FN Herstal Bullet-Thru® Telgren Rifle Grenade
Development and Design
Arms manufacturers have toyed with the idea of launching grenades with a rifle for quite a while. There have been several models and attempts over the years. The Belgian FN/MECAR telescopic grenade might have been the best of them.
When carried around, the Telgren would not be any heavier or bigger than a hand grenade. The firing pin was also offset from the detonator for safety reasons.
Functionality and Usage
A simple pulling/twisting motion would expand the telescopic grenade, aligning the firing pin and detonator. A telescopic aiming sight would also pop up. The Telgren could be fitted to an FN FAL or FN FNC. As a bullet-through design, the Telgren did not need any modifications or additional steps to be fired, and there was no need to carry blank ammunition for the firing process. The rifleman simply aimed and pulled the trigger.
The Telgren range was up to 400m with a 7.62x51mm and 300m with 5.56mm. The body of the grenade was designed to fragment on impact, making it an accurate long-range antipersonnel weapon.
Legacy
Nowadays, rifle grenades have given way to under-barrel grenade launchers.
-RBM
