Does anyone know where I can find a *free exploded diagram of the Penn arms SL6 launcher?

I'm curious how the windup mech works if it is all located inside the drum, or if it has a clock spring in the handle.

+ I'm generally intrigued by the design and want to learn more.

I have a manual somewhere that has that. I'm leaving this here as a reminder.

ETA: Here you go.

Dang even with a parts list!

Thanks!

Happy to help.

In the future you'd probably be able to get more DD guys looking at a thread like this if you post it in the DD forum. My suggestion is if you do need more information just post in that section instead of general gunsmithing.

Worst designed 40mm launcher ever.  I sure wouldn’t use that design to tinker with.  

Very easy for the average user to have trouble with.  Even someone who used it all the time (me) could get a few instances where it sort of short stroked/failed to align properly.  Kind of a problem when you are trying to say shoot out multiple windows or whatever quickly.  

Heavy as hell as well.  We ditched ours for single shot launchers and never regretted it.  Single shots were 100% reliable, unlike the Penn’s...

Hey thanks for the insight.  I'm glad you brought all this up.  Tinkering was my interest so it's good to hear that they can be finicky even on a good day.

I'm guessing the 37 is the same as the 40? I understand the barrels being different diameters, but do they sleeve the cylinder between the two?

Honestly I like the Penn 6 shot - but I do prefer the GL40-1 and as you say it's a lot lighter and handier.

Overall I think my favorite is the DefTec 6 shot. When Penn and subsequently CTS copied it they seem to have cut corners in quality and fitment. The drum seems to be sprung better and the timing detents are very solid.

Funny enough the only parts breakage I've experienced was on that single shot. The damn cast metal extractor sheared off and of course Penn wouldn't sell me a new one. It's now a machined chunk of 4140.



The 37mm and 40mm are functionally the same. Differences are the barrel - obviously it's a smaller bore and unrifled - and the cylinder.

The chambers aren't sleeved but have a smaller OD. No easy way to convert to 40mm and retain wall strength so if that's your plan I'd suggest fabricating an entirely new cylinder.

While that may sound like quite the undertaking it's a relatively trivial item. It's a group of seamless tubes welded together with a front and rear start plate. Features such as timing notches and chambers are machined in after the fact.

Remember - these multi-shot launchers appear to be a riff on the old Striker 12 and that was designed with simple manufacturing in mind. That thought seems to have carried over.

At least the DT version used a S&W revolver type trigger/hammer set.  Trigger was pretty good in double action, excellent in single action.  Penn triggers pretty much suck in general- just flat out horrible.

I can’t recall anymore- I think that we initially had DT rotary launchers, they had issues, I contacted them after they failed at an inconvenient time, DT swapped them out but they had quit making their own, so they gave us Penn’s.  Those were even worse, so they didn’t get used much.  (Might have been the other way around, but I think it went DT to Penn’s).  Hence we decided to only use single shot launchers for reliability and ease of use.  Single shots were 100% on duty rounds, had a few misfires with the training/reload rounds but that was understandable due to how the loads were put into the 40mm bases.  (Human error by helpers during training, not seating the reload charge fully in the base).  

I think the 37mm Penn our partner agency had (we called it an L8 but that was not the model name) was a bit more reliable as it was a wind up, but you did not pump it.  I didn’t use it much and wasn’t responsible for it.  Did come really close to shooting a guy with it with ferret rounds once though, that would have been interesting...

That gun still wasn’t 100% reliable either though.  That agency eventually ditched the rotary design as well when they finally got 40mm’s.  So literally nobody was carrying a rotary launcher by then.  They got Penn single shots, we had our DT single shots, and when DT quit making those we added some additional LMT single shots that DT sold.  

Rotary guns are great when you are operating from a vehicle.  They suck when you are chasing rioters around all day or are jumping fences to set up a perimeter position though.  Just too heavy- would rather carry more rounds.  

You can find the 37mm types on gunbroker now and then, just saw some Federal Lab ones the other day actually.  Not sure what happens with 40mm rotary launchers as nobody wants used ones and the manufacturers won’t give much if any trade in on them anymore.  The paperwork hassle makes trade ins not worth it.  Probably a lot sitting in lockers somewhere unused like ours probably still are...  

I tried to buy some from a PD when I was a Type 09.  Nope, “liability concerns.”  They would only sell them to another department or to be demilled.