ID guns on these MCC trucks

[Lang]

MikeC,

I was not trying to enter a dispute with you Mike just read your first info regarding 18 pounders only going to 16 deg then mentioning they actually reduced range at higher angles because of fixed ammunition. I presumed you were suggesting much over the 16deg was the limit - I apologise for reading you wrong.

We now have established that 45deg is maximum range for any projectile whether fixed cartridge, variable cartridge or hand thrown and in fixed conditions velocity out of the barrel is all that counts for each individual shot. I suppose that is why when doing a concentrated shoot 4 identical guns, sitting within yards of each other with identical sight settings and shells flying through the same winds etc all have to have individual corrections to get everybody hitting the same spot.

You can hear the difference when you get the order "FIRE" and everyone goes within a micro-second of each other in one big explosion but half a minute later you hear in the distance Bang, Bang Bang Bang as the faster muzzle velocity shells sprint ahead of the rest.

As the members say above, once the gun variables are dealt with (temperature, wear, charge etc) and a muzzle velocity is established you start dealing with winds etc. Amazingly accurate over such huge distances but the calculations only get you in the ball park and we still are really firing Napoleonic cannon balls and correcting from what the FO sees by eye. We will never get first shot accuracy every time until we have field guns doing a Tomahawk Missile using GPS coordinates inside a "flying" shell itself.