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#1 |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,836
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Thanks very much Ed! and especially for posting this. Ive of course seen these types of bar shot and chain shot mentioned many times, but honestly never looked into the topic in any depth.
With interest piqued I have been trying to find whatever I can. One thing mentioned is that the chain shot was terribly inaccurate (these were not especially aerodynamic). They were expensive and difficult to produce, so I always wonder just how much they were included in the ordnance on vessels. As you note, after the advent of rifling in cannon, and steam ships these would have not been viable. Interesting topic! |
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 228
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Couple of thoughts ...
There have been a number of videos that show the "devastating" effects of the 12ga Bolo round. They all show basically the same thing: at the ranges tested (~30 yards or so) the stupid things don't really separate. The pictures attached are representative. That said, I don't really think that expanding the concept to a 32lbr. cannon would produce different results. That is to say that the ballistics would be horrid and the damage would be negligibly different from a double shotted load. It seems to me that the incremental manufacturing cost would be better spent on simply getting more ammunition. There is an outfit named Advanced Ballistic Concepts that made a round with a three part tethered projectile. https://www.facebook.com/MI4Bullet/ You fired the thing out of a 12ga barrel that had a rifled extension. The centrifugal force caused the thing to expand. That overcame the objection to the vanilla bolo round projectile. It would also have worked in a rifled cannon, to your point. You'd think that the Royal Navy would have had a "committee" or something back in the 18th century to evaluate these things. My Spidey sense screams "cul de sac". BTW ... the picture on the right shows the impact of two rounds. You can see that the leftmost impact shows both bolo balls with the same entry hole. |
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: NC, U.S.A.
Posts: 2,085
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That is an incredible piece of shot! I have a chain-shot in my collection, but I'd love to one day find a great bar or split shot like this one! The occasional one that pops up for auction are always very small and seem like they'd do minimal damage to rigging, but who knows. I prefer the larger (and rarer) examples larger than 10". As far as shot being used against personnel, it did happen on occasion, used to 'clear a deck'. On the battlefield, the effects of attached shot had very mixed results and would have been a rarity-
Here's one that did some damage! https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/ob...c-object-36931 And here's an example that never made it past the experimental phase- https://www.accgov.com/86/Double-Barreled-Cannon Last edited by M ELEY; 10th July 2024 at 01:25 AM. Reason: additional comment |
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