The WWII Sturmgehwer STG 44 is worth a story all to itself - but I'm talking here only about the shooting around corners part of its history.
KRUMMLAUF (are you having a laugh?)
The Stg 44 KRUMMLAUF was built in four different degrees of bend - 30, 45, 60, and 90 degrees and for infantry use was aimed using an attached periscope mounted on the barrel.
These bent barrels had very restricted life-spans due to very high internal pressures at the bend. The 30 degrees units were longest lived at around 300 rounds - while the sharper bends were much less.
A second big problem was that as the bullets passed through the curved area they tended to break-up and pass down-range in bits, giving an unintended fragmented 'shotgun' effect. In an effort to reduce pressure at the corner, small holes were drilled on the inside of the bend in the barrel to bleed-off gas pressure - but barrel life remained severely restricted.
The WW2 30 degree 'I' infantry model is said to achieve groups measuring 35mm x 35mm at a hundred metres range.
The Krummlauf 'P' model was a 90 degree version developed to be poked-out the top of Panzerjager Tiger casemate type Tank Destroyers which had no machine guns fitted and were otherwise highly vulnerable to enemy troops climbing on board in close engagement attacks.
WWII American M3A1 Sub-Machine Gun Fitted with a Curved Barrel
A modern take on the 'Krummlauf'' is the Israeli invented 'CORNERSHOT' pictured below fitted with a Glock pistol and uses a camera and screen rather than mirrors.
CORNERSHOT Looks very Useful eh.
Note: Journalistic liberties being taken in this video: "The first gun that can shoot around corners"!!
Close-up detail of 'CORNERSHOT' that would not be a happy sight if you are behaving badly!
Marty K
After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870
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