Krupp 50mm Mountain Gun
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video episode on ForgottenWeapons.com.
Today we're out here at a big shoot and we're taking a look at this 50mm Krupp Mountain Gun.
This was originally made for the Kingdom of Siam, now known as Thailand. They ordered 48 of these guns
and they were made by Krupp, which is obviously a really big, impressive name in German arms manufacture.
This is a Model 1902, it was actually manufactured in 1903.
And they did have a 1906 model as well, but this is one of the earlier guns.
These actually all came into the US in about 1964,
... well, all the ones that were left were imported. About 30 of them actually exist in the US today.
And one of the other cool things about them is they've actually been removed from the NFA, so this,
legally, it's just a firearm, it's not a destructive device.
Now the breech mechanism on this, it has a camming screw here
and when I crank the handle,
it's 180 degree throw, and it locks the breech block over.
Fires via lanyard. We have a sight here, part of this sight is actually a reproduction.
Some of the sight parts were missing from these guns when they were imported,
after you know, 65 years of being used through rural Thailand.
One of the interesting things about this particular gun, it had to be lightweight.
... As a result it wasn't really the top-of-the-line material that Krupp was able to manufacture at the time.
It's kind of a second line gun, a little less expensive, ... less heavy, lightweight.
The idea was this had to be able to be carried by, like, 3 mules or 1 elephant,
so you could get it through rural parts of the jungle and over mountains.
As a result it does not have a recoil mechanism, so when you fire the whole gun slides backwards.
It also doesn't even have windage adjustment on the carriage.
It has an elevation adjustment here, pretty simple, couple of gears.
But in order to line the gun up left or right, you have to actually grab the tail and adjust the entire carriage.
So kind of standard policy for this thing, you know, you show up to an unruly village,
and they've never seen something like this before, and if they don't immediately fall in line
you put a round of canister shot through the village, and that would probably do the job.
This comes apart, the wheels come off, the axle comes off, the trail here actually separates.
This pin comes out, and the trail breaks into two pieces.
And then the barrel, which is a single continuous forging, comes off as one piece.
... Each individual piece of this is actually handleable by a single man.
So one of the cool things, you know, if you want to have a cannon today,
this is an excellent kind of cannon to have. You can pull it apart,
you could actually get this into a mid-sized car probably.
Everything can be assembled by one person, you can actually move it around.
And best of all, this particular type isn't even on the destructive device list.
So I think these are just awesome, very cute. Some cool history behind them,
German manufacture, they're extremely high quality. They are rifled barrels.
The cartridges, the brass cases, there aren't any original ones left.
So these guys are making them out of 40mm Bofors cases.
Which are heavily tapered, so you cut them off at the bottom and you have a 50mm case easily enough.
So.
Anyway, I hope you guys found this as interesting as I did. We've got some footage of
it shooting that we'll show you, because that's just incredibly awesome.
Pardon my jumping every time it got touched off.
Thanks for watching, tune back in to ForgottenWeapons.com
for more cool, cute little cannon.
Thanks for watching.