[ Milkor USA M32 & M32A1 at the range ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today I'm out here at the range with
a Milkor USA M32 six-barrelled grenade launcher.
This is the sort that the US military was using
until the US Marine Corps bought a rather large batch of M32A1s.
So this is the early version, we are going to do some shooting with this,
then swap it out for the newer version and see how they differ.
So, we'll start by standard loading procedure which is take this lever,
pull it forward, pop the gun open like so.
Now this is a little more complicated for me as a lefty
then it would be for a normal right-handed person.
But we want to wind this thing ... counter-clockwise, there we go.
Going to wind it up basically 6 [positions].
You wind up, as you fire it, it unwinds.
The spring is pre-wound and the travel is limited, so you're not over-cranking the spring,
and you're ... always sure that you're getting enough spring pressure in it.
There are a few revolver cylinder type firearms like this
where you can let the thing unwind all the way.
And then you have to make sure you wound it enough rotations. ...
They did a nice job on this by pre-setting it all.
So with that open, now
load it up two rounds at a time.
That's four, and five, and six.
So snap it back shut.
Make sure that's all the way in, which it is.
Now we have a basically semi-automatic revolver-style grenade launcher here.
I am of course unfortunately not shooting grenades today.
I am shooting ... 40mm chalk training rounds.
Then to unload we're going to pull that lever again, crack the gun open.
And as a general rule, if I just tip it over backwards the rounds will fall out.
If they don't, there is a manual ejector star, right there,
that I can use to punch out anything that's sticky.
Then it's ready to rewind,
and reload.
Now in order to aim this thing we have an optic up here, but of course
this is firing right now standard low-velocity 40x46mm grenades.
Or in this case, inert training chalk rounds.
Those have a relatively low muzzle velocity, we're talking around 75 metres per second.
Which is going to be something in the order of 250 feet per second.
And that means they're going to have a really heavily arced trajectory.
So you can't just do the normal thing of a couple of clicks on a scope to adjust for range.
This is shootable out to just under 400 yards, and in order to get that
we're going to squeeze these two, and we can elevate and depress the optic
all the way up and down like that.
Now one of the interesting quirks of this is because this has a relatively long barrel on it,
this has a 12 inch barrel,
at the extreme angle here the scope is actually looking straight into the barrel.
And what's fun about that is that turns your ... red dot style of optic into an OEG.
Where, yeah, you see the barrel, or the Picatinny rail, with one eye,
but you keep both eyes open, your other eye sees the target beyond.
And your brain will transpose the two images over each other,
and you'll be able to see your target and shoot.
So. Interestingly, this is not an out-sourced optic.
This optic is actually made by Milkor in house,
along with basically everything else on the gun,
except for a few bits like the pistol grip, and buttstock.
Alright, now the trigger on this thing is very heavy and very long.
And it actually got better with the M32A1 version, we'll touch on that in just a moment.
But even regardless of the heavy trigger, one of the cool things about this is
because of the very slow muzzle velocity of the grenades (or chalk training rounds in this case),
you can actually have like a couple of rounds in mid-air before the first one hits the ground.
So let me give it a try, and I'm going to see if I can hit any of those targets.
That's a little tricky, the training ammo is also pretty darn inconsistent, but we'll give it a try.
Pretty cool, huh?
Alright, so the current version that the Marine Corps is purchasing is actually this,
it is the shorter-barrelled M32A1 version.
The most obvious change of course is that they cut the barrel down from 12 inches to 8 inches.
But ... it actually went up in weight, this whole thing is a little over 15 pounds.
... And then like 18 pounds when it's fully loaded, this is a pretty chunky piece of equipment.
Now that goes a long way to help reduce recoil.
You're not really seeing that today because those chalk rounds,
while they ... closely match the ballistic path of the HE,
they don't match the recoil because they don't have nearly as much payload weight. ...
Anyway, roundabout way what I'm getting at is
you kind of want it to be a little heavy to absorb the recoil.
Now the other major significant thing that the ... M32A1 adds is the ability,
the official ability, to fire medium-velocity 40mm grenades,
which are ... well, higher in velocity.
You're looking at velocities of 115 metres per second, thereabouts.
So close to a 50% increase over the standard low velocity stuff.
Now it can still shoot the low velocity of course, and what they did here is
they added a second set of settings to the red dot sight elevation system.
So where I could go out to 375 with low velocity,
I can go out to 800 metres with medium-velocity ammo.
They made a few changes to the buttstock, to the pistol grip.
They beefed up some things like this lower support rail,
added yet more Picatinny to it, changes like that.
But the main thing is that this is now a shorter barrel, and capable of medium-velocity grenades.
So let's fire a few through this one.
Man, I can actually watch the rounds in flight, that's really cool.
You want to see it?
So like I said, this is a blue practice chalk round.
These things are not super consistent for accuracy, and I think we have a mixed batch of them here.
But, see if you guys can watch the rounds in flight. Ready?
A little high. There we go.
In between them.
Yup, and I'm out. Six rounds goes kind of fast.
Go ahead and unload this.
Oop, ready for more.
Alright, I should probably point out that while this is of course chalk,
this is one of those sorts of projectiles where close counts.
There's a nominal 5 metre lethal radius to an HE 40mm grenade.
Maybe not quite that much in actual practice,
although with the medium-velocity ammo it's even more effective than that.
So ... you know they always say, "Close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes."
Well, this is effectively 6 hand grenades in a row at ... 75-100 metres per second.
So a big thanks to Milkor USA
for letting me come out here and shoot up a bunch of their practice chalk rounds.
It is very cool that they are supplying these out to the USMC now.
And probably to other people that they don't want to tell me about.
But I've ... still got a cylinder full, so I have to do something with it.
So we'll go ahead and just shoot that off.
Yeah!
Ah! Last one was right between two of the plates.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks very much for watching.