Grayling video clip

[Artilleryman]

You might find this video clip of the 1st SC firing their 12 pdr Iron Napoleon with service charges at Grayling this year interesting.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xuWUGPaJ_4E

[dominick]

Awesome video!  Thanks.

[EL Caz 66]

Nice!!!

[lance]

thanks for sharing, that one should get the award for rolling back distance

[Terry C.]

I likes me some banded Napoleons...

[Artilleryman]

Lance, If you watch closely on the side view of it recoiling you should be able to see that for the first two feet the wheels do not turn.

[lance]

i'm so used to watching blanks on the battlefields, the guns don't move an inch. i completely missed the whells not turning.

[Artilleryman]

Other things to look for is the flexing of the handspike, the amount of dust rising from the ground, and if you look closely you will see the cloth towel seen in the second part move from the concussion.  You don't notice these things when you are firing the gun, and I usually don't see anything the gun is doing as my attention is down range to see the impact of the shot.

[Cat Whisperer]

I make the comparison in my mind with the 105 and 155mm howitzers.  Split trails and DUG IN.  Much more brutal on the framework.  Same effect though on kicking up dust (from the entire surface of the ground) and you will see towels and tarps fly up a foot.  All in the split second the eye misses but the camera sometimes catches.

[Double D]

Also watch the shot from the rear.  The axle housing flexes.

[Artilleryman]

DD, You have sharp eyes.  I had to play it over several times a frame at a time to see it.   There are several things all going on at the same time which makes it difficult to separate one from another.  It is hard to imagine that a relatively short piece of three by three heavy wall steel tubing flexing.  This might help explain the two broken axles that McIntosh's Battery (the battery we take our name from) suffered during the great unpleasantness.  One was broken crossing a ditch at Sharpsburg and the other was broken on firing at Gettysburg.

[Double D]

Yep its amazing what you see in instant replay!!

I have seen tube bounce before, but never spotted the frame bounce.  Probably was there all along and is just logical.

[Artilleryman]

According to the Paulsons the breech of the gun comes up as a result of the trail flexing.  Again it is hard to imagine a white oak trail having enough flex in it to cause the breech to rise.