<i> ( music playing )</i> Today, we're near Uvalde, which is right
in the bottom of Texas. The more keenly
observant of you may have noticed
we're in tank. I'd be slightly surprised
if you didn't notice the tank, - to be fair.
- Yeah, that's fair. This is an M4 Sherman,
which was built by the U.S.
for World War II. Shall we put it to use,
Daniel? I think we should. Giddy-up! ( engine starting ) Oh! Here we are.
This is the tank
we're gonna fire. Slightly different
to the one we were riding in, but it's the same model
of tank, isn't it? Yeah, it's an M4 Sherman
as well, but this one's
an "Easy-Eight"
or E8 Sherman. It's the only one in existence
that fires and drives. - A rare beast.
- It really is. It's got all
the original stuff on it. <i> All the machine guns on top,
all original.</i> - All the fixings.
- All the fixings. And... we're gonna
be firing this. 15 and a half pounds
of pure solid steal. - Not small.
- Not small. It's gonna be coming
straight out the end of the 76 mil canon there, about 2500 foot per second. - Gonna need a high-speed
camera then.
- I think we are. I feel like we're the right
people for this job. So the tank's over there,
and very handily at the other end of the range,
is a lovely sort of orange, -<i> perforated vehicle. </i>
-<i> Who put that there?</i> That's what we're gonna
be aiming the tank at. It's not actually important
that we hit it because we're mainly interested
in tracking the shell
through the air. But, yeah, it's nice
to have a target. Oh, for sure.
I mean, the tank has
a range of two miles? - And that's about 275 yards.
- So, well within its limits. - I think so.
- Yeah. Considering it goes
at 2,500 feet per second, I think
it'll get there in... - no time at all.
- No time at all, okay.
Let's go. I'm about to fire a tank. Yeah, not your
everyday activity. I wouldn't have thought so. - You ready?
- Yeah, let's do it. I'm ready
to feel the boom. - Okay.
- Three, two, one, fire. - Whoa!
- ( chuckles ) Oh! That was a real, like, racket. My brain was, like, shook. It was like
a violent smack and then like a nice,
like, whomp in the distance. A smack and a whomp. - Smack and a whomp.
- That was good. - Satisfying.
- All right, let's see
what that looked like. - Dan:<i> Whoa. </i>
- Gav:<i> You literally see it.</i> -<i> Jeez. </i>
-<i> You can see a few frames
of it there.</i> Dan:<i> Oh, yeah.
It's kind of blurry,</i> <i> but you can actually see it.</i> <i> It just looks
like a giant bullet.</i> - Gav:<i> I guess that's pretty
much what it is, isn't it? </i>
- Dan:<i> Yeah.</i> A giant bullet
from a giant gun. You ready? Three, two, one, fire. Flippin' A. Bugger! Whoa! Oh, man. So, just before I shot that-- Just before it punched me. Yeah, just before I shot that,
I'd done my hair right. It was facing this way. After I shot it,
it was facing that way. - It blew me away.
- Where are your goggles? I was wearing them. - Were you?
- Yeah. All right,
let's check Phantom. Gav:<i> Look at the way the blast
flaps your sleeve around.</i> <i> That was intense.</i> - Dan:<i> Wow. </i>
- Gav:<i> Can you see the round?</i> Gav:<i> Oh, yeah.</i> Dan:<i> You can see it,
a tiny little dot</i> <i> sailing off
into the distance.</i> <i> It's quite low.
It's like against the--</i> Gav:<i> Oh, yeah!</i> <i> Wow.</i> - Did it blow the glasses
off your face?
- It blew the glasses <i> ten feet diagonally
away from me,</i> <i> rattled my brain,
and changed my haircut</i> all in a split second. Not what you read about
in war books. No, no, it's not. One of the things
I'm very excited
about for this video is that we plan tracking
the tank round through the air. And I've been using Phantoms
for a long time. I've been pretty good
at panning. - Yeah.
- But I don't think
I can track by hand a round that's going, you know,
2,000 feet per second at 82 feet away. I'd like to see you try. So, we brought in some big guns
for our big guns. This is Frank
from Specialized Imaging. Frank, do you want to explain
to us what we've got here
for the Phantom? Sure. We have a computer
controlled mirror with a high-speed video camera
looking into the mirror. We don't have to
pan the camera. We only have
to pan the mirror. And thus we can get these
very fast scan speeds up to, in this case, around 2,000
or 3,000 degrees per second. - So that means you'd have
to spin the camera
- Degrees per-- - 3,000 degrees per second.
- That's how-- - It'd be like...
- It'd be completely impossible with a human muscle,
I assume. - Correct.
- Unless you drove
a train into it. Ten full revs in a second. - Yes.
- That's crazy. When it's fired,
how does it know when-- how to turn the camera,
how fast to turn the mirror? Sure. The software
that drives the mirror allows you to put
in an estimated velocity. And we got that
from the gunners here. And then we also use two
of our optical trigger systems looking at the line of flight. And as the bullet passed
those triggers, we actually did an instantaneous
velocity measurement. So that means
that you've got two cameras. The first one sees it, and then it measures the time
it takes to get to the next one - and adjusts the mirror.
- Correct. So today we're gonna
put the V2512, pair it with this tracker,
shoot around 28,500
frames a second. So instead
of panning the camera, the camera stays
perfectly still and the mirror
does all the work. - Ready? Okay.
- Yeah. Three, two, one, fire. Whoa. That made a-- that made,
like, a significant
dust pile at the end. That was a big dust pile,
you're right. - I think that was the biggest.
- Yeah. Let's go and check out
the tracking shot. For reference,
we shot 212,000
pictures there. Dan:<i> Whoa.</i> <i> Oh! Did you see
the heat waves there?</i> Gav:<i> Flippin'!
It's outpacing that shockwave.</i> Dan:<i> Oh, there's a shockwave.
You can see the shockwave</i> -<i> in front of it. </i>
-<i> And behind it.</i> - Dan:<i> Whoa! </i>
- Gav:<i> It's trailing a nose--</i> <i> Oh, it almost went out
of frame there.</i> <i> So the round is actually
slightly slower</i> -<i> than we wanted to track it. </i>
-<i> That's because it's--</i> - It's 'cause it's come out
like that, though.
- Yeah. It-- Like when
it's actually correct-- 'Cause this is
not supposed to happen. - See what it's doing?
You can see it yawing...
- Yeah. - ...up and down.
- That's really weird. Like that's--
That's "no correct." Gav:<i> And obviously it's more
in focus in the beginning</i> <i> than the middle, but then
it will come back into focus.</i> -<i> Oh, I was wondering why. </i>
-<i> It's still trailing that wave.</i> <i> Look at that.
There you can see</i> <i> there's so much detail in
the air that's being affected.</i> <i> Is it the moisture in the air?
It must be.</i> <i> It looks like exhaust
from a jet.</i> Gav:<i> Love that.</i> So I think now,
we should-- I feel like we've got it.
We know where it's gonna be. We should zoom
in a little bit. - Oh, go tight. Naughty.
- Go a little bit tighter. All right, you ready
for another one? I-- I am.
I really am. All right,
I got Phantom looking
right at your face. I'll try not to look
too dumb then. - All right. You ready?
- Yeah. Okay.
Three, two, one, fire. Whoa! It smells so good. Whoa. <i> I look slightly scared
for a start.</i> <i> Shut my eyes like--</i> <i> I don't blame you. Ooh!</i> <i> ( Gav laughs )</i> Dan:<i> Gonna find out exactly
how far the barrel moves
back now, as well.</i> Gav:<i> Oh!</i> - Gav:<i> Threw out load of gunk. </i>
- Dan:<i> Oh, man.</i> Gav:<i>
It significantly jolts back.</i> Dan:<i> It really does,
doesn't it?</i> -<i> All right, let's go
and look at the cool shot. </i>
-<i> Okay.</i> Now it did have
to lower the frame rate - Mm-hmm.
- to a measly 12,000
frames a second. - Well, that's pathetic.
- And I widened the shot, but we do have
a lot more depth to hopefully get much more
of it and focus at once. And it's more zoomed in, so it's like
a double whammy here. Gav:<i> Deliberately set the focus
to be more in the middle
of the flight</i> <i> so we can see that rifling
from the side.</i> Dan:<i> Mm-hmm. Whoa!</i> <i> That's really--
That is so perfectly tracked.</i> -<i> That's amazing. </i>
-<i> Look at that.</i> <i> Directly in the middle
of the frame.</i> <i>Oh, my word. Oh, you can see it
spinning there.</i> Gav:<i> Yeah, look at that.
That is the rifling there.</i> Dan:<i> Oh, yeah, you can see it
spinning perfectly.</i> <i> And as the bow wave as well.</i> <i> You see the bow waves
in the air.</i> Gav:<i> It looks like
it's taking its time.</i> -<i> Yeah. </i>
-<i> Even though it's really
going absolutely rapid.</i> Dan:<i> It's going ape!
And off into the distance.</i> Gav:<i> It's cool seeing this
because it's pretty much
an antique.</i> <i> Like I said before,
it does yaw like that,</i> <i> and then it straightens
itself out.</i> <i> It's very cool.</i> <i> That's the spinning rifling
in action.</i> Dan:<i> Oh, wow.</i> It-- What? - It went under.
- Wait. - It threaded the needle.
- No! Never. Dan:<i> Do that again.</i> <i> Oh, went through the tire.</i> <i> The back tire.</i> <i> Just ripped a hole
in the tire.</i> <i> It went through it like
that hole wasn't there.</i> <i> Oh, we know the exact place
that our round went.</i> <i> ( imitating explosion )</i> <i> All right, let's go look
at the dent that made.</i> -<i> All right. </i>
-<i> This thing's been battered.</i> So, wait. Did it go-- All right, okay,
this is probably
the least impressive hole. - ( laughs )
- Okay? I'll be honest with you,
it's the least
impressive hole ever, because its rubber--
it's just all gone bloop! - Yeah.
- This is the hole
that we made here with the tank
that we just fired. It just sort of
cleaned the tire. - Yeah.
- It also-- You know what it looks like? - My gran in her house,
- Yeah. she had these little rubber
things with like quadrants cut - and you'd like thumb
a tea towel into it.
- Oh, yeah, yeah. - It looks like that.
- Yeah. Well, my ears are ringing. but we've packed
the Phantom away. I think that's some
of the coolest footage
I've ever seen. You say that.
My skull's ringing.
That's easily the biggest thing
I've ever fired. - It blew your specs off.
- Yeah. Yeah, that record
will probably stand for a really long time,
to be honest. Well, it's a tank,
so, yeah. - Yeah,
- I should think so. What? Oh. Well, I'm firing that,
obviously. - I'll unpack the Phantom.
- Yeah, sweet. Get some melons! What is this? It's my baby. It's a D20.
It's a Russian gun. Um, the gun from Sherman
was 76 mil. - 76.
- Yeah. This is 152. 152 mil? Yep. So it's an order
of magnitude larger. It's a lot bigger.
It's a fat round. - Let's go and have a look
at the round.
- Let's have a look at it. So, this is what we're gonna
be firing out of this, and it's heavy and massive. Babies are smaller
than that. It-- They are. This looks like a baby
little weedy round now. - This is what we fired
out of the tank.
- Yeah. This is the cartridge case
and the round here. This is the shell. This is what we're gonna
be firing out of there. And this is actually
the largest gun in private ownership
in the world. - In the world?
- In the world. And it's right here and we're about to film it
for "Slow Mo Guys." - It's right there.
- You know what? Remember that video
where I caught a bullet -<i> in a melon? </i>
-<i> Yeah, yeah.</i> <i> It went through about three--</i> <i> three melons,
got lodged in the fourth.</i> <i> 'cause I hit it
with a sniper riffle.</i> You think we could
catch this in a melon? I think I know
where you're going with that. I think I know
where you're going. I think-- I think
I also know the answer. - ( laughs )
- No, we can't. Are we ready? Three, two, one, firing. ( laughs )
Oh. Whoa. Oh. I can't even see the melons. Did you miss? It looks like I missed. - How'd you miss?
- I don't know. - I just don't know.
- So, wait. So, wait. With that gun
you grazed the first melon. - I'm ashamed.
- I-- I would be. - Do you know--
- I would be. And the sun,
as you can tell, completely gone now. So there's no redoing that. - ( sighs )
- That's the-- - That's the way the video ends.
- Oh, man! A botched melon job. - Oh, man.
- Let's see what happened. <i> Oh!</i> -<i> Oh. </i>
-<i> I can't believe.</i> <i> So, it was just a bit high,</i> but it didn't even-- Did it actually touch
the first melon? - I think it just glanced it.
- Yeah. Gav:<i> All right, here we go.</i> <i> Absolutely colossal explosion.</i> <i> Bang.</i> Dan:<i> What?</i> <i> Whoa!</i> <i> You can--
You can kinda see it.</i> <i> We might have
to really boost this up.</i> - Dan:<i> Oh, my goodness. </i>
- Gav:<i> But look at it.</i> <i> Look at the smoke trailing
out the back of it.</i> <i> Oh, man.
The shell is actually,</i> like, bigger than
two watermelons and I still missed. Yeah.
You did well to miss. It's impressive. So on analysis,
you think - that it wasn't the pressure?
- No. It was just the propellant. Dan:<i> So, yeah,
'cause the propellant</i> <i> some of it comes out
still unburned.</i> <i> It hit this, and I think
that's what burst it.</i> - And there's like bits of it
in there. You see that?
- Yeah. It's like little bits
have penetrated it. Okay, so we've lost
the light. But if we just lower
the frame rates and double the ISOs we can potentially get some
questionable looking high-speed even out of direct sunlight. So we're gonna try it.
'Cause I wanna see
these melons go, - I'll be honest.
- Yeah. And we're just gonna slightly - aim the barrel down.
- Yeah. I won't miss this time, okay? Well, I mean, no pressure. - Man: We're set.
- Okay. Three, two, one, fire. Did you hear that? - Whoa.
- Oh! - How has that happened?
- Oh, no! How--
How's that happened? Oh, the C-Stands. How have we trashed
some of them and then left some
watermelons absolutely fine? - They got--
- How does that happen? They got lucky.
( laughs ) It's, like-- If you're in production,
it's a blood bath. - Dan: Oh, my.
- ( Gav laughs ) It's an absolute war zone. All right, look at this. Ooh, what the-- - ( gasps )
- ( laughs ) Whoa! - Oh!
- ( laughs ) Oh! I-- I-- Dan:<i> Oh, I--</i> <i> Bit too low, that one.</i> Did I see the shell
get deflected by watermelons? Dan, that is absolutely
what you saw. <i> The shell went in the melons.</i> <i> And then came--
like, started rising up them.</i> <i> And then cartwheeled out,
and that's where that--</i> <i> ( mimics deflating air )
It was the shell, that big,</i> going... And it went straight
towards the other Phantom, the other stuff over there. At least it went up. <i> Oh, wow.</i> -<i> Oh! </i>
-<i> That was sent into a spin.</i> -<i> Oh, man. </i>
-<i> And then it's just
tracking nothing.</i> -<i> Well, it was--
It was out of there. </i>
-<i> It's just up here.</i> Yeah, I just thought it was
gonna get straight through them. I don't know
why I thought that. <i> Look what it does
to the melons.</i> <i> It just mists them.</i> Gav:<i> I gotta say,
perfect aim, actually.</i> Dan:<i> Yeah, it was perfect.
Right in the middle</i> <i> of the first melon.</i> <i> Right here, the melon
is absolutely fine.</i> -<i> And then-- Yeah. </i>
-<i> ( groans )</i> <i> I have no idea
where that went.</i> I'd say probably
about a mile that way. All right, well, thankfully
there's nothing out there. Oh. I walk away from these types
of shoots just like-- That was some-- ( both laugh ) That was just
such cool footage. - It was awesome.
- Just the tracking shot, and the size of this round. - It was--
- Unbelievable. Almost as big
as the watermelons
we were trying to shoot. Yeah, and it came out
straight as an arrow. - Yeah.
- Obviously, the melons
quickly saw to that. Yeah, this-- I mean,
this was probably one
of my favorite days. It's up there for me, too. - Yeah.
- It was just really good. Hopefully you enjoyed that
as much as we did. Be sure to check out
part two over here. Where we learn
to drive a tank and learn a little bit more
about ballistics from an expert. You can subscribe, too,
if you want. - Yeah.
- You subscribe? Uh... yes. One day, you've gotta
subscribe to our channel. - Well, I think I am.
- Okay. Okay, all right, yeah.
A heavy artillery piece with something like a ten mile range and they use it to shoot melons 50 yards away. That's probably the most SMG thing yet.
Private ownership of a 152mm heavy artillery piece might just be the most American thing ever, though.
I can't get enough of these slow motion shock waves. https://i.imgur.com/1XqWOX2.jpg
The zoomed in tracking shot on the shell is phenomenal. There are very few things that actually make my jaw drop but some of the stuff from the slomo guys genuinely does.
In case anyone's wondering, full sized cannon shells (...and shot) don't fully stabilize their flight until about 50-100m after leaving the barrel.
I hope they talk to that mirror guy more, because those tracking shots were so crisp. Iām sad w didint see the mirror in action.
By far the best episode of the two series (so far)
So I just wanted to point out a strange thing about the differences between American and Canadian gun laws. In the US both the guns they fired are controlled by the National Firearms Act and require a $200 tax to buy. Whereas in Canada not only would neither of those guns require any special paperwork, supposedly they wouldn't require any license at all. According to a fellow who has several pieces of artillery, anything with a bore diameter of greater than one inch is not regulated by the Firearms Act of Canada.
Why are there six pedals if there are only four directions?
I'm not entirely sure why they didn't mention the name of the business where they are. Maybe the owners didn't want to deal with a world full of weirdos that are almost certainly not potential customers.
But there's like a dozen billboards all over south Texas for this place so I don't think privacy really counts. It's called the Ox ranch. It's apparently 3 grand to drive and shoot a tank once. www.drivetanks.com is the website for it.