Taubin grenade launcher

 The AG-2 (Taubin grenade launcher) had a caliber of 40.6 mm and used ammunition created on the basis of the standard rifle grenade of the M. G. Diakonovsystem. Developed under the supervision of Ya. G. Taubin in 1935-1938. This weapon was magazine-fed and allowed firing single shots and bursts, direct fire or along a mounted trajectory. Initially, the grenade launcher was mounted on a tripod machine, later — on a light infantry wheeled machine like a machine for a Maximmachine gun.

History

The idea of an automatic grenade launcher found opponents in the person of the chief of the Artillery Department of the Red Army Kulika and some other military leaders. In 1937-1938, in comparative tests of mortars and company-level grenade launchers, along with the advantages of the Taubin grenade launcher, such as satisfactory fragmentation of grenades, a high average rate of fire — 436 rounds per minute, many shortcomings were noted. Due to the unsatisfactory quality of the extractor and ejector springs, the automation does not work quite reliably — for 473 shots fired by automatic fire, there are 34 delays, which is 7.2% of failures. The extractor and ejector springs were changed about 30 times for 587 shots. Poor accuracy, especially lateral scattering. After each turn, you need to lay a separate cartridge. Taubin's grenade launcher was rejected, preference was given 50-mm mortar mod. 1938 designed by B. I. Shavyrin, which was adopted for service. In November 1938, sea trials of the Taubin grenade launcher system were conducted on a D-type armored boat of the Dnieper Military Flotilla. Based on their results, the Navy Armament Department ordered a small series in January 1939, but soon abandoned this order. In limited quantities, the Taubin grenade launcher was used quite successfully by the Red Army in the winter war with Finland, but soon all work on the automatic grenade launcher was stopped.

Device

Automation

Automation of the first prototype model of the Taubin grenade launcher of the 1935 model of the year worked on the principle of recoil of a free bolt. In this model, for the first time, magazine loading from a 5-round clip was used, which increased the practical rate of fire. For the Taubin automatic grenade launcher, qualitatively new ammunition was created — a 40.8-mm unitary shot with a fragmentation grenade and a flanged sleeve. However, its small powder charge did not provide reliable performance of the weapon's automation, so Taubin had to completely redesign the grenade launcher.

The shutter

The shutter consists of two parts: the stem and the skeleton. On the frame of the bolt there are three ejectors (due to the large caliber) and a wedge, inside the drummer passes. The stem of the bolt is aligned with the stem for the return-mainspring.