Grenade discharger......on a shotgun?

[3006guns]

This question may be a little offbeat, but perhaps someone knows the answer......

I had the news on this morning, watching the ongoing unrest in Egypt between the government forces and Morsi supporters. One of the camera shots showed a crowd milling about on some steps with government soldiers in the mix. One of the soldiers was carrying a pump or semi auto shotgun with a full length barrel....at least 26" or so. Fastened on the end was a cup easily large enough for a grenade of some sort.

Now, I'm assuming that it was for firing tear gas based on what I've seen of the situation so far...but a shotgun has a pretty thin barrel and the ammo is loaded to pretty moderate pressures compared to a rifle. If the gas grenade weighs, say, two pounds.....that's a lotta "oomph" generated when fired I would think.

Anyone have any idea what else that cup might have been for?

[darkroommike]

This question may be a little offbeat, but perhaps someone knows the answer......

I had the news on this morning, watching the ongoing unrest in Egypt between the government forces and Morsi supporters. One of the camera shots showed a crowd milling about on some steps with government soldiers in the mix. One of the soldiers was carrying a pump or semi auto shotgun with a full length barrel....at least 26" or so. Fastened on the end was a cup easily large enough for a grenade of some sort.

Now, I'm assuming that it was for firing tear gas based on what I've seen of the situation so far...but a shotgun has a pretty thin barrel and the ammo is loaded to pretty moderate pressures compared to a rifle. If the gas grenade weighs, say, two pounds.....that's a lotta "oomph" generated when fired I would think.

Anyone have any idea what else that cup might have been for?

Beanbags?

[Skipper]

That's what it's for.....grenades; just pull the pin and insert it into the launcher. The spoon is released as it leaves the launcher.

Kicks like a 6-legged ninja.

[Jailer]

That's what it's for.....grenades; just pull the pin and insert it into the launcher. The spoon is released as it leaves the launcher.

Kicks like a 6-legged ninja.

And throws those grenades a lot farther than you'd think they would.

[starnbar]

Yeah but you wanna make sure they put the canister in the launcher before they pull that pin just saying/////////////////////////

[Stephen Cohen]

Early this year I was shown some gas canisters that looked like a small mortar round about 40mm dia, it was made of clear plastic and filled with a liquid very light, may be for something like this as well. but been bag sounds right

[MUSTANG]

When I was a Marine Security Guard working with the State Department in the mid 1970's, one of the weapon systems available to us was the Remington 870 Shotgun which included a Tear Gas dispenser that could be added to the Shotgun Barrel when desired. A special blank like shotgun shell was used to launch the bright red plastic tear gas canister from the Grenade Launcher. The launcher looked something like an oversize vegetable can clamped to the barrel. The Tear Gas Canister was a red plastic cylinder about 4inches in diameter and 5 or 6 inches long. A flat spoon ran from the middle bottom of the canister, made a 90 degree turn and ran up the side. To use you pulled the safety pin while holding the canister and spoon together, then inserted the tear gas round into the can which held the spoon in place in the Shotgun Launcher. If memory serves me right, there was a semi tight fit so the round would not fall out if you dipped the barrel. After loading the canister, you pulled the slide to open the chamber, inserted a blank (grenade canister round), cycle the round with the pump action, and then shot the round. We could get up to 150 yards out of them consistently, and sometime 200 yards if the wind was behind you and you held a high angle for launch. These tear canisters could also be thrown by hand, or aimed towards a crowd while holding the tear gas canister "Exit" portion facing the crowd without using it in the shotgun, a plunger pushed the tear gas powder out after a 2-3 second delay.

I remember one training/qualification where the detachment Staff NCO was lecturing all present on the preparation and use of the system. Everyone had become complacent because we went through one of these training sessions every three months and boredom was present for another lecture. The SNCO informed everyone the sequence of how to disperse the tear gas using the hand held option pointing it down range, at which time I quietly but rapidly started making my way as many shooting positions as possible to the right; for you see the wind was blowing towards the firing line that day. Needless to say the SNCO and most of those present experienced a nice dose of tear gas that day without the benefit of gas masks. I managed to miss out on the tear gas experience that day.

Mustang

[Kraschenbirn]

The Brits had a similar set-up for their SMLE MK3s that used the standard Mills Grenade. Chamber a blank cartridge, drop a grenade in the launcher cup, pull the pin, and pull the trigger. 'Designated' rifles had reinforced (wire-wrapped) forestocks and auxillary sights for aiming(?) the grenade. They're pretty rare these days but I actually handled one of these a few years back (didn't get to shoot it, though )

http://www.kaisersbunker.com/cef/equipment/cefe22.htm

Bill

[krit29-2]

talk about "old school"
probally something like this..
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i279/kritter2000/launcher_zps7b969ffa.jpg (http://s74.photobucket.com/user/kritter2000/media/launcher_zps7b969ffa.jpg.html)
this one is a S&W grenade launcher,launched teargas, smoke, and beanbags..
since the canisters are now more in the collectors realm, this one now sometimes launches soda cans.. poping them out to about 150 yards

[Multigunner]

Castro's rebels used home made spigot mortars made from single barrel shotguns to launch anti tank rifle grenades at Batista's armor. These apparently worked very well since Batista's troops were equiped mostly with only light armored vehicles.

I've seen the shotgun mounted tear gas grenade dischargers Mustang described, these are not uncommon for civilian police riot control.

Similar dischargers have been used to throw a float with line attached for rescue work. Also to throw dummy birds for training dogs, though these are more often fitted to blank firing devices of .22 caliber.