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PIAT practice round dimensions

BMG50

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Anyone have the correct dimensions of the PIAT practice round or may be machine drawings.
 
Not sure if you can work from these photos , theyre all i have with a ruler next to a recovered practice piat
ppDSC00030.jpgppDSC00038.jpg
 
I remenber that the PIAT also fired a solid steel Bolt/practice round that needed an insert in the launcher (I think).
No doubt others can give better details of this practice round too. I have never seen one.
 
PR2O5czuToK600TLIHRrYw_thumb_4e4.jpg%3JKzDZwSaa45mCkoF01NA_thumb_4e5.jpgGQrvCrgbTQajamT1qOmXjw_thumb_4ea.jpgiC6aOqS9QKaz0f9vu%CUlg_thumb_4e8.jpgq2yZNDwhTraS+007PQ84eQ_thumb_4e7.jpgbk5aftUvRqWixg3oV3jaNg_thumb_4e9.jpgHere is the dimensions of the PIAT Practice round. Has been repainted but all original and rather scarce.

200mm overall length. 181mm pipe length. 26mm of threads. (20mm is inside). 14 TPI.
Body is 35mm Diam. 34.5mm across the threads. 31.5mm smaller diameter. 22.5mm inside diam for the brass cartridge.

The head is 50.8mm diam. 41.6mm high. Hole is 22.5mm deep.
You should be able to make a copy from these dimensions but stamp it REPRO insid
 
I know it is an old thread but it has taken me this long to do some research, develop a loading for it, and the majority of the time was waiting for someone to machine the round for me. Finally he did and I was finally able to do this. (Unfortunately the round wasn't perfect due to materials he had, and mistakes he made on it, but close enough for a first round. Yes It is legal here.

[video=youtube;ktp_wJW8fKI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktp_wJW8fKI[/video]
 
Hi Stray,
Great video ! I have waited sooooo long for you to do this...
I would like to see a video of the projectile being loaded with the propelling cartridge, and also the initial cocking of the weapon. It would be cool to see the rounds impact the target.
Respect
Gary
 
Hi Stray,
Great video ! I have waited sooooo long for you to do this...
I would like to see a video of the projectile being loaded with the propelling cartridge, and also the initial cocking of the weapon. It would be cool to see the rounds impact the target.
Respect
Gary

I have a few videos on the piat including cocking it and uncocking it.
Loading the cartridge is pretty boring. I just unscrew it and place the cartridge in the tube. I can film it next time I take it out though.
 
Hi Stray,
Re the cartridges, i'm more interested in the construction and physical loading of (construction) of the cart. Do you use a 12 bore blank or do you make the original style of launching cartridge. Its great to see the work you have done so far. Have you tried launching without a cartridge? The main spring appears to be very strong and i'm curious to know what range you get without a cart as compared to with a cart.
Cheers
Gary
 
Hi Stray,
Re the cartridges, i'm more interested in the construction and physical loading of (construction) of the cart. Do you use a 12 bore blank or do you make the original style of launching cartridge. Its great to see the work you have done so far. Have you tried launching without a cartridge? The main spring appears to be very strong and i'm curious to know what range you get without a cart as compared to with a cart.
Cheers
Gary

I'm not going to try it because it can damage the piat, but firing without cartridge will get you nowhere. May fly out a couple of feet. The spring is a recoil management device not a propelling device.
I use cut down 12 gauge shells as the cartridges since I dont have the ability to make brass ones from scratch.
 
When you visit an original PIAT range here in the UK you usually find the base of the cartridge in the vicinity of area. Looking at your video i see that the cartridge bases are right next to the firing point or did you gather them up and put them there or is this where they eject out at. Would be interesting to see if this is characteristic of the PIAT as the original firing point can be worked out at these old training ranges.
 
They do tend to land near the firing position. The hole in the tray is designed to allow that and the ring to fall through after firing.
The cartridge pushes up against the spigot when fired so as soon as the round is clear of the spigot all the pressure goes to zero and the casing shouldnt go far. The black tape I sized the cartridges with travels more distance because it rides the "muzzle blast".

So in shorter terms yes I found all the cartridge parts near the firing point and it is the same with the real one.
 
Thanks for the information, i can now work out firing positions. I noticed that the HE rounds leave a brass ring which is formed by the explosion of the shaped charge deforming the other part of the cartridge which is found all over the site usually away from the target. I will get some pictures of the bits.
 
Thanks for the information, i can now work out firing positions. I noticed that the HE rounds leave a brass ring which is formed by the explosion of the shaped charge deforming the other part of the cartridge which is found all over the site usually away from the target. I will get some pictures of the bits.

Someone has sent me pieces of that actually. The original rounds due to the way they were made would actually eject the piece ahead of where the cartridge is back at the shooter much like an EFP. The later bombs were modified to attempt to stop that. Not sure if it is the manual or a document that was sent out but it told the people shooting it not to keep their heads up after firing at the ranges for that reason. In battle it was less of an issue since keeping ones head up was not a very good thing after firing a PIAT anyways.
Another interesting thing you see in the documentation is mentions of piat crew with amputated fingers. The manual has an unloading procedure in case of misfire specifically to keeo your fingers out of the path of the tail fins which if you cleared the round by hand could act like a knife if the round decided to fire.
 
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Stray
I hope my dimensions were handy when you made your practice PIAT rounds.

I show my live PIAT cartridge and a fired one. Note the dimple on the top. The base piece is 13.5mm long.

PIAT a.jpegPIAT b.jpeg
 
Here are some of my finds, two tails which is the general condition they end up in after exploding, also the remains of the cup of the cartridge that remains in the round on its way to the target and gets deformed into a ring on detonation that flys back mid way to the firing position. Lastly the other part of the cartridge which propels back out of the base of the tail upon firing and drops by the firing position.
 

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Stray
I hope my dimensions were handy when you made your practice PIAT rounds.

I show my live PIAT cartridge and a fired one. Note the dimple on the top. The base piece is 13.5mm long.

View attachment 158810View attachment 158811

Definitely helped with the practice round. They are the measurements I sent to my buddy to make the thing. Thanks for that again. Pretty interesting to see the cartridges too, would like to be able to.make them.
 
Here are some of my finds, two tails which is the general condition they end up in after exploding, also the remains of the cup of the cartridge that remains in the round on its way to the target and gets deformed into a ring on detonation that flys back mid way to the firing position. Lastly the other part of the cartridge which propels back out of the base of the tail upon firing and drops by the firing position.

Pretty cool pieces. I would love an example of the 2 fuzes.
Unfortunately the parts are getting more and more difficult to find, and more expensive when you do find them.
 
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