Recoilless rifle
Recoilless rifles are guns that can shoot very large bullets or explosives without any recoil. This is important because Newton's First Law of Motion teaches that whenever something moves, there is a motion that goes the opposite direction that is just as strong. This is why guns have recoil. Whenever a gun shoots a bullet forward, the bullet going forward creates an equally strong movement backward. The heavier a bullet is, the more force needed to fire a bullet forward, and therefore the more force the bullet sends the gun backward. Recoilless rifles can fire very large bullets and explosives without hurting their users because they are made with a hole in the back of the gun so that the force from firing the gun goes behind the user, rather than towards the user's shoulder. People using recoilless rifles must be very careful that no one is behind them when they are shooting because the force going behind the gun, or the backblast, is powerful enough to kill a person.
Recoilless Rifle Media
An M40 recoilless rifle on its M79 "wheelbarrow" tripod
Diagram of the operation of a recoilless rifle using a vented case
Jonga, mounted with 105 mm RCL gun which destroyed most of the tanks during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war
1.57-inch Davis recoilless gun mounted in the nose of an F5L flying boat, with a parallel Lewis machine gun. Photo circa 1918.
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Polish soldiers operating an SPG-9M in the 1970s
Firing of a Carl Gustaf 8.4cm recoilless rifle, showing the propellant gas backblast
M40 Recoilless Rifle ammunition, showing the perforated casing
1981 U.S. Forest Service team using a 105 mm M27 Recoilless Rifle for avalanche control at Mammoth Mountain in the Inyo National Forest
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