Gotta feed the beast... Finnish capgun...

Kevin M.

Kevin M.

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Edmonton, Alberta
Goodie package has arrived...

Custom lathed 20x138B cases and projectiles.




20mm Vulcan projectiles with the driving bands machined down by 6 thou to function properly... next to a 22lr, 223, and 308.



Next step... finding a capable enough press and dies!
 
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Kevin M. said:
Hehehehehe. I can't stop giggling.

7'3" long.
109 lbs.
Way too much money.
Way too much fun even before shooting it.








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I didn't get a sense of how big this thing was until I scrolled down to the picture of your hand in front of the mag. Jebus!!
 
Here's a video I took of it a while back. I'll take a better one when I am getting closer to firing this beast. I have one surplus cartridge. Unknown if it will fire or not, but I'll try it for sure haha. Will hopefully have some time to get to that within the next 6 weeks at some point over my holidays. The rest of the ammo loading will be a process in itself, I'll likely post that stuff in the reloading forum whenever the hell I source press and dies, likely several months away though. One step at a time with these vintage cannons.

 
Kevin M. said:
Here's a video I took of it a while back. I'll take a better one when I am getting closer to firing this beast. I have one surplus cartridge. Unknown if it will fire or not, but I'll try it for sure haha. Will hopefully have some time to get to that within the next 6 weeks at some point over my holidays. The rest of the ammo loading will be a process in itself, I'll likely post that stuff in the reloading forum whenever the hell I source press and dies, likely several months away though. One step at a time with these vintage cannons.

Click to expand...

Haha releasing the bolt on that thing has more recoil that some of my guns when I fire them!
happy0009.gif
 
Gibbs505 said:
So how many grains of powder for each case?
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I'm getting different info from various people, and from various different firearms, so I don't have a load I consider correct yet, but the average load seems to be a duplex load.

10gr black powder in a tea bag above the primer, followed by a 550gr-620gr load rolled in silk or similar material cylinder to take up volume.

550gr charge with 1550gr 20mm vulcan inert training projectile apparently net approx. 2700fps, while a 620gr charge with the same projectile will hit 3000+fps. Should be getting up towards the 30,000 ft-lb - 35,000 ft-lb range.


Here is a photo (not mine) of some pulled charges from vintage Finnish wartime production ammunition. They salvaged what material they could is my understanding.

20mm%20silk%20powder%20bags_zpstnv7wo9o.jpg


hM97W5F.jpg


Again, this is information from the internet and I don't recommend trusting it without much more research.
 
diopter said:
https://www.ch4d.com/products/dies/caliber-list?filter-col=caliber&filter=20mm

https://www.ch4d.com/products/equipment/presses/RC000
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I'll likely get my dies from CH4D unless I can find a Canadian manufacturer. For the press I have to touch base with alberta tactical. I recall talking to him last year about him having a press that could handle the cartridge, will have to check up on that.

FYI, the projectiles I am using are 20mm vulcan, but the cartridge is actually the 20x138B. Good bit more punch to it then the vulcan. Should have clarified that lol.
 
Was thinking may be you could use a lathe to re load . Chuck the cartridge , incert load ,press in projectile with the tail stock ,you could even roll a neck crimp . As for the primer chuck in a length of hollow shaft cartridge case over it and press primer in with tail stock . I am not a loader so take it with a grain of salt . I have even heard of one gent using a log splitter as a press . Old machine shops sometimes had a rack and gear press that is quite similar to a loading press , even a small drill press could be set. Way cool project !
 
Nice Lahti! Ian at Forgotten Weapons has a thorough video of the L39 plus some range time. Giggles and activated car alarms all around.
 
that is really cool, thanks for sharing and posting the pics. keep posting on your progress. your gun room is great......
 
Are there any guy's out there that dig up WWII stuff over sea's that you can contact to ask for detailed pull-down info? Powder weight and type's?
 
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