At 05:11 PM 6/10/01 -0700, petro wrote:
Secondly, if you think *ANY* firearm you can fire standing up will "Knock them on their behind", take a high school physics class.
Well said, but: In _The Irish War_ there's a description of IRA improvised recoilless 'rifles' which, like their .mil-industrial analogues, toss an equal mass out the back end. The reacting countermass is a bunch of flakes which dissipate the KE against the atmosphere. [Ie, consider a barrel open at both ends. Put missile, charge, countermass flakes in that order. Point missile at thing you don't like, and keep friendlies a few meters away from the countermass ejection end of the barrel.] ........ That said, an (e.g.) hip or knee shot on a biped will cause it to fall approximately back if the posture is right. That also is just the physics of actively balanced inverted pendula, biomechanics. Cheers, dh