Corner Shot: Special Forces will fire under a degree
“We came from the corner” and “Nobody wanted to die”: sheltering devices go back to the 19th century. The problem, as you will see, is not new. With the advent of firearms weapons Russians, Germans, Americans and Israelis tried to solve it in their own way. The devices were not so hot, but interesting and interesting.
Let's start with ours, with Russian. In the book of Yu. F. Katorin, N. L. Volkovsky, and V. V. Tarnavsky, “Unique and Paradoxical Military Equipment,” it is reported that as early as 1868, the artillery general Mayevsky proposed to make the barrel of a cannon curved.
But the curve of the barrel - agree that this is a funny solution to the problem one of the first comes to mind - it was needed not for shooting from the corner, but to improve the quality of firing disc shells.
Then there was the First World War. The air stuffed with lead clearly did not have to be protruded from the trenches. But, of course, it was necessary to fight, because the Russian military leaders thought about the protection of their soldiers.
The “tender” was won by the Finnish gunsmiths' masters, who proposed a device enabling them to send bullets at enemies without showing up from the trenches.
Then fired from a Mosin rifle. For her, the Finns invented a cunning device. First, they, roughly speaking, made a stand for the rifle and extended the trigger. And for the warrior to see where the bullets are sent, the device was equipped with a periscope, but without a Zoom. But to recharge the entire structure had to be returned to the trench, which was considered not very convenient.
By and large, it is the principle described above that is used today by the Israelis, the development of which will be discussed below. However, this was preceded by still twisted trunks. They even invented the word "curved".
Discovery Channel on this topic writes that the idea to bend the barrel of rifles for firing from around the corner during World War II came to the head of Soviet soldiers during the Stalingrad battles. It is difficult to say whether this is true, although some have seen PCA with a curved barrel in a military journal.
In general, it is not entirely clear when a curved-barrel weapon appeared in the USSR - either in 1943, or after the war. It is known that the trunks bent at the machine guns of Goryunov and Kalashnikov. NF Makarov and K. G. Kurenkov were engaged in these experiments. Curved machine guns were intended for tankers so that they can shoot extensive for those in tank, the "dead" zone.
Yeah, Kalashnikov with the barrel, bent down (!) 90 degrees, makes us doubt the reality of what was happening. However, tankers didn’t like such a “turn”, and in the Soviet Union they stopped bending the trunks.
It is understandable - the trunk was bent in one direction and did not unbend at all. In order to shoot from such an aiming, not only practice is necessary, but also special talent.
But the Germans, although the trunks did not bend, in 1943, the device for firing from shelters officially adopted. These devices were produced from one and a half to 8 thousand pieces. Krummerlauf ("Bent trunk") - so was called this thing.
In fact, it was a nozzle with a periscope and a curved extension of the trunk. Simply put, using Krummerlauf was like shooting through a kitchen faucet. Climbing under the sink, insert the barrel into the pipe, and the bullet along the curve flies into the target that you found ahead of time with the help of the same periscope.
The “I” version was intended mainly for the infantrymen’s assault carbine, while the “P” version was intended for tankers. But in fact there were more versions, and they allowed to shoot at different angles - from 30 to 90 degrees. The one for the Sturmgewehr-44 carbine, changed the trajectory of the bullet degrees to 30.
Krummerlauf could be useful for urban combat, but on the "normal" battlefield the extra metal and glass were just ridiculous. The soldiers joked that the “bent trunk” was suitable for fighting dwarfs or giant intelligent caterpillars. The fact is that the "twisted" bullets often flew past the target, and the weapon just jammed. Therefore, the device was used rarely.
Meanwhile, the Americans didn’t get bored - they made a similar “Krummerlauf” device for their tankers. They fired machine pistols into a curved trench, turned the lead, and those in the "dead" space became dead, but without quotes.
At the end of the Great Patriotic War in the United States about the tricks of shooting from the corners are not forgotten. But mostly the devices were advertised with the equipment of the “soldiers of the future” and came down to a video camera on the barrel or a warrior’s helmet. Unfortunately, we failed to find vivid examples.
As you have noticed, we return to modern realities. So, having believed the Our Time Yakut edition, we learn that in 1990's, the Russian "designer Alexander Golodyaev developed a sight equipped with a light-guide cord.
The lens of the sight is mounted on the weapon, and the eyepiece is directly in front of the arrow. Now it is possible to conduct aimed fire, only having thrust out a hand from the shelter.
Designers NPO "Special Equipment and Communication" developed the device "Drive", which united the fastening to the weapons of the First and Second World Wars with a light-guided sight. "As is too often the case, nothing is heard about the fate of domestic inventions today.
Meanwhile, in the creation of "from-the-corner-arrows" there has been a clear world leader. These are Israeli designers who have managed to develop a system for three years, which the special forces of 15 countries of the world are now testing. Russia is among them. Florida-based Corner Shot Holdings LLC has become world famous thanks to inventor Amos Golan, among other things, a veteran of special forces.
During the first Palestinian uprising at the end of 1980, several Israeli soldiers were injured during the storming of the house through the front door. This incident led Golan to the idea of creating a charger for conducting special operations in urban environments.
The Corner Shot system does not have a bent stem, therefore it is “broken” into two main parts. On the front, which the fighter can turn the lever to 63 degrees left or right, a pistol (Beretta, Glock, Colt, or any other) and a removable video camera with a lens for zooming the image are placed.
Optionally, an infrared sight, silencer, flame arrester, launcher for rubber bullets, tear gas and the like are added here. Allegedly, Corner Shot can be modified to such an extent that an M-16 rifle is inserted into the system. And the 9 mm pistol, thanks to the camera, accurately shoots meters on the 100.
So to say, on the back there is a monitor that transmits a high-quality color image received by the camera. Naturally, the sight is shown, as well as the distance to the target.
Apparently, soon the Israeli system will appear in the arsenal of Russian special forces (photo Corner Shot).Immediately the power supply and trigger. Only here, to reload the weapon, it needs to be removed from the line of fire. The fact that the equipment Corner Shot can be very different, said the range of prices for it - from three to five thousand dollars.
With the advent of the Israeli system, judging by the resonance that this event had, it is still possible to put an end to the development of the "foreign" weapon. The only thing that remains to be eliminated in terms of improvements is the shooting people on opposite sides of the Corner Shot sight.
However, against the backdrop of such violent international terrorism, devices for safe firing will not soon be out of fashion.
Information