Honestly I don’t think I would want a dog to put anything that had lead azide from the primers all over it in its mouth. That stuff is super nasty.

Top drawer, second from the left.

Why do you ask?

i wonder if we can figure out a way to trigger these on impact?

http://www.bigblastcaps.com

The ground will do fine for that. That's actually super cool!

I wonder if these things fly fast enough to trigger one of the little .22 rimfire tannerite targets. Impact fuse?

I totally get not wanting to deal with X-Products... but man, .308 blanks are going to give a lot more range / payload than .223.

Cool video on the old M1 Garand rifle grenades - I would think the energy level should be similar.

The long barreled launchers arrived yesterday evening.

Here is the side by side folks were wanting.

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I’m working all this weekend, but I plan on shooting them on Monday or Tuesday

These 37/40mm loadable finned projectiles are just begging to be scaled up for our launchers....

http://www.freewebs.com/grog/Finned%20projectile%201.htm

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Another good use would be the bottom (finned) section being made so it’d snap over the top lip of a soda can....   It’d be reusable, and if effective would be pretty nifty to have.

ETA:  make the bottom finned section a female snap on connection like these “sippy” lids:

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Fabulous!

zuchinni launcher, Ho!

M200 blanks are NOT full power blanks.

If you want more range, just use better 5.56mm blanks (ie: full power).  If you handload, you can put a bunch more powder in the 5.56mm blank case. Or you could buy them... there's a link earlier in this thread where to buy blanks of different power; can launching blanks and M200 blanks are basically the weakest, but there's like 2 or three more power levels. I believe M195 grenade launching blanks are the strongest.

They WILL destroy soda cans though. Even the X-Products .308 can launcher says it doesn't work well with soda cans at all... as several youtube videos show. You've got to shoot frozen cans or chalk filled cans. And I'm not sure there's underpowered .308 blanks available if you did want to shoot soda can instead. So I'm not sure how useful a .308 launcher is when:

A) More powerful launchers destroy cans
B) Everything .308-platform is heavier and more expensive.
C) I can just feed my cheaper lighter 5.56 cannon more powerful blanks to get the same effect.

I keep thinking a little 223 bolt gun converted over to a launcher would be cool.

12ga single shot same concept as the F5 but with a #10 can size bore.

I like the way you think. Host guns are cheap.

Hmmm maybe my sbr Encore needs some work

Just ordered 5 of the 11" ones.  (Can cannons)

Here is my can cannon.

I need to buy the AR STOCK adapter for it..

It’s from exotic firearms.
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Details?

Thats a COL-37mm from Columbia River Precision with the Big Bore Kit.  Much want.

It uses .22 Ram-set blanks.

I used the Yellow power ones today.

Here Are Two videos  of it in slowmo...

Full Soda Can lands almost to the Dam.



This video it lands a ways past the grain feeder.

Just for fun... ammo bandolier.

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Preliminary sample for testing.

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Three different types of tennis balls, packs of 12oz diet “Dr. Thunders”, and some 8oz regular “Dr Thunders”.  I wanted all diet (no sticky sugar for the inevitable “splodey” can), but when you gotta shop at 6am on a Sunday morning your options are limited.

I would like to find a type of can that fails about 50/50 when fired tab out.  If I can find the right ones, it’ll maybe let me gauge any starting pressure differences between the short and long barrels.  I.E. if the cans rupture when tab out 50% of the time in the short barrel, then fail less often in the long barrel in identical circumstances, that’d be a useful data point towards the utility of initial launch tube volume when using “iffy” cans.  Then I can also contrast that vs. any possible projectile range differences between the two launcher tube lengths.

He’s a funny guy, I miss his videos before he started advertising

The M203 flat top sight adapter arrived just in time, and works fine.  A 20rnd Lancer manualy cycles the blanks perfectly so far too.  Heading out to test in a little while.

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I made a ring for mine that had a rail section at 12:00 for a leaf 203 sight and another at 6:00 for a VFG.

It works really well! I split the top rail and attached it to each side of the ring so the 203 sight screw clamped it onto the barrel. The biggest problem was that it slid all over the place.

I can’t wait for the golfball diameter tube.

Wonder if putting a small piece of electrical tape near the muzzle would cause enough friction to induce spin.

Would this be frowned upon at Top Golf?

I need pictures of the sight picture and the other some links to the sights...

Edit: that's an official word sandwich without context. That was supposed to be @Variable556

His name is malarkey right?

Okay, it rained today and the range was soaked, but we got a window in the evening.

For folks too busy for the minutiae, the long barrel averaged about 10 yards more distance.  I have no idea why, but here’s my data...

Flat, level, known distance range. Laser verified (Leica) 100yards to the “target” (confiscated roadside spam signage).  The sign was used for an aiming point, with the majority of impacts falling to the left of the sign.
Conditions:
Temp: 89°
Humidity: 86%
Altitude: 1400ft.
Baro: 30inHg

Projectiles:
12oz Diet Dr. Thunder
8oz Dr. Thunder
12oz Diet Big K Cola (Krogers brand)
Tennis balls from Wilson, Penn, and “Athletic Works” (Walmart brand).

Blanks: USGI M-200 Lake City 2012 headstamp.  Bulk packaged with no lot # available.

Soda Launcher: F5 brand with both 11” and 9” launch tubes.  To eliminate as many variables as possible, both launch tubes were fired on the same upper receiver, with only the tube itself being swapped.  The same M203 quadrant sight settings were utilized for both tubes.

All cans were fired “tab in” for the following results—

I first fired a dozen 12oz. cans of Diet Dr. Thunder through both the long and short barrels while playing with range settings on the M203 Quadrant sight.  While the maximum distance setting for a 40mm grenade is 400m, that setting did not give the longest distance.  It yielded a higher apogee, but range was short at approximately 70-80 yards.  Impact distance was not measured, as it was readily determined that the 325m and 350m settings went further.  Having a finite number of cans and time, I proceeded with a range setting of 350m for the remainder of the test.  It is possible that longer distance may be achieved, but was irrelevant for this test.  The goal is to compare distance differences between the 11” and 9” tubes with otherwise identical conditions.

Next I fired “groups” of 10 cans on the 350m sight setting from both the 11” and 9” tubes.

11” tube with 12oz Diet Dr. Thunder:  group was elongated oval in shape with the long axis distributed parallel to the line of fire.  Distance was 105 yards with some going a little further, and some shorter.

9” tube with 12oz Diet Dr. Thunder:  group was elongated oval in shape with the long axis distributed parallel to the line of fire.  Distance was 95 yards with some going a little further, and some shorter.

The cans fired for both groups overlapped somewhat on the edges, but the 11” tube averaged roughly 10 yards longer in distance.  Black and green sharpie was used on the base of the cans to preclude mixing them up (Black=11” Green=9”).

Next I repeated the test again with 12oz Big K Cola, and the results were nearly identical.  We just eyeballed the group centers and measured it with a survey tape, because it didn’t appear statistically different enough to even notice.

Next I fired 8oz. Dr. Thunder cans, 6 cans in each group.

11” barrel averaged 118 yards

9” barrel averaged around 110 yards

Again the edges of the groups overlapped, but the 11” tube eked out some extra yards.

With that done, I proceeded to fire the rest of the cans (both 12oz and 8oz) “tab out” to look for burst cans.  I observed no burst cans from either tube with either the 11” or 9” barrels.  I wanted to see if the shorter 9” launch tube (having less starting volume under the soda can) would exhibit a higher rate of can failure.  As no failures were observed, my data was largely irrelevant.  I need to find soda cans that are more failure prone to proceed further on that aspect.

Next I allowed my lovely assistant (my daughter) to launch the three brands of tennis balls from the 11” tube.  They (almost) all performed similarly with an approximate range of 80 to 90 yards average (350m sight setting).  One “Penn” brand ball performed a weird hooking maneuver and was lost in the woods.  The balls (expectedly) bounced and traveled further, eliminating the ability to measure them very accurately.  I could try again in high grass (to arrest their forward movement), but the observed distances are likely close enough to be called “good”.  When firing for the first time, the tennis balls have their “fuzz” scorched off of the back half, and upon further firing this may affect their range as scorching accumulates.  We were running out of time at this point, so I wrapped it up and cleaned up the mess.

All test launching for this outing was performed using my RCBS “RASS” rest to provide both consistent results, and also to somewhat preserve my shoulder.

Pics to follow

Set up on RASS
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400m setting took RASS to max adjustments.
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350m sight setting
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View down range
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Most of the horizontal dispersion was from cans bouncing on impact
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Conclusions:

The 11” launch tube definitely has about 10 more yards of range, but I cannot explain why, because both tubes place the projectile the same distance from their respective muzzles.  I’m stumped on that one.  I would have guessed the distance to be identical, or perhaps slightly more for the shorter tube, because the projectile starts closer to the blank barrel.  I also have no idea if the shorter tube will experience more or less failures, because no can failures were observed.  If anything leaked going down range— it was too little for us to see it.

Placeholder for a reply.  I’ll edit in the details with pics tonight— wife gonna kill me if I don’t watch some stuff with her RIGHT now.

Spit-balling a reason the shorter tubes launch less far. Less flow for expanding gas?

How many ports in the barrel stub does it have? The X-products has 6.

http://midwestmachineworks.com/store/p28/GolfBallLauncher

Took my F5 can launcher out to the range this weekend. I realized that Jeff apparently sent an extra bag of blanks along with the one I ordered for my shipping troubles. Thanks man! He really does have great customer service!

With tabs down I didn't have any failures of 12oz cans in the tube and they were consistently going somewhere close to 80 to 100 yards (I wasn't very consistent with aiming). Some of the best sprays were when I accidentally hit high overhanging tree branches. I was surprised at the failure modes of the cans on impact on packed, wet, clay dirt. It was about 50/50 either rupturing down the entire side or the top tearing completely off at the neck. Might have just been the Diet Pepsi cans I had.

Overall I'm definitely happy with the purchase at $150. Might not have been $310 worth of fun, but I'll certainly get $150 worth out of it! For anyone looking to buy I'd recommend spending the extra $9 and getting the version with the rail. You don't need a VFG but it couldn't hurt to have the option. I got a stupidly cheap PSA lower and LPK to put it on and built a BCG from cheap and free parts so I think all-in I'm at about $250 for the whole stand-alone unit, although if I was really concerned about cost I could have just swapped it out with the upper on my AR.

@SkilletsUSMC I was shipped an 11" version without asking (probably just what he had sitting around when he rushed mine out the door, and it seems I got the better version so I'm happy). Mine has a total of 4 holes in the barrel nub equal distance along the barrel length in an X configuration - it looks like they made 2 hits with a drill press all the way through, 90 degrees rotated apart, same distance along barrel length.

My M203 Leaf Sight (airsoft) showed up today. It arrived quicker than I thought.
I think I'm going to buy a shotgun bead sight and tap it right into the end of the tube.

I'm still working on trying to find a laser engraver to do that duffman lower, though.

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@Variable556

Excellent writeup!

I noticed you said your quadrant sight achieved max range at the 350m setting. Though I'm not sure how well that will translate to my leaf style sight. Did you happen document any angles of elevation corresponding to particular distances when firing 12oz, 8oz, and/or tennis balls? Or could you calculate the elevation based on your mounted sight? For example, the necessary elevation for 50, 75, and 100 yards...

I would think it would be pretty easy with smartphones nowadays. Just lay an iphone or whatever on the barrel before the shot and record the angle using a compass app.

Step 1:  buy cheap M203 Quadrant sights off of ebay for $30 to $40 dollars.  They can be had in “like new” shape if you shop hard enough.  I cleaned out the guy I found, but more pop up all the time.

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There are at least two variations.  One with a spacer (pictured here):

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And the older style without that spacer.  The spacer is for flat top rifles that have the grenade sight mounted to a detachable carry handle.  M203 Quadrant sights without that spacer are made for older rifles with integral carry handles.

Step 2:

A.)  Either mount the M203 sight “as-is” by clamping it to a detachable carry handle, and attaching the whole assembly to your upper.

Or

B.)  Buy this adapter clamp ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00THD0T3E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) if you want to mount the M203 Quadrant sight directly to your upper without using a detachable carry handle.  If Amazon is sold out, this place has them listed too: https://exoticammo.com/collections/37mm-launchers-and-accessories/products/picatinny-to-picatinny-clamp (I’ve never ordered from them, so no idea on good or bad)

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If you opt for the $40 clamp (way overpriced) like I did—-

Then remove this plate and screw from the side of your M203 sight:

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and then use the adapter to clamp it onto your upper

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It is just a pinch fit, but it works fine. The adapter comes with an allen wrench and you just slide the adapter and sight back and forwards until you see where you want it, then clamp it down.  I put mine as far forward as I could get it, and still have it clear the launch tube when the sight is swung up and down in range adjustment.

Sight picture and other pics in next post (pic limit per post)...

Sight picture:

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From above:

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The front post clears the side of the launch tube (when the sight is folded out and you are aiming) by over an inch.

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I’m pretty sure I could remove the detachable carry handle spacer I mentioned in the post above:

This one
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and the sights would still clear the launch tube fine.  I’ll probably do that later when I have time to fool with it more.

Hopefully these posts are helpful and clearer.

Maybe I dunno.  I’m clueless as to the reason.  I’m still wondering what would happen if the 11” tube had it’s internal “can stop” shoulder moved to the same depth as the 9” tube.  Difference or no?  I got no idea.  I thought the 9” would be a can buster when fired tab out, but not today at least.  No difference.

I need to find crappier cans for burst testing.  Any suggestions for those anybody?

Barrel ports:

The blank barrel protrudes approximately 3” past the AR upper’s threads, and has 4 equidistant ports near the end like astro_wanabe said.

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Looks good.  Duffman would be hilarious.

Thanks

I was going to use a clinometer to check, but I was short on time and forgot to.

I only plinked random settings while “breaking the tubes in” () , but starting at 400m was way too high and 350m seemed at least close to max with the 12oz cans.  I then just used that setting for everything since I was mostly there to compare the two launcher lengths against each other.

400m comes out to around 42°, and 350m on my M203 Quadrant sight places my launcher’s bore at about 32° elevation (per my phone).  There may still be some range left to be squeaked out with a little fine tuning, but that was close to optimal for the specific conditions I tested in today (now yesterday).

Hope that helps at least somewhat.

ICE PROJECTILES

I have made them using an aluminum can, and a plastic orange juice concentrate bottle.

Use the aluminum can, it slides out easier.  You may only get a few molds out of the aluminum, I have gotten more molds out of the plastic.

BLANK RELOADS
I am using 3.5 gr Ret Dot, and C4H dies.  I am having to put a bit of fingernail polish on the end as the die does not close the end completely.  I tried adjusting this as I was testing in my GO / NO GO gauge and testing fit in the launcher.  Any tips, tricks etc?

Interesting.
You could put a few inches of survey tape into the can, leave the remainder hanging free.
It would be embedded in the ice after freezing.
The rounded can bottom would be the nose of the projectile, with the survey tape sitting under it in the can.
When fired the tape would unfurl and act as a stabilizer in flight.

Fuck, why didn't they have those when I was a kid!!??

Yes.......I will be buying one!!!

I wonder if one is wanting to get more range if it would be possible to make some wood disk with a hole bored in the center to slip down pass the barrel. Somthing dense taking up that extra expansion space could increase the pressure behind the can making it fly farther.

Also if anyone has a extra F5 can launcher they would be will to trade for a used RCBS rock chucker + cash IM me.

Was looking for 3D printer models suitable for use as projectiles.
Lots of spud gun projectiles that can be rescaled.

Then I stumbled on this.

Can Cannon 3D Projectile

I used to use that survey tape for streamers on 37mm rounds because there was no rifiling to stabilize the rounds. I had to make them sort of long to work properly. I'm guessing that if some sort of weight or heavy washer was tied to the end it would work better although I've never tried that.

I'm wondering if freezing in an old tube sock would work better. I don't know when I'll have a chance again, but next time I'm going to take some tube socks, put a few ounces of sand in them and tie them off, and shoot them off using a wad (or tennis ball) as the wad. The extra sock should act as a stabilizer, or so I'd think.

Isn’t Malarky slang for bullshit? Seems fitting.

Thats awesome. It needs a hole for one of those screeching whisels like on nerf foot balls.

I made one of these for a potato gun.  GoPro Potato Cannon Round  May be able to scale some of it to work in a can cannon

We had some summer interns at the government site I work at.  I hit it off with one kid.  Just happens that he was first generation US citizen from Syria.  I thought it would be a good idea to have a Syrian print mortar rounds and estes rocket bodies.  No one at work got the joke but the kid.  He had to hack a 3d systems cube x so it no longer required proprietary filament spools and could use unencrypted g-code.  His last week of work we went out to a guys farm and shot all the stuff.  The kid would fire the potato gun round and then get in a side-by-side and retrieve it.  I also took him to a southern bbq joint during Ramadan.....for the beef and chicken