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Naval gun rifling cutter photo's

Modern artillery uses driving bands made of brass even as small as 20mm.2AB7F65C-3C3A-4D4D-B7FD-81D60C72BF88.jpeg
Look at the crimp on the two cartridges and the crimp groove on the projectile on the left. Also. The shorter cartridge is brass cased while the longer is steel cased. Both are 20mm practice rounds which the light blue color designates NATO inert, non explosive. These are U.S. cartridges.
 
sandwarrior said:
It's incredible to think of the precision of the machining of some of our largest machines.
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Yes it is. We think of the time between the end of the 19th century and the first of the 20th century as ancient times. But think of the extremely precise work that was performed back then. The Battleship Texas was built in 1914. I have taken several tours of it, including the Hard Hat Tour, and it is amazing the quality of the craftsmanship exhibited over the entire ship.

In one of the videos in the OP’s links, look at that huge engine lathe running off of a belt line. It looks like a genuine antique. But then look at what it produced.
 
Historical anecdote:

In the mid-late 80's I had the privilege of calling in the big 16 inch guns from the Iowa. The impact area was the eastern tip of Viequez Island. When you request three guns / two salvos, you wonder how anything, dug in or not could withstand such a pounding. Each projectile weighed 2000 pounds. They launched at modern rifle bullet speed, with a relatively flat trajectory (unless high angle was requested). To say it was awesome is an understatement. It cannot be properly described unless you experience it close up.
 
riflewoman said:
Steel. But the rifling never engraves the steel. There are “rotating bands” usually of gilding metal swaged on to the base of the projectile. These don’t rotate, but they cause the projectile to rotate while in the bore. Here is a photo of the ready rack in a battleship turret. The brown band at the base is the rotating band,
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This is to cool, so the bands actually held the weight of the entire projectile? How do they ever maintain enough concentricity to be accurate?
 
YEW PLUCKER said:
Historical anecdote:

In the mid-late 80's I had the privilege of calling in the big 16 inch guns from the Iowa. The impact area was the eastern tip of Viequez Island. When you request three guns / two salvos, you wonder how anything, dug in or not could withstand such a pounding. Each projectile weighed 2000 pounds. They launched at modern rifle bullet speed, with a relatively flat trajectory (unless high angle was requested). To say it was awesome is an understatement. It cannot be properly described unless you experience it close up.
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When I was in Vieques Island, we called in A-6's and A-7's and indirect fire from a destroyer. We also had 105's that were brought down by the 82nd. Never the Iowa, or New Jersey though.

A 'full load' from an A-6 that just took off from Rosey Roads was AMAZING to say the least. The A-7's were no slouches either. They would either do a gun run or drop a bomb. We had a whole lot of live ordnance dropped on that island.
 
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From 1951 to 1958 my father worked at the Indiana ordinance works, run by duPont, which manufacture gun power for the US military. One of the powders produced was for the 16" naval gun, Mark 7. They would test fire at the Jefferson proving grounds, also in Indiana, to make sure it met gov. specifications before shipping it out. My dad took me out to see some live fire exercises and one test was the 16" naval gun. I doubt it was a full charge because the range was up to 22 miles but it shook the ground and the concussion could be felt at 1/2 mile distance where we were located. Impressive to say the least!
Regards,

Joe McNeill
SW Arkansas
 
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JoeMcNeill said:
From 1951 to 1958 my father worked at the Indiana ordinance works, run be duPont, which manufacture gun power for the US military. One of the powders produced was for the 16" naval gun, Mark 7. They would test fire at the Jefferson proving grounds, also in Indiana, to make sure it met gov. specifications before shipping it out. My dad took me out to see some live fire exercises and one test was the 16" naval gun. I doubt it was a full charge because the range was up to 22 miles but it shook the ground and the concussion could be felt at 1/2 mile distance where we were located. Impressive to say the least!
Regards,

Joe McNeill
SW Arkansas
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I joined the U.S.Army back in October 1979. During basic training, the Iranian towel heads captured the U.S. Embassy in Taran and took hostage of the American’s in it. Cater was POTUS at the time and someone in the U.S.N. ordered the USS New Jersey to be recommissioned. After my basic, I was sent to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland for my AIT. The Navy had a 16” gun there that was used to test fire the gun’s gunpowder which I understood was vintaged from the Korean war, opps, police action. That gun shook the entire base when fired. I never saw the gun, but the gun was about 3/4 of a mile from the three story barracks I was housed in, which one side faced towards the 16” gun. That gun when fired was breaking windows in are barracks. Are Company First Sergeant (Top) tried to blame us recruits for the half dozen broken windows after a pay day weekend which was also the first test firing of the 16” test gun. That following Monday morning first formation, as Top was chewing us all out for the broken windows which he thought was the result of a bunch of drunk GI’s, and as Top was saying “From this point on, not one more of my barracks windows will be broken....”, and as if on cue, the first 16” test shot of the day broke another window. Top heard and saw the window break and said, “OK. I give that one to that cannon.” The whole of about one hundred and fifty recruits and a few sergeants burst out in laughter.
 
muleman69 said:
This is to cool, so the bands actually held the weight of the entire projectile? How do they ever maintain enough concentricity to be accurate?
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Sort of like cast bullets. There is a feature next to the ogive Calle the “bourellet” and is precisely machined to be just below bore diameter. This feature rides on the lands and keeps the projectile in line. It may get partly engraved but this feature is relatively small. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourrelet
 
JoeMcNeill said:
Boyd Allen was kind enough to post some pictures for me on the forum of the power "grains" that were produced for the naval guns. A 16" grain and a 14" grain of powder! A 6 PPC cartridge for comparison!
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If you light one those stogies of gunpowder on fire. It would probably take three or four minutes to burn.
 
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