From:	Mike Loseke <mike@******.VERINET.COM>
Subject:	Re: Rigger Book 2
Date:	Thu, 25 Dec 1997 21:54:35 -0700

Thus spake Zixx:
>
> On 24 Dec 97 at 10:32, Mike Loseke wrote:
>
> > Thus spake Ralph and Ivy Ryan:
> > >
> > > Recoil systems: Hydro-pneumatic is the way it's being done right now.
> > > Works fine, and works with gyro-stabilization as well. Used in the Abrams
> > > and Bradley for example. Zero recoil!
> >
> > Pardon my french, but what the hell are you smoking? "Zero recoil" on
> > an Abrams? That gun kicks back 13 inches when fired, and when service
> > rounds are fired the vehicle is jarred enough to lift the front two road
> > wheels off of the ground. Please, ask me how I know this...
>
> O.K., how do you know?

Four years experience as an M1/M1A1 crewman: driver, loader, gunner
and even a few stints as a tank commander.

> (BTW, do you know mass and exit velocity of a round fired from the Abrams?)

Short answer, no. The only figures I ever heard was that the velocity
of a sabot round was about a mile per second and that the impact of the
same round was about 63 tons per square inch. Both of these were for
the 120mm round. I watched a sabot round hit a target that was ranged
at 3825m and the mile per second figure seemed pretty close. Of course,
this particular one wasn't fired at a hard target so the visual effects
from the impact weren't visible.

Gurth may have some more accurate numbers here. I just manned them,
I didn't do the math.

--
Mike Loseke | It's pudding time, children!
mike@*******.com | -- Primus