Colt XM148 Grenade Launcher
by
Nicholas C
Published: September 14th, 2016
Photos by Alan W. I have not seen this style grenade launcher before. It is the Colt XM148. It was the original 40mm grenade launcher for the Colt XM16. However due to the trigger design and the complexity of small parts, easily lost in the field, the XM148 was only fielded for a year in Vietnam. It was soon replaced with the M203.
You can see the extended trigger next to the mag well below.
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How much the weight of the launcher itself ?
The M203 unloaded is ± 1,5 Kg
In Viet Nam in the 70's we had what I believe was called the M209, it was an M16 with a grenade launcher mounted like this but this wasn't it, it was a version of the M79 grenade launcher if I'm not mistaken, as I recall it was a lot less complicated than this