Artillery 12 pounder shot-cannister from the American Civil War (1861-65)
A cloth cartridge bag holding the powder charge might be attached to the rear of the case - and a wooden sabot was used to guide the case in the bore. - At times a lethal 'double cannister' charge was loaded with a single powder charge - for use at short range against massed or charging troops. A skilled artillerists 'skipped canister' technique, as used at 'Gettysburg' , was to aim at the ground in front of advancing troops and ricochet the now flattened pattern on a wider killing front.
When SCUBA diving out of Polkeris Bay (Nr Falmouth, UK) on the wreck of SS VOLNAY in September 1975, we brought-up a lot of these cylindrical clumps of lead ball. - One mate found a large brass case complete with rod propellant that made a great flash and cloud of smoke on the beach later.
BRITISH SHOT CASE 15 Pounder MARK V - 1914
Weights: Case incl Driving Band 3lb 11oz. 290 Mixed metal balls 8lb 9oz. clay & sand 1lb.The Volnay was carrying a mixed cargo of foodstuffs and anti-personnel shells when sunk by a mine from the German submarine UC64. - I melted-down all my recovered lead ball to make dive belt weights using a homemade timber mould and an old saucepan. - Volnay built in 1910 was an armed merchant steamer of 4,610 tons on route from Montreal to Plymouth when sunk in 1917. - The wreck in some 70 foot of water was mostly flattened and dangerously rusted steel plate (after 58 years on a silt bottom) when we went down on her.
The dive-boat owner Charlie took some of us out mackerel fishing - and believe me - fresh fried rich crispy mackeral fillets eaten with scallops that have been carried to the surface stuffed inside your wetsuite,- are a feast fit for any number of kings that you can find, after a great day cold water diving and fishing!
Today - the American M1A2 / M1A3 Abrams Tank - as well as toting three machine-guns, uses a 120mm smoothbore gun that can fire depleted uranium anti-armour rounds - and the M1028 anti-personnel canister cartridge containing 1098 x 9.5mm tungsten balls.
Marty K.
After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870
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