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Thread: Question about 3" Ordnance Rifles

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    Remise is offline
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    Question about 3" Ordnance Rifles

    First, though, I am not an N-SSA member, but an infantryman in a reenacting unit. So my knowledge of artillery is slight. Here is a question from a friend who is an historical buff, that it was suggested to me someone here might be able to answer. He once attended a test-firing of Civil War artillery pieces at Aberdeen, and saw what he notes below:

    "My recollection is that the rifling gave the shot pattern a "left twist" when compared to the uniform pattern from a smoothbore gun.

    I can't find my data on the shot pattern. Do you know anybody who does live fire exercises with canister from a 3" ordnance rifle? I've got a friend with a 3" rifle; but he doesn't do canister due to the wear on the rifling.

    I'm curious because the Union cavalry's flying batteries at Gettysburg were all armed with 3" rifles."

    Thanks very much for any enlightenment that might be available on this subject.

    B.C. Milligan

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    Jim Wimbish, 10395's Avatar
    Jim Wimbish, 10395 is offline
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    Interesting question. I checked on the web and someone had actually done tests with a rifled and unrifled shotgun. In the rifled gun the shot opened up considerably more and created a donut pattern around the point of aim. If you are going to use shot definitely use an unrifled barrel. The dispersal pattern was so large that you would not even want to use a rifled shotgun with shot for home defense.
    Jim Wimbish

    Member of NSSA since 2000



  3. #3
    noonanda is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by Remise View Post
    First, though, I am not an N-SSA member, but an infantryman in a reenacting unit. So my knowledge of artillery is slight. Here is a question from a friend who is an historical buff, that it was suggested to me someone here might be able to answer. He once attended a test-firing of Civil War artillery pieces at Aberdeen, and saw what he notes below:

    "My recollection is that the rifling gave the shot pattern a "left twist" when compared to the uniform pattern from a smoothbore gun.

    I can't find my data on the shot pattern. Do you know anybody who does live fire exercises with canister from a 3" ordnance rifle? I've got a friend with a 3" rifle; but he doesn't do canister due to the wear on the rifling.

    I'm curious because the Union cavalry's flying batteries at Gettysburg were all armed with 3" rifles."

    Thanks very much for any enlightenment that might be available on this subject.

    B.C. Milligan
    That was the problem with the 3" Ordnance rifles, The Canister round was much less effective due to the smaller size (2.9 -3.0 "bore vs a 4.62 bore of a 12Lb Napoleon) and yes the rifling spin did affect the pattern of the "shot". Even the Caseshot and Common Shell were much less effective compared to a Napoleon. But the 3" was an accurate gun for Counterbattery fire as its range compared to a smoothbore could not be beat.
    Daryl Noonan
    NSSA # 14002
    12th Regiment US Regular Infantry

    "You see in this world there are two types of people my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig!!"

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    Brent Nosworthy, in his book "Bloody Crucible of Courage", noted that the Napoleon was favored by the troops for its versatility. Solid shot, shell, shrapnel, or canister...the Napoleon shot everything. The 3 inch rifle was great for solid shot or shells, but nearly useless with everything else. Ideally, the Napoleons would be about 2/3rds of the artillery.
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