L14A1 Carl Gustav 84mm Anti Tank

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I remember the "L1A2, adapter, sub-cal" in 6.5 x 55 that was supposed to be used with a "reduced-load", indoors / short range or a "full-strength" ball / tracer round on a "proper" range. The cute part of that system, for those who have never seen one, is that the "adaptor" looked just like a HEAT round, but the "standoff" spigot at the front was actually the forward part of the sub-cal "rifle barrel" and the main body of the adapter closely resembled the rest of a round in shape and weight, with the rear containing the firing mechanism that was triggered by the fall of the main weapon's striker; pretty clever.

Never saw any other system fired. Come to think of it, I never got to fire the 6.5 subcals either; I think I had more 6.5 x 55 ammo in my meagre cartridge collection than the "official sources" seemed to admit to owning. Then again, our Swedish cousins, having adopted the 7.62 NATO round in the mid 1960s, also produced a suitable sub-cal adapter for that cartridge, but I never saw one of those, either.

I did, however spend several other very noisy days on the range, starting with the 21mm sub-cal trainers for the 66mm M-72 launcher, and, after the instructors were happy, firing the "real thing".

Because you can only "re-use" the M-72 "shell" so many times before bits start falling off or breaking, (notably the pop-up sights or the trigger mech), the fired shells of the "real" ones were officially "recycled" at Ordnance workshops to become "trainers", as opposed to being "discarded" with extreme prejudice. As I recall, we were allowed a MAX of 35 subcal rounds to be fired in a "real" M-72 shell with an adapter fitted. The "shells" fell to bits / failed to fire at around those figures, but the actual 21mm "adapter" had a much longer service life; no moving parts for starters.

The sub-cals for the M-72 are still very noisy for such a small device; the "rocket" motor consumes its fuel in such a short burn inside the tube, that it is effectively a "slow-ish" explosion. If set up correctly, they can be surprisingly accurate, the solid metal 21mm "warhead" producing a satisfying "whack" on hitting a solid target.