GDG- Artillery

[James Cameron]

<< I would  hazard a guess that a round in a rifled barrel fits somewhat 
more
snuggly than one in a smoothbore and so is a bit harder to push in.   I will
drop Brent a note and ask.



Wow, that was fast.  Brent's answer: "I believe because it was a  tighter
fit. The same applied to the 18th century rifle muskets. These took a  long 
time
to reload, because the rifleman had to jam down the ball (as compared  to 
just
plopping it in.)"


Bruce  Trinque
Amston, CT  >>

Projectiles for rifled field artillery were made smaller than bore size, to 
allow them to be loaded, with various means provided for expansion into the 
rifling on firing.  Typically, this would be a base plate of brass, copper, 
or lead, which worked much like the expanding hollow base of a minie ball 
did in a rifle musket.

What made some rifled artillery slower to load wasn't that the projectiles 
were such a tight fit they needed to be jammed down the bore.  Rather, the 
fact that unlike smoothbore ammunition, where the powder charge was attached 
to the projectile by sabot and loaded as a fixed round, the powder charges 
and projectiles for rifled guns were separate, and each needed to be loaded 
and rammed
on its own.

Jim Cameron