Centurion Breech Closing Speed

[Malcolm Towrie]

Hi, the closing speed of the breech on our Centurion seems slow. Yet everything is clean, lubed, and operating freely. Seems like closing spring is weak.
Link is

https://youtu.be/6indMWNCXBI

[tankbarrell]

Seems reasonable to me, though I wouldn't close it by hand in that way....
17 pdr seems similarly slow compared to 6 pdr and especially 2 pdr but when you think about the block weight and hence inertia, it makes sense.

[Malcolm Towrie]

I’m not familiar with gunnery. Isn’t it the breech’s job to push the shell hard into the block to seal it? This breech action is so half-hearted, it seems it might stall half-way closed.
Malcolm

[James P]

First off, think safety, the person depressing the ejectors has to many hands and fingers jammed up the breech ring, making a "chicken bar" based on the Leopard tank tool is easy to fabricate even making one out of plywood would do. As for "closing speed" it looks just fine (based on what I have seen on the Leopard) as others have noted you are moving a 115+ Lbs block of steel from dead stopped to closed so its hardly lightning fast. The correct way to close the breech from the open is grasp the breech opening lever with the left hand (reaching under right arm), depress the catch on the top with the thumb of left hand pull breech opening lever back enough to disengage contact with the ejectors, reach into the breech ring with right hand using the right hand thumb and pinky finger to trip the ejectors, KEEP the middle three fingers closed into palm (think the look of a Hawiiian wave) so you DO NOT see them chopped off by the closing breech (RIP Tooner Martin) , done right (and safely) the closing breech will brush the right hand away. I strongly suggest you discontinue closing the breech in the manner shown in the video.

[Tim Bell]

What model of Centurion is this please ?

Cheers

Tim

[Mike Cecil]

Tim,

The mark of tank would not make a difference in this case. The Gun, 105-mm Tank L7A1 and the Ordnance QF 20-pdr Tank Mk.1 use the same breech ring and breech block, so the mechanism is common through all Marks of Centurion from Mk.3 to Mk.13. (Mk.1 & 2 used a 17-pdr.). I vaguely remember that this tank is a Mk.5 or Mk.5/2, but Malcolm will know for sure.

Mike