Posted by: "Head Hunter" St. Charles, Mo. suburb of St. Louis on January 28, 2004 at 08:55:32

My goal is a light weight, marker mounted Grenade Launcher/RPG in the 3-5 pound range. A sprinkler valve at 150 psi is NOT cutting it. Demands a 30 inch barrel or LONGER. So my choices were a custom made valve or a lighter projectile that could be accelerated up to speed in a 12" barrel. I went both ways in my R&D. I found an electronic solenoid valve rated at 250 psi with sufficient flow rate to get 4 paintballs up to speed by hooking it up in a really strange way. (part of the R&D project for a long range anti tank weapon with 40 yard effective range) The valve won't work for that application but will for the lighter projectiles. So I went hunting for a light projectile. Found the 1 1/2" balls at Toys R Us that are shot out of their air cannons. Weigh about TWICE what a normal paintball weighs. Being a BALL, it lends itself to a quick loader pump action feed gravity feed from a tubular magazine. So I started pondering a pump action feed mechanism. Just finnished my first prototype of the pump action. Simple and relatively easy to build. Barrel, modified T-Fitting, and a screw. Plus the usual air supply stuff. Now the difference between a pump and a semi is a pneumatic ram to pump it for you.... So we are REAL CLOSE here. Not for a marker mounted one but for a tank - you bet. And there is a BONUS! It would have receprocating BARRELS! Inherent to my design since the barrel is also the BOLT and has to be pumped forwards and backwards in the ball feeding slide mechanism. Boy! A pair of those dressed up like 20 mm cannon would look real good in a turret.

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