How accurate are recoilless rifles? And what kind of practical range can you get out of them?
A farm equipment dealer in Nevada told me that they used 106’s mounted in jeeps to take out snipers during Tet. He was quite PO’ed about how the press mis-represented Tet as some sort of rout for our guys - he said “We had to hustle, sure, but we were never retreating. Snipers? Pfah - we’d get a radio call, go zipping over to a street that led up to the building with the sniper(s) in it, let fly with a round or two from the 106... no more sniper, no more problem. Then we’d go onto the next radio call...”
He didn’t mention what sort of range they were shooting at — just that the 106 worked like a charm and then some. Said that there were days they were in “high demand.”
Point your browser to the ONTOS web site where you can read about how we used what has been called the Worlds Biggest Shotgun.
I worked in Battalion Maintence and had 45 of these "things" (ONTOS in Greek means the thing) each equipped with six (6) 106MM recoilless rifles to maintain. Your post reminded me of that one of my jobs was to make sure that the spotting rifles (50 Cal), 106's and the optical sights were all lined up on the target. Our test range for that purpose was 3,000 yards and the targets were empty 55 Gallon oil drums. Once the sights were in alignment a good gunner could put one of those 106's through the drum nearly every time.
Keep in mind that the 106 was a direct fire weapon. That means ya gotta see it to hit it. But, with an aiming stake, a gunners quadrant and a device to fire the rifle from a distance, targets out of sight have been destroyed.
Semper Fi
An Old Man