air bursting concept

[iknowmy3tables]

I was watching stuff about high explosive air bursting grenades that burst in the air to have more lethality and I got an idea. the concept is like this say a badguy is behind a short thick wall for cover a normal impact grenade goes over and passes the bad guy exploding too far away. so you get an air bursting grenade launcher it goes over the wall and boom rains shrapnel on bad guy

this is normally done with laser range finders and timed detonations, but I was thinking maybe in a larger barrel at low velocities this ability could be achieved mechanically for stuff like paintball and airsoft because it's annoying to see ghetto tank incapable of getting someone behind a think little wall

I'm tired so I might not make sense but the diagram should explain it

[benstern]

You could make it have an adjustable spring so that it opens once the projectile slows to a certain velocity.

[Hotwired]

Would be dang fiddly and you might end up whacking someone with the whole thing on the head.

Why not use range finders and an air burst?

Get the range.

Measure a trigger string out, connect to paint balloon/whatever in such a way that a good tug will split it open.

Secure other end.

Fire whatever it is over the targets head and voila, string goes twang, balloon goes pop and naught but little bits of rubber and paint/flour land on them

[psycix]

I like the idea, but it has four flaws:
1. Like said above, you might smack the whole assembly in someones face.
2.When the black thing spreads out due to air flowing, it will already pull out the flour due to air resistance before pulling out when hitting the obstacle.
3.It might get stuck or something and not pull out.
4.Imagine someone coming up from behind the wall, and getting pound of flour in a solid package in his face. Not very healty.

[iknowmy3tables]

the head space in the diagram is not filled with flour to show there is significant padding yeah it probably needs more, the hooks are not sturdy bars I'm thinking more like a springy wire, like thin music wire and of course the hooks will be made to not stab. Ideally it could be possible to make the entire case from foam or soft material, the piston could be made from looses plastic, and flour even when packed is pretty light

I'm going to try this again heres another slightly more detailed diagram

[benstern]

If you used my idea you could shoot it above them and have it release above. No chance of hitting them in the face then.

[Spuddin]

cool idea but im liking the string idea a little more here (like a tow missile of some sorts), just sounds easier.

[benstern]

Except you waste time measuring out string and making sure it won't tangle and ruin everything.

[Spuddin]

time is no factor when building a cannon in my opinion. as for the tangle part i was thinking of something like on my bow fishing rig, the arrow travels fast and the line never tangles.

[Hotwired]

Meh, if someones camped in somewhere the whole point of doing this would be because they aren't moving out to get shot at so I'm not really seeing a bit of prep on a balloon being worse than having a more solid projectile that requires precise aiming and construction.

[iknowmy3tables]

I want this to be able to quickly neutralize targets, like what if that camper had a LAW and you were in the tank it's gotta be fast
@ben: any spring like that would require way too much Precision, if it were that simple air busting rounds would use accelerometers, but instead they calculate the number of rotations by using the earth's magnetic field,

hey I got an idea, say you could get it to fly with decent momentum at low speed, make a locking reel device so right before you see it fly over the target, click the string locks and boom. it would take some practice getting used to if you get got at timing and aim

[Lentamentalisk]

how about in your tanks entourage you have a guy with a bucket of paint. If theres someone behind a wall, chuck the bucket over. Or rather than firing at them, just chuck a paint grenade over. You could make a fairly accurate mortar, with a distance vs. angle chart that you could quickly look up, but this just sounds dangerous.

[daxspudder]

Why not use an altimeter with a logic circuit that releases a spring loaded mechanism at an altitude about 30 feet above initial altitude. Really easy to do with parts that can be purchased at any hobby store that has model rockets. Obviously the round would be fired at a high angle, you could even place an angle finder on your gun, and do some simple range/angle/velocity formulas to calculate a range/angle table. That would be cool, but I just thought about the cost... and time... and chance of missing vs. the prior two... so, um good luck trying it, if you hit someone before going into poverty good on you. cool idea though, but very impractical. oh well.

[iknowmy3tables]

I read that mortars are not allowed in tanks, yeah it's weird random rule

[POLAND_SPUD]

intead of using a bucket with paint you can build a high pressure water cannon.... ofcourse instead of water you have to fill it with paint - it would be like a flame thrower

would it be posiiblble to use paint in such situation ? I am not sure about the maximum range of a water cannon.. at what pressure do flamethrowers operate ?