Pneumatic breech-loaded cannon

[Sear]

This is my 37mm cannon in construction. HPA system operating at 10-50 bar is not yet installed, it will be held under the barrel. It contains EM valve 1/2" and custom-built stainless steel 0,5L air reservoir (rated at 60 bar/870 psi).

[Kensingt0n]

Dude, this is some seriously beautiful looking work, good stuff mate
When you say "EM" valve, what type of valve do you mean?
Can't wait to see the tank on her and ready for shooting, keep it up matey, and merry christmas!

[Sear]

Thanks! It should be finished in March/April hopefully. The valve is 24V DC 1/2" rated to 50 bar. The air goes from scuba tank through initial regulator and safety valve.
Merry Christmas!

[cowscankill]

Oh man I love that style, can't wait to see it in action.

[Xamllew]

Whoah, I've never seen a pneumatic AA cannon (at least that's what I thought it was at first). Damn good looking turret, looks rock solid.

[Sear]

It's only an "anti-tank gun" with max elevation of 23°. The gun shield will be installed at the end.

[Sear]

I don't want to deprive you of the experience of the finished project.

The ammo are soft foam based, non-lethal, unmistakably marking shots intended against vehicles and fortifications on action games like paintball. I always wanted to shoot the real stuff...

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Very impressive! Do you actually load cartridges or do you put the projectiles in directly? What does the ammunition look like?

[Sear]

I load cartridges. It solves several things at once; transporting of fragile ammo, loading of fragile ammo and it looks and feels perfect. Empty cartridge is ejected at the end of the breech opening cycle.

I don't have any drawing or standalone photo of the ammo (yet). But the shot is drag stabilized. What you see protruding from the cartridge is the main body of the shot, hidden in the cartridge are simple X shaped stabilizers of the same diameter.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Empty cartridge is ejected at the end of the breech opening cycle.

Is there a spring loaded ejector?

Also do you feed air through the base of the cartridge?

[Sear]

The ejection mechanism is actually more simple then that. But it requires quick breech opening to reliably eject the cartridge (which is quite natural actually).
And yes, the air goes through the base of the cartridge.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

That sounds pretty sweet. A video would be nice!

[Sear]

I'm going to make a proper video in the beginning of July. I'm still fine tuning several parts of the gun. For the time being, a new photo of the gun and a snapshot from safety tests. One hit is from the gun (2m distance), another one from paintball marker (tournament-grade paintball, 1m).

[farcticox1]

shooting people is the safety test ?

[Sear]

Safety test of the ammo - yes it is. You may start with some arbitrary tests, but at the end you need to verify it on your own flesh. This was not my own flesh, but he was second in the row. A brave fellow indeed!