but the ATF declared the artillery powder to be an explosive rather than a propellant so you need a license to buy it now and its a real pain. Another good reason to stick with the small large guns. My 25mm Puteaux used 1/4lb of powder per shot where the 20mm Solo is about 12rds to the pound.

hope that answers some questions and gets you thinking.

Frank
Here are a couple pics of the mortar and some ammo for the others.






this one is 20mmX138B original ammo, my reload, a .50 US round and a tiny .308 round.