Seeing the Lahti in Person

[EricW]

I got to see a Lahti 20mm anti-tank rifle in the flesh last week at the Patton museum:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahti_L-39

No picture really does the thing justice until you're standing in front of it. It is absolutely HUGE. It was in a glass case, but I'm pretty sure that the magazine holds a *double stack* of 20mm rifle rounds.

Three cheers for making Major, baby!

Edited December 16, 2007 by EricW

[Patrick Sweeney]

They made a small batch of those in select-fire, for use as anti-aircraft guns. Now that sounds like fun.

[MichiganShootist]

I still like the Areo:)

I know it's only a 7.62..... but at 4,000 a minute it sure would be a ball to shoot all stuffed full of tracers!!

[Carlos]

Sure - its a D.D. and subject to a $200 tax, but why o WHY hasn't someone started making modern reproductions of those things? Practical-schmactical, it looks like it would be a lot of fun to shoot (though only God knows WHERE around here I could shoot such a monster!). Now where did I put that lottery ticket?

[warpspeed]

Eric,

Which "Patton Museum" ? KY, CA or Europe ?

[open17]

Ammunition is EXPENSIVE and hard to get. 20mm x 138 IIRC.

I haven't shot the Lahti, but I have shot the Solothurn 20mm. What a hoot!

Guy had a Lahti and a Solothurn set up a a machine gun shoot in Albany Oregon. Same

range as the 3 gun Nats. 20mm was $20 per shot, and worth every penny!!

[Kingman]

Ok, so that would be fun. Interesting idea.

[EricW]

Eric,

Which "Patton Museum" ? KY, CA or Europe ?

Fort Knox, KY. I don't know squat about tanks or armor, but it would be worth going out of your way just to see all the tanks. They've got everything from the first Ford tank to a King Tiger to a T-72 (I think) to an M1A. All under one roof. I just wish they'd let you look under the hood on all that stuff. I'd love to compare the Russian fire control systems to the US ones.

The other interesting thing were the displays on the anti-tank missiles. I knew RPGs had some poop to them, but I never thought that they could penetrate 200mm of steel (I'm assuming that this is plain steel, not 500 brinell). That's pretty amazing/concerning for something that you can buy for $5 at a Somali arms bazaar. The "grenade" portion of the title is a horrible misnomer that really understates the danger of what our troops are going up against.

They also had some displays with IEDs, but the details were very vague for obvious reasons. One of these days I'd like to learn more about them and the mines. I think there's more work that we could do in the area of remote disabling.

Oh, and you can see one of Patton's six shooters & other memorabilia, but that was really a sideshow compared to the rest of the museum.

[AikiDale]

I'd have bought you a beer if I'd known you were in town! How long will you be in this part of the country?

Many years ago dad took several neighborhood kids to the Patten Museum. This was before we were a terrified society you understand. We climbed all over those tanks, spun the turrets around, raised and lowered guns and had a great time.

Thanks for the memories.

[EricW]

I'd have bought you a beer if I'd known you were in town! How long will you be in this part of the country?

I'm already back home. I would have stayed and met you and some of the locals, but the yo-yo's I was working with (my co., NOT Ft. Knox) were so stupid, I just couldn't leave soon enough.