anti-tank rifle
An anti-tank rifle is an anti-materiel rifle designed to penetrate the vehicle armor, armor of armored fighting vehicles, most commonly tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles. The term is usually used for weapons that c ...
of
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
origin.
Overview
The Oerlikon SSG36 anti-tank rifle demonstrated, that it was possible to build a successful straight
blowback rifle
Blowback may refer to: Firearms
*Blowback (firearms), a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gases created by the ignition of the propellant ...
up to 20 mm
caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
shooting at 750 m/s (2460 ft/s) velocity. The SSG36 used a Becker principle of
bolt head
Bolt Head is a National Trust headland on the South Coast of Devon, England, United Kingdom, situated west of the Kingsbridge Estuary. ...
following the rebated rim cartridge base deep into the
chamber
Chamber or the chamber may refer to:
In government and organizations
* Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests
*Legislative chamber, in politics
* Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...
. After firing, the case and the bolt could safely back off from the chamber without immediately exposing the base to explode under remaining chamber pressure. The bolt is shown under the barrel with cartridge attached to the protruding bolt head.
The blowback action Oerlikon SSG36 has a deep chamber in which the cartridge totally sinks along with the bolt head. The massive
recoil
Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force requ ...
of the 20 mm
cartridge
Cartridge may refer to:
Objects
* Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition
* ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device
* Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators
Other uses
* Cartridge (surname), a ...
was quite effectively tamed by the straight blowback operation and the mass of the bolt creating much less vigorous kick than regular delayed blowback actions.
Service
Some numbers were delivered to
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...