So I recently acquired a dewat Bulgarian RPG 7 and am trying to figure out if it is worth the stamp to reactivate. I know there are some subcaliber units floating around that take 7.62x39 rounds but haven't actually seen any for sale. I've kinda already figured that any sort of live rocket is unobtanium and would be a real headache even if they were available.

WIth that, are there any other options available for projectiles? I've read that such things are doable for the RPG 2 as the originals used black powder propellant charges.

Tldr, is it worth reactivating or leave it as is?

You could make very similar projos for the -7, adding the rocket motor would be a bit more complicated but possible. Ekther would be fine with an inert warhead.

If you want to make rockets with a spotter charge, you have to stay under the 1/4 ounce of explosive and 4oz? of rocket propellant

Noob question, what's the deal with chalk?

Chalk is an inert material

Ah ok, was a bit confused if there was some fuckery with chalk with what I had read about 40mm chalk rounds.

You can look into the OG-7V type projectile. It's just a grenade that is launched via the booster only, similar to the RPG2. But like stated keep in mind the weight of the booster charge.

The "booster" charge weight shouldn't matter for legality.  Just any rocket propellant, and that's only if the projectile is explosive, incendiary, or poison gas

Funnily enough that is what I was also thinking of doing, seemed like it would be the simplest thing to get working with the rules that are in place. Next question, what is recommended for propellant? I've heard cannon grade black powder is the way to go but that you have to be careful so as to not have it blow up on you.

Oh interesting.

Another noob question, what makes the difference between a booster and rocket propellant? Is it a clear difference or is it all in the technicalities?

In the legal realm everything is a technicality. In the firearms law realm that goes double. Triply for NFA items.

The "booster" in an RPG2 is the standard black powder launch charge, and the pg2 projectile isn't actually a rocket. The RPG7 uses a similar launch charge that is referred to as the "booster" and then the rocket motor lights to give it greater range and accuracy by giving it an extra boost of speed.

So there is a bit of easily confused terminology that we should clear up. The often referred to "booster" is actually the launch charge. It is burned up in the tube of the launcher is not contained in the projectile. That is why the RPG2 was a first choice when people decided they wanted to build RPGs, as the RPG2 is essentially a recoilless cannon(it isn't rifled).

The RPG7 has more complicated ammunition with the addition of the rocket motor. Also there is a common misunderstanding that any ammunition with more than 4oz of rocket propellant is a DD itself. This is not true and come from a mis-reading of the definition of "destructive device." The 4oz limit only refers to projectiles that are incendiary, explosive, or poison gas. So you can have a fully powered PG-7 rocket just has a chalk warhead or whatever

Gotcha, that does make things a lot clearer. So realistically if I was fine with slightly reduced accuracy and being somewhat limited in weight I could design purely booster powered projectiles. I'm guessing the reason why people don't really do the two stage system is because of the rocket motor portion being much harder to produce.

The two "warheads" I'd want to try out would be chalk and maybe something with a very simple primer + some sort of powder (always fun to have something that goes bang).

I guess the thing I need to find/figure out is how to produce the booster assemblies. I'd imagine they might be reusable assuming that they survive the impact.

First, I think you should ask yourself what you want out of an RPG-7.  For me, I want historical accuracy.  If I can't make it historically accurate, I might as well build a rocket launcher of my own design.  If you don't care about historical accuracy, just make something safe and fun.

I would be surprised if you could make anatomically correct (or mostly so) PG7's for less than $75 to $100 (per projectile).  There is an awful lot going on there.  Then, after you get your anatomically correct motor built, you need to put it next to your head and shoot it.  I don't know about you, but I'd want to test fire it a few times off of a bench before I shot it off my shoulder.  I'm doing an RPG2, and my cost per round will probably be $50 to $70, and that's a lot more simple than a PG7.  I will probably try to make cheaper, non-authentic practice projectile for it.

Once upon a time, I had an RPG7 and a sub caliber rifle/projectile for it.  It was basically a bolt action rifle that looked like a rocket.  It was really cool, and had some neat features.  If I had an RPG7 now, I probably wouldn't try to build projectiles for it, but I would make a rifle that looks like a rocket to shoot tracer rounds.  I'll probably make one for my RPG2 eventually.

DDs are fun.  Build something and post pics.

I figure the closest I'll probably get to correct projectiles will be those styled after the og-7v. In all honesty though I'd like to get a subcaliber unit first. Cheaper and easier to run, with the benefit of being able to roll up to the range with it. On the other hand it would still be cool to have something that actually launches. Most definitely would be cheaper to make my own launcher but for me it's a collection piece first, getting it to fire something close to historically accurate would just be a nice bonus.

Just FYI, the OG-7v doesn't do crap to a Toyota hilux front bumper...

Everyone knows the hilux is indestructible anyways