stagpanther
New member
Yes, it's a thing--bend drift.
22lr Bend drift?
- Thread starter stagpanther
- Start date
Germany developed some rifles with bent barrels to shoot around corners during WW-2.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a21800/forgotten-weapons-wwii-curve-a-bullet/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a21800/forgotten-weapons-wwii-curve-a-bullet/
stagpanther
New member
The bent barrel thing is mentioned in the beginning I think.
Sort of. The "Krummerlauf" wasn't a rifle barrel in the usual sense. IT was a muzzle attachment for the MP43 and MP44 series of rifles (don't know if any other guns ever had one) which was "barrel like" in that the first few inches were a tube the bullet traveled through, but it was cut away on the inside of the curve (open to the air on one side) to allow the bullet to "skid around the curve". It did work, sort of. Life was short, (low round count before breaking).
While it would, indeed, let you shoot around a corner the actual intent was to allow troops to shoot over the top of the side of a German APC or out of the top hatch of a tank, without exposing their head & shoulders to enemy fire. The rifle was select fire, so with the bent "barrel" bursts of suppressive fire were possible, until it broke...
Never intended for accurate, or even aimed fire, but meant to be a bullet hose allowing fire from behind cover. Technical oddity, did work, for a bit, was used in combat, but not widely, and not adopted as a standard issue item.
We also did an experimental version for the M3 grease gun. Never used in combat.
