New Mold Design/BIG BOOLIT!!

[Bambeno]

Very interesting! Do you find the nose heavy air rifle design bullets to have a better BC than a solid projectile?

[PatMarlin]

Outstanding!

Love to fire that at some pot growers, uh gardens ...

[John in PA]

The 200 yard competitions are held in Winchester VA, May and October every year. 45-50 full scale artillery pieces in competition, along with THOUSANDS of small arms competitors in team and individual competition. These are the North-South Skirmish Association National Matches. Attendance for spectators/visitors is FREE!!
More info can be found here:
http://n-ssa.org/

This year was the 20th Camp Grayling Historic Artillery Long Range Match. Held on a 17,000 acre National Guard base in northern Michigan, attendance for spectators is also free. Current matches are 12 shots at target at 1200 yards. (Used to be 15 shots at 1000 yards.) Usually 20-30 cannons and mortars attend, using full military loads. Here's a link with info from the team that sponsors the match.
http://www.museumandcollector.com/in...d=48&Itemid=57

A few years ago a History Channel film crew did a documentary of the Grayling match. The producer was Gord Laco, who was historical advisor for the Russel Crowe film "Master and Commander". They had gone to Grayling to capture audio of real BP artillery to use to increase authenticity for the sound track of the film. That brought the match to his attention and they came out a year later to do the documentary on the match. We were fortunate enough to win that year, and later they took a group of us to a Canadian military base in Shilo, Manitoba where, among other things, we shot a 10-Pounder Parrott against a modern LG-1 105mm howitzer at 1300 meters. Results are surprising. The DVD of "Artillery Games" is available at the link below. It's VERY well done, and quite watchable.

http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p...echnology#tabs

[John in PA]

There are also some great video clips on Youtube of various Civil War artillery pieces being fired on military ranges by a crew from Paulson Brothers Ordnance. A number of these use exploding ordnance with either percussion or time fuses (ONLY legal on a military reservation) The 20- and 30-Pounder Parrotts blow percussion shells right through hard targets (APC's) at about a mile or so. The 13-inch Seacoast Mortar (like the "Dictator") shows outgoing and incoming rounds exploding at around 2000 yards. The incoming shot at the end of the clip records the alternating whistling sound of air rushing over the fuse hole of the tumbling 200 lb projectile just before it explodes and shell fragments rip through the air all around the camera.
Here's a link to PBO's Action page.

http://www.pbocorp.biz/action.php

[Emil]

John,

Very nice job of utilizing a proven (pellet) design to fit a new application!

What is the estimated or actual MV of that big pellet?

/Emil

[John in PA]

Based on calculated average efficiencies of black powder at 18-20 foot-pounds per grain, I believe I back-calculated velocity somewhere around 575-600 fps. I suppose I could look at old video clips with a stopwatch and get flight times to target. that's what I did for the longrange stuff to rough out a ballistic coefficient for the 10.25 lb Parrott bolts (solid bullets) that we shoot at long ranges. Chronographing the big fellow could be done, probably by constructing a blast shield with a hole in it for the projectile to pass through before the sky-screens. Sub-sonic projectiles are subject to falsing due to the blast wave ahead of the projectile triggering the front screen before the projectile reaches it. So you shoot the bullet through a small window in a large piece of plywood or the like so that the shock wave breaks up and can't trigger the screens. Or you put the screens far enough from the gun to eliminate the interference. But the rainbow trajectory of the gun makes figuring actual bullet path and therefore screen placement difficult, and potentially costly.

The full military loads have a muzzle velocity approximately 1085 fps. Around 190,000 ft-lb muzzle energy.

[ammohead]

If that is what they hunt parrots with in PA I don't want to see their whistle pigs!

ammohead

[The Double D]

Any reason beyond you have an aluminum mould you aren't working with zinc instead of lead?

[John in PA]

I don't have the capability to make the zinc rounds usable/practical for the short range/lighter load stuff required for the N-SSA. The brass cups used on those rounds are about $4 each, and need a pretty good wallop to open them up into the rifling. A mechanically fitted projectile with three lugs (three groove rifling in the Parrott, gain twist, too) would work, but poses casting difficulties getting it out of the mold. (and, as you've rightly observed, the higher casting temps required for zinc alloy would destroy an aluminum mold.) I'll post a couple pictures of unfired and fired/recovered zamac 3 (zinc alloy)/brass cupped projectiles from the long range shoots when I can get a "round tuit".

I have thought about pre-upsetting the skirts with three lobes to speed obturation, but not really sure the results would justify the effort, and it would require a fairly involved set-up to get consistent results.

there are guys that use machined aluminum projectiles, and you can win all day long with them, but you're going to spend $40-50 each (plus powder and friction primer) for each shot in a 12-shot match. And they can't be re-used except as scrap. A bit(!) impractical as far as I'm concerned. And, I like the DIY factor, using something I not only designed, but made myself.

[stainless1911]

Oh, so It's your fault that I have such a hard time finding lead, I see how it is.

[wonderwolf]

I wouldn't call the grayling shoot a spectactor sport but it does draw a crowd from all around. My dad competes in the mortar matches with a coehorn. I usually serve and spot on a few of the gun crews during money matches....they like a younger set of eyes I guess on the KOWA



Here is what one of the mountain guns (smooth bore, NOT rifled, 5" iirc) will do to a tree.

[JIMinPHX]

The only difference between men & boys, is the price of their pellet rifles.

Very nicely done.

[John in PA]

Here are the pics of fired and unfired projectiles. First the 10.25 lb Zamac 3 bolts for long range (1000-1200 yd) shooting with 1 lb 1F GOEX (full military load). Note the three wide lands/grooves of the Parrott engraved in the obturated brass cup on the fired round.





Here are some recovered old-style pellet rounds fired with 160 grams (5.6 oz) of 1F GOEX at 200 yards. The center one is unfired, left one shows normal to slightly excessive obturation, the right one shows weak obturation due to a faulty batch of powder.



Here's a comparison shot of the new pellet with the old one. Weather's been too cold, so still no firing test on the new pellet design. Probably have to wait till spring.

[JesterGrin_1]

You may wish to look here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI9GR...eature=related

[John in PA]

You may wish to look here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI9GR...eature=related

The guys doing the live-fire demo are my team-mates in the N-SSA. We did a similar water-barrel/red dye demo with the Parrott in the previously mentioned "Artillery Games" show for the History Channel. Not sure how to pull and post a clip from the DVD file, or I'd do it.

[JesterGrin_1]

Well I posted the link to look at the BOOLIT they used. But since you know this already why did you choose the design you did other than the one shown in the clip?

[John in PA]

If you're asking about the 5-lugged projectile that they're placing in the mouth of a 20-Pounder Parrott, those are machined from aluminum bar stock. About $60-80 a piece. They're much lighter than original projectiles and are no good for long range shooting, and too expensive for my taste for 200 yard N-SSA matches. But they do shoot like a house afire at short ranges with light loads.

One of the differences between the 10-Pounder and 20-Pounder Parrott is rifling. Both have gain twist rifling, but the smaller gun has 3 equal lands and grooves and the larger one has 5. 10-Pdr tube weighs approx. 900 lb, 20-pdr around 1725 lb. Heavier carriage, too. They're a bugger to move around, but they're super accurate if you can afford to feed them. They're not real popular among modern competition shooters due to the weight.

[John in PA]

All of you that wanted to see live fire artillery: the N-SSA National Matches are this weekend. The artillery matches start at 2PM on Saturday May 21 and run about 3 hours. (Three relays) We'll be shooting position 5 on the first relay. Attendance is FREE for visitors. Map here http://www.n-ssa.org/NATIONAL/maps.html

Here's a link to the full schedule for the entire 5 day match. http://www.n-ssa.net/NATIONAL/123rd/...leOfEvents.pdf

This past Wed, we tested the new Big Boolit. Excellent performance, though the obturation was WAY beyond what I expected. Also there's enough of a shrinkage void hidden in the nose that one projectile blew through with a core hole through the nose almost 3/4" diameter. Didn't upset windage, but hit about 10" lower on target. I drilled a 5/16" hole in the noses from inside the core and filled each of the cavities with lead. That should eliminate any chance for blow-through. Anyhow, we're taking it to the National this weekend and testing it out. I'll post a picture of the test target and fired/recovered projectiles later.

N-SSA members probably cast and shoot more lead bullets that any other organization in the country. Several tons of lead go downrange at every National Skirmish. Thousands of competitors; team matches with around 500 shooters on the 1/4 mile-long firing line loading and firing at maximum SAFE speed at breakable targets, against the clock. Even the small arms stuff is fun to watch, but the artillery takes the cake for spectator fun.

Say hello if you come down. Our camp is the last one on the right hand end of the firing line. 3rd US Artillery. Ask for me.

[Chicken Thief]

Howitsers are good as shotguns too

http://www.buckstix.com/howitzer.htm

[ColColt]

In the future there's to be NO smoking on the firing line! There's no much those monsters won't destroy...unreal. Do they still use the Zouave's and Smith Carbines much anymore?