Armored car/truck with firing ports?

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fdd19

Joined
Oct 20, 2006
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I was driving around yesterday with family getting presents and what not, when i noticed black circular indentations on the two back doors of a dunbar armored car. There were some on the sides too when we get next to it; I hypothesised that these must be firing ports, as they're positioned right under the center of the windows.

Ive never seen one with firing ports -- are these actually firing ports though?
heres a picture (the only one i could find with one visible)
armoredTruck.jpg
 
Excellent! Theres one more thing about them then -- What do they use through them? I've only seen one of the crewmen outside the truck up close once at a grocery store carrying two bags. He had his Kevlar on the outside, no helmet, and a holstered 1911. Pistols usually dont work lest they have a barrel extending beyond the slide -- firing ports are usually made for rifles.
Do they have an AR-15/M16 or M4 inside the truck for these??
 
fdd19 said:
Pistols usually dont work lest they have a barrel extending beyond the slide -- firing ports are usually made for rifles.
Click to expand...


Not true.



fdd19 said:
What do they use through them [...] Do they have an AR-15/M16 or M4 inside the truck for these??
Click to expand...


Depends on the company, level of threat in the area that's being serviced, etc. . . .
 
fdd19 said:
I was driving around yesterday with family getting presents and what not, when i noticed black circular indentations on the two back doors of a dunbar armored car. There were some on the sides too when we get next to it; I hypothesised that these must be firing ports, as they're positioned right under the center of the windows.

Ive never seen one with firing ports -- are these actually firing ports though?
heres a picture (the only one i could find with one visible)
armoredTruck.jpg
Click to expand...

I don't remember ever seeing an armored transport that DIDN'T have ports as you describe......but then I'm only 60 years old...:rolleyes:
 
..with a black dong hanging out of it peeing at Tysons Corner once. I laughed my ass off.
 
I see local armored guys at my Stater Brothers market in SoCal are very edgy. The pick up from a Wells Fargo branch inside the grocery store.

Both have their pistols drawn and held down at their sides. At one time, one had the p/u bag and the other had a shotgun at the port arms position. I stayed well out of their way.

I did notice the portals in the truck and wondered if they were firing ports. What I recently found out is that some of the armored cars wall are made of aluminum.
 
all of the armored car bodys are aluminum but dont let that fool you. the bodys are so heavy that one body will be on 4-5 different chassis before its wore out. if i remember correctly those chassis will only last 40-50k miles.

as far as the weapons inside, ive seen m4s, shot guns, and even .38 revolvers.

yeah, i was thinking the same thing about the last one.
 
Almost all our local armored-car guys seem to be revolver armed; I don't know if they carry any long guns in the vehicle.
Those firing ports always seemed to me to be as much threatening window-dressing as anything. Hard to imagine anyone standing around the outside waving a pistol and saying "stand and deliver".

Most all the armored-car robberies I recall were inside jobs....
 
lol around here the 'armoured trucks' are modified ford econoline vans but they too have the ports
the guards had some type of revolver and it wouldnt surprise me if they have at least shotguns inside
 
yea, but then you still cant get the cash that's inside!! Remember the M-16 port firing weapons? Are they still in use?
 
i remember reading about them, for the bradley IFV, no sights/full auto only/a threaded forgrip to fit into the port, they were weird imho, and IIRC the firing ports were changed to were they didnt require the things, i dont know if they were ever gen'l issue and if they were it wasnt for long IIRC.

i read about them in the mid 80's somewhere or another, & probably havent thought about them in 20 yrs lol.
 
The original "firing port weapon":

xin_09204021513372651362443.jpg


The purpose of the mysterious "fin" on the bottom of the MP38's barrel (just behind the foresight) is to prevent recoil from forcing the muzzle backwards and into the vehicle from which it was being fired. The results of such a mishap are better imagined than experienced...

maximus otter

PS: I know it's not an MP38, but I couldn't find a good picture of a '38 on Google Images!

m.o.
 
ERdept said:
I did notice the portals in the truck and wondered if they were firing ports. What I recently found out is that some of the armored cars wall are made of aluminum.
Click to expand...

Aluminum armor will stop handgun and shotgun rounds. Bullet will sink in and stick rather than flatten on the surface, but it works -- and is much lighter than steel.

15 years ago, several armored car companies used Sten SMGs -- inexpensive, and the barrels fit through the firing ports easily.
 
I bet some of my armore piercing steel cored rifle rounds would go right through these trucks.
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I wouldn't count on it. There are levels of armor for vehicles, just as there are with body armor (only higher with vehicles). Recall that LAPD SWAT used a commercial armored truck to rescue several people during the N. Hollywood shootout.
 
Years ago, I got a ride in a VW bug that a friend of my Dad had had modified for his use in certain foreign countries where US Foreign Service Officers were not especially welcomed. He had installed steel plates in the door panels and inside the high backed bucket seats. He had also reinforced the front and rear bumpers with steel beams as well as putting some steel plating in the front trunk of the car and installing a self-sealing gas tank. He couldn't do much about the windows, so he figured that he would just put his head down and floor it. Fortunately, he never had to put the car to the test.
 
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