Someone forgot to remove the boresight scope...

Rgds,
Pawel

OUCH! Scratch one M256...

In any case, when I first saw the pix I thought this is a case of a misfire...

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a boresight scope and how did that cause this to happen?


BT6

BT6,
Boresighting is when the gunner aligns the sights and the barrel on a fix target. This is to insure that what the gunner is looking at is going to get hit.
I know that on a Bradley, a scope looking insturment is placed in the front of the barrel, the gunner sights in a fixed piont and boresight and elevation knobs are used to align the barrel and the sights. I am pretty sure that it is the same on a Abrams (ROB(SABOT) can probly clearify this).

I really dont see how a boresight scope could do that to this barrel!!!!!!!!

Well, a boresight scope itself cannot do that. But think what could happen if you fire a round with a scope still in the barrel...

Rgds,
Pawel

it happens because the sighting unit is centerd in the gun bore and aligned to the layer/gunner sights along with the lazer targeting so when all is right the gunner points the lazer bounces and the gunner fites the target is destroyed but only if you remove the bore sight first if not see photos

I still dont see that happening. A boresight Scope is about the length of you fore arm and about as round as the barrel it is for, at least on the Bradley.

This is the caption that was on Luke's Military Graphics web site where I found those photos: "These pictures were donated by friend of mine at Fort Benning, GA. Time and time again, people seem to forget their crew checks, which includes; make sure the barrel is cleared of obstructions. Oops, they forgot to remove the boresight scope before screening. No pay dues, for the next couple of months. By the way, Bradley crews have the same problems from time to time."

Best Regards,
Pawel

I'm certainly no expert, but it makes sense to me that this is exactly what would happen with a barrel obstruction. Rifle barrels burst from rocks getting stuck in a non-airtight way near the muzzle. The pressures that firearms have to deal with are enormous, especially if they don't have a clear path out of the barrel. Yes, a Rhinemetal barrel is a lot stronger than a rifle barrel, but the pressures are exponentially greater. Plus, imagine if the round being fired was a shaped-charge warhead! Maybe that was the case here.

No pay dues for a couple of months, lets try no pay dues for a couple of years.
This would probably result in to an Article 15 situation and some rank demotions!!!!!!!!!

Thats why boresighting is done off the live fire rang and with no rounds in the vehicle, except the dummy rounds.

Never had anything like that happen on an M-60A2.But our boresight equiptment was all mounted in the breech end,with a cross of string on the end of the gun tube.
But
Many times,tankers would get on the tank in the morning,and start shooting their tank tables.And,inevitably forget to remove the rubber muzzle plug,which fit IN the end of the gun.There was no metal tightening strap on it,so there was noexternal visual cue.

So many times,a round would be fired,and it would carry the muzzle plug downrange.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

One of the first things I was taught in my basic course during "pre-fire" checks was to ensure that gun barrel was clear. Just drop the breach and look down the gun tube. Sounds to me that the tank commander ought to be reimbursing the tax payers for a new gun tube!!!

Most they can take is one month's pay unless it was due to gross negligence (read: intentional). The MBD (muzzle boresight device) is basically a calibrated telescope that fits into the end of the barrel. It is calibrated to insure when it is in the tube, that the crosshairs are in the true center of the barrel. The telescope is set at 90° angle so the loader looks through the side and sees out the front.

They are supposed to have these big red "REMOVE BEFORE FIRING" flags on them that are just like the remove before flight tags that aircraft use to prevent this from happening.

Saudi M1A2?

Note the odd bumper numbers on the M1 and the licence plate on the pickup

Good catch Scott...
Looks to be a Kuwaiti A2... A muzzle Boresight Device has two 120mm rings that stabilize the scope in the tube. The MBDs do have the tags that Rob mentioned but are often not mounted as the can be a distraction when they start fluttering around, Leaving the MBD in the tube and pulling the trigger will produce the dreaded "Banana Peel." A small amount of sand in a tube will cause bulging of the tube or an egg shaped muzzle...

The best one was a M-60A3 of the 194th Armored Brigade that had a banana peeled 105 gun while on the range. You want to guess what the crew was made up of??? Four master gunners, the pros of tank gunnery... Moral of the story is that every one has a bad day and make sure the MBD is in its case in the sponson box before pulling the trigger.

John

GOD.........I love that story!...........

Tread.

NIce pics Vodnik.
I sure wouldn't be in his shoes and tell his senior officer that he "broke" his little tank !! #:-)

I never got to be around the big guns when they went off, but don't they have an explosive round in them, and with that shouldn't there be more damage if it went off, now that looks like the barrel of a plugged shotgun, now I've seen pictures of them, and they kind of had the same look, without the explosive round, what did the round not explode?

A tank can fire a number of different rounds.

HEAT= High Explosive Anti Tank. Shaped charge warhead.
APFSDS= Armour Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot. Kinetic energy round.
HE= High Explosive.
Smoke

You also have training rounds with no explosive charge.
On target practise you often fire training rounds and not live explosives.

/Thord

That's a big oops there! I too had an M-60a1 so we may have blown the crosshair strings off end of barrel, but never the end of the barrel off that must have been one loud bang when that happened. I imagine a few guys are no longer Tc's or gunners anymore.

Wonder how much one of those tank guns costs.... must be hecka expensive! I pity the guy(s) who have to pay for THAT damage!

oh boy, great pics,I guess everyone has a bad day every now and then.....larry

The device that they are talking about is the M26 muzzle boresight device. It fits into the barrel and allows the crew to align the sights with the gun sighting on a panel . That tank commander of this vehicle will have to pay for this gun. When I was was stationed at Ft Carson, we received new M60A3s and took them out to gunnery. The battle positions were prepared in the terrain by a blade tank. One of the tanks from another company was running the range without his stab system turned on and when he pulled the tank into a battle position , the gun went into the dirt and got a little packed. This happened at night so the Tc didn't know it happened. When the gunner engaged the target, the guntube was split from the end to the bore evacuator. The TC bought the gun.

In the words of the infinitely wise Homer Simpson - DOH!!

LOL...nice one.

During my first field excercise as a gunner I rammed the gun barrel into an embankment, cramming about two feet of dirt and rocks into the barrel as well as breaking the seal. The whole barrel had to be removed from the Abrams as well as the breech block from inside the turret.

I was in the doghouse a bit for that one.