Mailed off the Form 1 packet today for an M79! I had always wanted an M79 since firing one in Basic Training back in 88'/89'. One of the Drill Sgt's brought his personal M79 to the M203 qualification range and let the range detail fire it while we were firing up the leftover practice rounds rather than have to turn them back in. I had only seen two M79's up for sale, one at a mainly LEO website for $18,000 and another one years ago on an NFA site for $16,000. I had found a few M79 receivers (stripped and complete) for sale on Gunbroker for $2,000-$4,500, but finding full length barrels has been difficult. Mostly you find "jungle" or "pirate" barrels for sale, which are really just de-mil barrels (de-militarized full length barrels cut in half). De-mil barrels will not give you enough spin on an explosive projectile to arm it, and from what I've seen, will essentially lob rounds at random distances. There was one picture of a "SEAL team" M79 with a cut down barrel, sawn off stock, and cheap looking red dot attached on the interwebs, so now all the cool kids want the "SEAL" version, at least for their airsoft battles. After selling a few guns recently, I came up with a few extra bucks to finish funding the M79 project. Recon Ordnance out of Wisconsin had compete M79 receivers and full length barrels for sale at reasonable prices, $3,500 for the barrel and $4,500 for the receiver, only thing is that you have to file the Form 1 yourself. Half the price of a Form 4 and I'm hoping for a quicker turnaround time for a Form 1. The receiver is an original Kanarr Corp from the Vietnam era, although the barrel is new. I'll post some pictures of the complete M79 once the Form 1 is approved.
I got every part except for a stripped receiver to build a second one. It has taken the past ten years to locate all the parts. Brand new barrel though.
Love my M-203, only took 14 months to get approved though! Still, for what it cost back then compared to now, it was well worth it!
I call mine the October surprise because it came back in like 7 months, which is 3 to 5 months earlier than I expected.
I got some good recipes for home-made rounds. Check out this site for some of the best reloading data, Grog and the band's 37mm and 40mm Webpage
I never even considered the thought of purchasing a grenade launcher...however it might be darn handy in the coming days. I assume one doesn't shoot it often and one must make their own grenades to shoot? I imagine even if you could purchase 40mm rounds they would be too expensive to shoot, yes?
They are fun with practice ammo. It lobs a 1 and 5/8 inch diameter round about 250 feet per second you can see the large diameter round go down range and hit the target hard.
Tax stamp came in today. It was approved on the 10th of March, so it took 96 days to approve a Form 1 DD. I put a few chalk rounds through it earlier today and it shoots great.
How much did that end up costing? I think they are cool but every little part always seemed like it was crazy expensive.
Like I posted $3500 for the barrel, $4500 for the complete receiver, and of course $200 for the tax stamp. $8200 total. I can't remember the price of shipping, but I remember that it wasn't over $50 and the transfer was free since I part time at the gunshop the receiver was sent to.
