Do you remember? fletchetts

Geoff & Larry...

I always took it to be named after "the Irish fighting stick". I do believe the Major was telling a true story. He was just that kinda guy. No "BS", just the facts. I can still remember him saying, "If you want to stay alive in the jungle, listen to me". I listened VERY carefully.

KR
 
"flechettes" look like little 1.5" mortars and have a long history of being used in warfare.

I remember getting one and putting it on a keychain during the Vietnam era.

I don't know if it was used there though.


Also, the M-39 Grenade Launcher has (or had) a round filled with little darts like that to be used as an anti-personnel round....much like a large shotgun. Just imagine a 40mm. shotgun round filled with darts.
 
Apple a day is correct about the helo-fired rockets. I've heard my uncle who spent two years flying Cobras in VietNam talk about them. He said when you fired them, you'd see the red puff of smoke, then it would look like a cloudburst hit the rice paddies. Whatever was in them wasn't standing anymore.

I also heard the stories about finding VC nailed to trees by flechette rounds after repulsing an assault from another acquaitance; a former Huey door-gunner.
 
Up until about 5 years ago, you could still buy flechette darts by the pound from sellers in Shotgun News. They were for handloads into shotguns and 40mm & 37mm 'flare' launchers.

They were called something like 'satans toothpicks'

No longer legal.
 
Up until about 5 years ago, you could still buy flechette darts by the pound from sellers in Shotgun News.
*snip*
No longer legal.
Click to expand...
Eh? How's that? I see these at gun shows all the time.

What law/silly ruling bans flechettes? Any cites?
 
I might remember reading something about what you might be thinking of...

let me try ...

In WW 2, experiments were tried using not fletchetts, but "bomblets"...

These were small iron bombs with no explosive charge that weighed around 25 pounds. There were loaded up on bombers by the thousands and dropped over cities and factorys. The small but heavy bomblets devestated entire buildings as the bomblets had enough kinetic energy that they literally ripped though anything in their path. Entire sections of citys were turned to dust by these things.

As the war progressed and flying bombers got increasingly dangerous for ones health due to the heavy losses, they concentrated on bombs with heavy explosive charges because they had a more lethal range and more collateral damage, whereas the bomblets only destroyed what they hit.

Am I getting warm yet ?
 
Yes, specifically illegal in California.

*Had a police/guard at a courthouse last week tell me to put my pocketknife back in the car, not allowed in the court house.
He also said my knife is illegal.
1) He's wrong
2) Why didn't he arrest me then?
 
Yes, specifically illegal in California.

*Had a police/guard at a courthouse last week tell me to put my pocketknife back in the car, not allowed in the court house.
He also said my knife is illegal.
1) He's wrong
2) Why didn't he arrest me then?
Click to expand...

funny, i did jury duty last week in orange county kalifornia...and they WERE allowing any pocket knifes under 4" in the building...just no guns or alcohol.
 
butchb243, I know what you are talking about, the "flechettes" were the Lazy Dogs shown in Runt's pictures. The guy in Canada was wrong, they were called Lazy Dogs during WWII as well as later, but I digress. They were delivered via sheet metal "bombs" that held lots of the the things. The mother bomb would split open due to air pressure and the Lazy Dogs would drop free. They worked well against convoys and trains. They may have been shoveled out of aircraft too but most were delivered via the first method I mentioned.

Several years back SOF had an article on them.
 
As a novelty, I bought some 12ga shotgun shells filled with flechettes. I only bought them because I figure they will be illegal someday :D. Shot a couple. Not very good pattern but good penetration.
 
Fletchetts were and still are loaded in a variety of artillery rounds. In Vietnam, the most common use was in 106mm recoilless rifles, 90mm guns, 105mm howitzers (used in direct fire), and 2.75 inch rockets. There were some experiments with loads in 12 gauge shotguns and 40mm grenades, but they were not very effective compared to buckshot rounds. The story about Viet Cong being "nailed to trees" is an urban legend. It didn't happen. The fletchetts spread out too much and were too short to support the weight of a body.
 
Jim V,

The method you describe for dropping Lazy Dogs was a clam shell dispenser. It was dropped from an aircraft and a timed fuze opened the dispenser, The airstream completed the opening and allowed the lazy dogs to disperse.
 
2.75 Flechettes

Nails are cool!!!... The red puff was excellent for adjusting fire during diving or running fire.

Now you've got me excited,,,,

Woody Jones
CW4, USA retired
 
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