Recoilless Rifles, where do they fall under the NFA?

[Cap'n Jack Burntbeard]

Can a recoilless rifle be treated like a 37mm launcher? Or is it a Destructive Device no matter how you slice it?

 

[Zoogster]

37mm launchers avoid the restrictions due to being considered signaling devices, and aiming them up into the sky for such a purpose is relatively easy. Unlike with 40mm launchers it is also not a commercial grenade caliber.

Recoilless rifles make rather poor signaling devices.
How many signals do you send horizontally?

Shooting the rescue boat is not the way to get rescued. Blowing a hole in the bottom of your vessel with back pressure by aiming it into the air would also be counterproductive, and the majority of recoilless rifles have significant rearward blast.

 

[Quiet]

It's a destructive device.
Also, each round (except for inert/flare/smoke) would also be a destructive device.

 

[Exposure]

Zoogster- said

Recoilless rifles make rather poor signaling devices.

Ever see a recoilless rifle fire in a dusty environment? Man, you wanna talk about raising a signal! Just right for your enemy to know exactly where you are located!

 

[rcmodel]

Ever spend an otherwise boring month or so training new troops on the 106mm Recoilless Rifle range?

Every shot, you can taste blood in your mouth, and you have to look and see if your fatigue pants are still there.
Or if the concussion from the back blast ripped them clear off your body!

When I was doing it, Uncle Sam's Army didn't even issue earplugs, so bleeding ears were not uncommon if you forgot to stick cigarette butt filters in your ears every morning.

rc

 

[Zoogster]

Ever see a recoilless rifle fire in a dusty environment? Man, you wanna talk about raising a signal! Just right for your enemy to know exactly where you are located!

Good point.

I was really being sorta sarcastic earlier as they do actually have large flare rounds fired from such things, but getting one in some oddball caliber exempted by the ATF for such purposes would seem an unlikely task.
It would actually enable flares to be launched much further, higher, and with heavier brighter and longer burning payloads on a parachute, increasing likelihood of notice or rescue.
But I do not see ATF giving exemption.


As for the OP, the real reason the 37mm launchers are allowed is specifically because the ATF has said so and given them an exemption.
They interpret and enforce the law typically through the discretion given to the Attorney General in legislation, and as a result have wide discretion in many areas unless the courts or Congress say differently.

So if someone designs a recoilless signaling device in an oddball caliber they can try to gain exemption.

 

[Cap'n Jack Burntbeard]

How many signals do you send horizontally?

Many, just imagine a 80mm tracer, I think it would send a perfectly clear message.
Having just recently taken notice of these somewhat forgotten pieces of hardware, they boast some rather impressive firepower for their relative simplicity.
Hey wait a second, could you make one to use black powder? Or would they just say that it could also be used with smokeless?
But just think of it: flash, blast, smoke, and a freakin flare, now that's a signaling device!

 

[Acera]

If you want to shoot them as a civilian, join the local ski patrol. Many are used as a way for major avalanche preventions. Every year hundreds of HE rounds are fired at our mountains to dislodge snow, and keep the danger down for skiers, and travelers on avalanche prone roads.