Comments for The answer to the question...

The answer to the question...

2004-08-28T15:21:20Z

If you need to refresh yourself on the question... go here.

Many good guesses, not just in the comments, but in email, from people who were afraid they might get ridiculed for being wrong... (this is *not* that kind of site - unless you get stupid and snarky first!). Lots of people (22 in all) played this time, and much good logic and knowledge was on display.

Pretty much everybody fell victim to what Douglas Adams spoke of in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: '.....where due to a tragic miscalculation of scale, the entire battlefleet was swallowed by a small dog.'

1. We had people guess this.

2. And one like this.

3. And this.

4. Mebbe one of these.

5. Possibly one of those.

6. Someone even suggested these.

7. Surprising me (as this would have been my guess a few months ago), no one guessed this.

The answer is in the Flash Traffic.

]]> Just to refresh your memory... it looked kinda like this.

In scale, with (L-R) an 8mm Mauser, 9mm Parabellum, mystery bullet, 81mm Mortar primer (12 guage blank, essentially).

See what I mean about scale? By photographing it on fine-grained white paper, and giving you no context, you supplied the scale. And y'all went big. And, to be fair, you really had to be a geek to know it was the bullet to a Gyrojet Pistol.

Gunner, of No Quarters Blog, went out and did a little searching himself and came up with this French site, which shows another variant of Gyrojet bullet. Be patient - Google is translating it for you.

Here's a crappy shot of the base end - showing the primer and the angled venturis that spun the bullet for stability.

I'll close this out with a shot of all of 'em together... just to reinforce that scale thing!

Last, but not least, what's in the numbered pictures above?

UPDATE: Oops. I screwed up (has to do with how I was building the post). I actually answered the question below in the version of the post that I apparently threw away... Beck having actually provided an answer (correct) in the comments clued me in to there was a problem! Which is cool, since I now know an interesting tidbit about Beck! So, I'll repair this post... and provide the answers.

1. 90mm Armor Piercing solid shot.

2. 57mm/6pdr Armor Piercing solid shot (essentially identical to the 2pdr guessed, just proportionately larger)

3. 75mm APCBC (Armor Piercing Capped Ballistic Capped) in this case in the 75mm recoiless rifle cartridge.

4. 57mm Recoiless Rifle.

5. US Navy 5in dummy training round.

6. As Beck noted, a pipeline pig.

7. 30 pounder Parrot solid bolt.

Comment from Beck on 2004-08-29

2004-08-29T06:54:00Z

Two things: first, the whole concept of rocket bullets is unbelievably neato. I would even go so far as to say it's nifty. I didn't even know such a weapon had ever been developed. Second thing, #6 is what's known as a "pig." It's a big wodge of metal for raming down a pipe. They serve various purposes, from pipe cleaning, pipe wall thickness checking for QC, and even pipe expanding. When I worked at Shell Oil, I helped develop technology for a pig that could be rammed down solid well pipe at enormous pressure & thereby expand the pipe diameter by ~20%. Since such enormous abuse to metal combined with high pressure meant absolutely rediculous amounts of friction, heat, and stress, accidents were extraordinarily messy to clean up.

Comment from Justthisguy on 2004-08-29

2004-08-29T05:37:35Z

I wonder if the price of unshot Gyrojet ammo is now high enough to justify going into new production. Think about it. Fewer legal hassles than making actual gun ammo; it's a rocket with less than four ounces of propellant, and thus completely (Federally, at least) unregulated. I don't even think the G-j launcher qualifies as a gun under the Fed regs. If it did, you could certainly cobble up one for yourself more easily than rifling a steel barrel, etc. I do wonder what the guy used for propellant, and of course there's always the issue of the development work he must have done, and how to duplicate and/or acquire it.

Comment from Beth on 2004-08-28

2004-08-29T01:45:41Z

John, you spoilsport. Jack - I've been tempted, many times, but haven't yet broken out the bucks for a Gyrojet.

Comment from J.M. Heinrichs on 2004-08-28

2004-08-29T01:06:14Z

Neat! I hate guessing!!! Cheers JMH

Comment from Mythilt on 2004-08-28

2004-08-29T00:54:12Z

Gyrocs are cool sounding, but the practical limitations really kind of kill them. First off, they are not close in weapons, the 'bullet' has to accellerate out of the barrel a pretty decent distance I recall. Thus, in the kind of combat one expects with pistols, its a bit useless (Close in, tight fighting.) That said, I'd think the Gyroc from RunAway would be cool, heat seeking bullets.

Comment from Jack on 2004-08-28

2004-08-28T17:46:40Z

OK, I'm not up on your collection. Do you have a gyrojet pistol? That is the ultimate in old Science Fiction cool!!!! It was used as a murder weapon in an old Larry Niven story, and probably a lot of other stories from the early, glory days of SF pulp fiction. If you have one, post a photo, please!!!!