37 X 219SR T68 Vigilante

[SG500]

Attached is a photo of the 37 X 219SR T68 Vigilante round in my collection.
Tony Williams had written an excellent article all about it, see link below.
All inert etc.
Dave.

http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/RED QUEEN.htm

 

[HAZORD]

Dave,

Thanks for sharing. I hadn't gotten to that part of Tony's site. Observing that it was a gatling style gun, now I can see why there seem to be a number of these tp rounds that show up from time to time here in the states. I have some vigilante stuff I will post photos of in a couple of days.

Do you have anything in a 75mm Skysweeper?

John

 

[SG500]

Hi thanks John.
No I've not got a 75mm skysweeper round, what do they look like? I've got several Greenmace (4 inch projectile, 4 inch complete round and 5 inch case) and Red Queens (normal HE and flat head proof) though, I assume you've seen the postings on them?
Dave.

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/king-tiger-and-t16608.html?t=16608&highlight=greenmace

 

[HAZORD]

Dave,

The 75mm skysweeper was an automatic radar guided antiaircraft gun. It started with the 76mm gun M26 straight case, necked down 1 mm to 75. After that they made steel cases of the proper mouth diameter. Above the case , the projo looks like a regular 75mm/76mm, but the base of the projo is a hemisphere. I will post some photos.

John

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

30mm/76mm

Sounds like it shares the same shape as the 30mm ADEN Ball/He rounds along with the 76 mm ARMDC HE round !

 

[Tony Williams]

Curious. The rounded base of the Aden projectiles was copied from the German M-Geschoss designs, which were made that way to provide sufficient strength to the thin-walled shells. I've read that they proved to be aerodynamically poor, causing instability after a certain distance, and current 30mm projos have flat bases.

 

[HAZORD]

I've never really heard why the U.S. ventured into the hemispherical base on a very limited number of projectiles. They had a couple of other rounds that I am aware of, the 90mm H.E. T91 has a hemispherical base with a boss for a tracer protruding from the hemisphere, and its couterpart the 90mm T-92 White phosphorus. I have a T-91 which I will post of a photo of, with the 75mm skysweeper.

John

 

[blu97]

The M-788 is used in the light eight gun of the apache atack helicopter.
Have a look over here, http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/cartridge-hedp-m-t4584.html?t=4584&highlight=hedp

 

[HAZORD]

A few photos of Vigilantes. From the left, the first photo is of three different case types, a brass and 2 steel. The round on the right is the standard as posted by SG500. There were a number of case types tested.

Photo 2 is the difference of rim types for the three rounds. The middle projo is probably missing its tip, as there are grooves there for one to be crimped on.
Photo 3 is a group shot. The 4 projos on the right are all stamped or labeled proof projo.
Photo 4 is a clip of 6 rounds, probably for loading the magazine on the gun. The clip has 2 spring loaded balls on each end to retain the rounds.

 

[HAZORD]

As promised, 75mm Skysweeper. The gun used both steel and brass cases, although the brass is extremely rare. As you can see by the headstamps, the brass case was originally a 76mm M26 case, then necked down 1mm and relabeled. The ink stamp indicates Frankfort Arsenal lot one. The projo isn't seated in the laquered steel case, as the case is unfired and is tight. The ammo manual says the gun was for antiaircraft and terrestrial use. The cap on the base of the projo is the standard sheet metal plate welded on the bottom of U.S. High Explosive projectiles to prevent the powder gases from detonating a projo that might have a defective base. Prior to WWII these plates were often made of copper and were crimped on.

 

[HAZORD]

Hemispherical base artillery rounds. The first photo is the 90mm T-91 and the 75mm Skysweeper together. The 90mm T-91 has two sintered iron rotating bands, and was supposed to have replaced the M71A1 as the standard HE-T projo for the 90mm Gun. These are the only hemispherical base rounds I know of that were used by the U.S, other than the previously shown 30mm Aden, which was used by Marine Corps Harriers before the 25mm chain gun was adopted.

 

[Weasel]

Very nice rounds and rare, thankyou for sharing them.
Best Weasel.

 

[SG500]

Hi John, well, what can I say, they're just brilliant, good to see you've got the old camera working, look forward to seeing some more pictures of your collection.
I like to the skysweeper rounds, now I know what to look out for.
Do you have the 37/20mm version of the Vigilante? Its one I'm still on the look out for myself, have a photo of one somewhere but tricky to find.

Thanks again, nice rounds.

Dave.

A few photos of Vigilantes. From the left, the first photo is of three different case types, a brass and 2 steel. The round on the right is the standard as posted by SG500. There were a number of case types tested.

Photo 2 is the difference of rim types for the three rounds. The middle projo is probably missing its tip, as there are grooves there for one to be crimped on.
Photo 3 is a group shot. The 4 projos on the right are all stamped or labeled proof projo.
Photo 4 is a clip of 6 rounds, probably for loading the magazine on the gun. The clip has 2 spring loaded balls on each end to retain the rounds.

 

[HAZORD]

Dave,

No, I haven't seen the 20/37 Vigilante. I didn't know there was one, but as I said, they tried out a lot of different loads before settling on the one you have.

I will be posting more photos, but it is hard right now because I'm in the middle of shelf building and reorganizing stuff, and I can't get to things very easily.

John

 

[917601]

Back in my artillery firing days, I was offered a " demilled" Skysweeper, back when a light torch scoring was done on the breech....I almost bought it, came very close up to when I found out I needed a deuce and a half to move it.....looking back, I should have bought it....

 

[Taber10]

Years ago, there was one Vigilante displayed in the "Mile of Tanks" at Aberdeen. The plastic "stripper clips" were fed into a huge drum on the outside of the gun carriage, but I'm not sure how. Perhaps two dozen of the short strips could be mounted around the inner wall of the drum. Really strange setup.

 

[sksvlad]