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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
If a ball was indeed oblong or distorted in shape, how would that have effected its firing ? If the spherical shape maintained force and rotation to retain kinetic energy, would the distorted shape cause the shot to slow as discharged, and lessen its range or impact?
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Howdy Jim...
Given the limitations inherent to a smooth bore and the subsequent lack of rotational velocity (that would have otherwise been imparted by way of a rifled bore), I doubt small variations in (shot) shape would have much more than a nominal impact with regards to precision and accuracy - IMO such variation would likely have been taken into account in the application of artillery tactics at the time.
The "shot tower" method is new to me, and not only interesting but congruent with the deformation of my included example, which has a small and subtle (but noticeable) flat spot consistent with its bottom-biased distribution of mass. This has always given me the impression it either deformed upon impact (unlikely given it is doubtful it would reach a sufficiently high temperature to do so), or had been dropped before it had cooled sufficiently to harden to the point it would resist deformation, something I now realize is inherent to the "shot tower" manufacturing process.