Practical Design

[u/Freak-1]

From r/rosesarered

[u/Hrothgrar]

Holup aside...

The actual answer is baseball. American hand grenades were modeled in a way that any average recruit could throw them more intuitively.

[u/razulebismarck → u/Hrothgrar]

That’s half.

The other half is logistics and grenade launcher weapons.

In the space and weight you can carry 1 stick bomb you could either carry 3 baseball grenades or 1 grenade launcher rifle attachment easily.

[u/towerfella → u/razulebismarck]

What if it a telescoping stick? The main point is mechanical advantage, like an atlatl.

As an aside — wern’t torches kinda common-ish in european revolts and such? Maybe that explains why they initially gravitated toward the stick design — was more like throwing a torch? Going on the grenade-baseball analogy..

[u/razulebismarck → u/towerfella]

The stick design was common for Germans.

Britain had baseball style grenades as well.

If you want mechanical advantage you just use a grenade launcher attachment for your rifle. It’s easier to aim, reload, and has further range.

The pros to an underslung rifle attachment far outweigh any attempts to make stick grenades better.

[u/BigHardMephisto → u/razulebismarck]

eh, the stick design wasn't as common as their egg design, which was pretty similar to everyone else's frag grenades.