This pic was in an email my brother sent me, and I’ve got no idea what the hell that thing is, other than a big gun. I’m sure somebody here’s got an idea.
Judging by what the barrel and muzzle brake (or whatever is at the tip) look like, it’s a 30mm “rifle”.
The tripod-mounted version is called the 30mm ASP, it fires the same rounds as used in the M230 Chain Gun on the Apache attack helicopter. I recall seeing something on the news out here many years ago about a fellow who was trying to sell the man-portable version which I assume your pic is of. It went off at a gas station where he met someone to show him the gun. My reference work shows that the 30mm HEDP round will penetrate over 7cm of steel so it made quite a holy mess of the gas station…
I’ll see if I can find some other links.
Looks like a Lahti 39 anti-tank rifle to me. The skids give it away.
Yep. Finnish Anti-elk rifle
Are the elks that dangerous in Finland! :eek:
Christ I guess you can forget about eating any of the meant from whatever you kill with it.
No no my friend. You use a normal gun for Elk steak. This gun is for making elk soup.
That gun really should be used on the person who put the floating icon on the Ohio Ordnance Works web page.
I think it’s the definitive “this one” answer to the “what handgun has the most stopping power?” thread from earlier this week. It would be very useful in home defense – provided that the burglars had first carjacked a tank.
If you could hold and fire that thing, I would imagine that the re-coil would mess you up something fierce.
No, but there’s a lot of them. Just fire into the herd and you’ll kill eight or nine of them with one shot. Very efficient, that. :dubious:
From the above webpage, my emphasis:
I would think the coffin would be superflous, anyone you shoot with this thing is going to need a bucket instead.
What do they mount these things on? Tanks or battleships or something? I mean come on, if you shot one while holding it you’d be torn in two by the recoil.
Well I’ll be dunked…the entire barrel assembly looks just like the pictures I have of the tripod-mounted 30mm ASP.
Yeah, take your tiny little 20mm antitank rifle and come back when you have a REAL gun 
Apparently not. You lay it down on its skids and shoot T34 tanks with it. Note there are two articles on the Lahti on the linked page - the second discusses ammunition and applications - scroll down to it.
http://guns.connect.fi/gow/QA2.html
Warning - the site was maintained by a very right-wing Fin who expresses some rather offensive views in places. He’s dead now, but he knew a lot about guns and history.
Guns like that were ineffective against mid-war medium tanks like T-34s. It was effective against some early war light tanks and soft armor.
I would guess that something like that could do enough damage to a tanks tracks/road/idler wheels to disable it.
I think .50 cal machine guns were used this way. Or in any case, the tracks where the most vulnerable parts of a tank.
Well, it does have a muzzle brake on it.
I’m shy of my .356 carbine (no, not a .357) rifle. Kicks like a mule. An angry mule.
The claim on the site was that it could damage the tracks of a T34, and could even “rivet” the turret and gun in place by aiming at various gaps so it couldn’t turn or elevate. Even if true, I doubt this was a frequent occurence! But otherwise it’s in agreement with you:
"That blue projectile was a solid shot of hardened steel, able to penetrate obsolescent Russian tank’s or armored car’s side or back armor plates. Even the heavy main battle-tanks T-34 and Klim Voroshilov were possible to immobilize with ten shots on the track link, or the turret was “riveted” with these blue bullets aimed into the seam between tank hull and turret. Some extra “rivets” could prevent elevation of the turret cannon."