Gun Trucks

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

Web... there is also a few other sources that you might be able to get retired weapons systems. Tanks, helicopters and the like.. American Legion posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars Chapters, DIsabled American Veterans Chapters and other faternal groups of Veterans. It just hit me that there is a UH-1 Heuy Gunship, a towed howitzer and a Sherman tank sitting in front of the local VFW Chapter. There is a towed heavy AA machinegun infront of the masons Lodge a few blocks away. There are also some field cannons in the park as well.

With some exceptions, the AFV have gone forward to Europe, Korea, the Gulf, or they are in the hands of one of the combat formations still in CONUS. If you were to say that 40th ID in California (for example) should have some former AFV weapons on gun trucks, I'd readily agree. But folks trying to put together gun trucks without the benefit of access to one of the numbered divisions or brigades--or their equivalent in surviving USN or USAF formations--are going to have a much tougher time finding heavy weapons. Vehicles being used as monuments of some sort aren't typically left out with their weapons in a condition to be restored to service without substantial rebuilding. One might be able to salvage some parts from a howitzer in a park, but as a rule the system has been rendered inert to keep industrious ne'erdowells from gaining access to heavy firepower.

[simonmark6]

For areas where there isn't a readily available supply of scrap weapons, improvisations such as the ones used by the British HomeGuard inthe Second World War might appear. Two that could be used on a Guntruck could be:

Northover Projector: Basically a drainpipe launcher that fired standard grenades a longer range. The standard model was single shot but at least one unit hand built a five shot revolving launcher with a hand crank. Not great, but it could make all the difference against people without such weapons. Given some mechanics I assume it might be possible to do something similar firing 40mm grenades, but that's speculation.

Spigot Mortar: A launcher that used a large over-calibre grenade to make a very clumsy RPG. I'm pretty sure that they had HE and Incendiary bombs (apparently the Incendiary one was very dangerous to fire) and there might have been an AT one but I can't remember for sure.

As for other weapons, how hard would it be to make a simple Gatling gun out of rifle barrels and then power it by electricity? If it could be done, the barrels might still burn out quickly, but against lightly armed foes the shock and awe value might be a sufficient deterrent.