The Rorke's Drift VC Discussion Forum
(View Discussion Rules)

** IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL USERS **

PLEASE NOTE: This forum is now inactive and is provided for reference purposes only. The live forum is available at www.rorkesdriftvc.com/forum

(Back To Topic List)

Date	Original Topic
26th January 2005	case shot By paul neville The cannons at Islandwana: At what range would they have fired case shot? and how effective was it? It must have been daunting to have been in front of that kind of fire.
Date	Replies
27th January 2005	Coll Paul Have you tried typing cannon into the search facility of this site, I'm sure artillery ammunition was covered in a previous topic. Coll
1st February 2005	Zane Palmer 7 pdr RML case shot weight 6lb 12 oz charge 1lb 8 oz RLG2 Target - one row 9 feet by 9 feet Range 200 32 through 3 lodged @1/2 degree 200 16 through 5 lodged @ 1degree up 300 1 through 11 lodged 300 1 through 11 lodged @11/2 degree 400yards between 1 and 6 lodged and between 3 and 5 struck 500 yards none through 4 lodged and 2 struck They never tried further than this. This is from a report of the superintendent of experiments at Woolwich 7.1.79 with gun number 433. They do not say how thick the target was or what it was made from. Beyond this they used the shrapnel shell to a range of 3000 yards and this was effective. 2000yards average 22.3 through, lodged 3.6 and struck 6 on the same sized targets. Tgis was the most effective range for shrapnel for this gun. Hope that answers your questions.
2nd February 2005	Keith Smith Gentlemen I never cease to astonished at the knowledge which is demonstrated on this site.