M-79

Name: M-79
Model: various manufacturers
Caliber: 40x46mm
Type: grenade launcher
Scale: character
Skill: firearms
Ammo: 1
Ammo Container: barrel
Weight: 2.93kg
Cost: $750
Ammo Cost per Round: $500+
Availability: 3
Fire Mode: break action
Rate of Fire:
Range: 15-100/225/350m
Damage:

High-Explosive Round: 4D/3D/2D/1D

Blast Radius: 0-5/10/20/40m

CS Gas Round: 5D minutes duration
Flechette Round: 8D

Range: 1-2.5/5/10/20m

M576 Buck Shot Round: 10D

Range: 1-2/4/8/16m

Capsule: The M79 grenade launcher is a single-shot, shoulder-fired, break-action grenade launcher that fires a 40x46mm grenade which used what the US Army called the High-Low Propulsion System to keep recoil forces low, and first appeared during the Vietnam War. Because of its distinctive report, it earned the nicknames of "Thumper", "Thump-Gun", "Bloop Tube" and "Blooper" among American soldiers; Australian units referred to it as the "Wombat Gun". The M79 can fire a wide variety of 40 mm rounds, including explosive, anti-personnel, smoke, buckshot, flechette, and illumination. While largely replaced by the M203, the M79 has remained in service in many units worldwide in niche roles.

Ammunition

Many different ammunition types were produced for the M79 (and subsequently for the M203), outside of the smoke and illumination rounds three main types emerge: Explosive, Close-range, and Non Lethal Crowd Control. The break-open action of the M79 allows it to use longer rounds that the standard M203 cannot use. However, the barrel can be quickly removed, a long cartridge loaded, the barrel replaced, and then fired.

Explosive

The M406 40 mm HE (high explosive) grenades fired from the M79 travel at a muzzle velocity of 75 meters per second. The M406 contained enough explosive to produce over 300 fragments that travel at 1,524 meters per second within a lethal radius of 5 meters. This round incorporated a spin-activation safety feature which prevents the grenade from arming while still within range of the shooter; it armed itself after traveling a distance of about 30 meters. Even though the round would not arm at point blank ranges, the round still had enough kinetic energy to kill or seriously injure its target.

Close range

A less-lethal round is loaded into an M79

For close range fighting two styles of M79 rounds were developed. The first was a flechette or Bee Hive round that fired 45 10-grain steel flechettes. Flechettes proved to be ineffective because they would often not hit point-first and penetrate. Instead they would hit sideways and bounce off. About 1966, this was replaced by the M576 buckshot round. Containing twenty pellets of #4 buckshot (M576E1) or twenty-seven pellets of #4 buckshot (M576E2), this round could be devastating at close ranges. However, as range increased, the shot spread out so rapidly as to be ineffective. The M576E2, despite the greater number of shot, was less effective at range than the M576E1, because its shot spread out much more quickly and could completely miss the target.

Non-Lethal

The M79 has been used extensively also for crowd control purposes where it is desirable to have a weapon dedicated solely to non-lethal force. The three common less-lethal rounds are the M651 CS gas, the M1006 sponge grenade, and the M1029 Crowd Dispersal rounds.