Gyrojet 13mm ARP

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So I was doing some reading and came across the Gyrojet, sounds like this round would be good for sniping and items of that affect, but not close combat, no wonder the pistols didn't work out...

http://www.littlegun.be/arme americaine/a gyrojet gb.htm

Check it out.

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Holy crap $100 a round? Hah. Wonder if you can "reload" with a couple Estes hobby rocket engines. > )

I don't trust the firing mechanism either... if the hammer got stuck in front of the bullet, you'd have a rocket .50cal KabooM! in your hand.

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I think this can also be found on Wikipedia, if you search Gyrojet, they said somewhere in there that this round only had 1.5times the power for a .45 ACP round. Doesn't seem worth it, and to get that full power, you need to be standing a good distance from your target...

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This was an experiment that never got far. The guy who owns my local gun shop actually has one of these pistols. It's a neat idea, maybe someday it'll come back when the time is right.

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I also heard that a couple of service men in Vietnam I believe it was, took their Gyrojet pistols with them, as back at that time it was not uncommon for officers, and some servicemen to carry their personal rigs (this is what the site said, I have no military background).

Anyway, one of the men lived, the other came home in a bag, but you couldn't base this on the gyrojet alone, as this was a backup piece.

I could see a round like the Gyrojet 13mm being useful at very far ranges, or for possibly a very windy environment. Otherwise, for sniping I like the balistics of the .50

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I do not have the gun itself, but I do have a few rounds of ammo for the Gyro. They look like a saboted bullet, they are green and triangular in shape. I am told the barrel is smooth bore for these and the triangular shape was used to guide the bullet in the barrel. I assume that there was a twist in the barrel to impart some spin, but I don't know for certain.

Regards

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Hawkflyer wrote:

I do not have the gun itself, but I do have a few rounds of ammo for the Gyro. They look like a saboted bullet, they are green and triangular in shape. I am told the barrel is smooth bore for these and the triangular shape was used to guide the bullet in the barrel. I assume that there was a twist in the barrel to impart some spin, but I don't know for certain.

Regards

Click to expand...

I think the jet nozzles are canted to impart spin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrojet

Spin stabilization was provided by angling the four tiny rocket ports rather than by forcing the projectile through a rifled barrel.

Click to expand...

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According to test reports I've read, it was about as accurate as a bottle rocket. Not very. Because it was a rocket projectile, there was almost no recoil at all, it didn't really accellerate until after it left the muzzle.

There was also a rifle version.

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I've read a bit on this as well.

The early production rockets, oddly enough, were quite accurate (spin-stabilized by angle jets).

It was the later production models, with a single partially-blocked nozzle that tended to sprial in a masive corckscrew, or otherwise go off-path.

That was more of a manufacturing defect, however.

Also, again, these were better over long range. You could actually prevent the rocket from travelling by holding your hand over the barrel. It would stop on your palm, and burn of its fuel.

Of course, at long range, it punched through tanks, IIRC.

I COULD see this having applications in space combat, though.