Can you imagine being around that thing w/o hearing protection?

I saw the History channel special and the shell actually reached the upper limits of the stratosphere I believe.

Imagine the fps and the me?

It's microgrooved. Did they use a thingy to seat the projectile off the lands

Push feed

It was the Paris Gun of WWI that reached the outer atmosphere. A bitch to reload for, too:

"The Paris Gun shells were propelled at such a high velocity that each successive shot wore away a considerable amount of steel from the rifled bore. Each shell was sequentially numbered according to its increasing diameter, and had to be fired in numeric order, lest the projectile lodge in the bore, and the gun explode. Also, when the shell was rammed into the gun, the chamber was precisely measured to determine the difference in its length: a few inches off would cause a great variance in the velocity, and with it, the range. Then, with the variance determined, the additional quantity of propellant was calculated, and its measure taken from a special car and added to the regular charge. After 65 rounds had been fired, each of progressively larger caliber to allow for wear, the barrel was sent back to Krupp and rebored to a caliber of 238 mm (9.4 in) with a new set of shells."

The Paris Gun fired its 8" shell at 5,250 fps while the Gustav shot between 2500 and 2700 depending on whether it was firing HE or AP. The Gustav and Dora were more like giant spud guns

quote:

It was the Paris Gun of WWI that reached the outer atmosphere.

It was also called Long Max because of it's 90 foot barrel. It was capable of shelling Paris from 75 miles away!

It has been mislabeled as Big Bertha which was a name for a class of Howitzer of large size from WWI....Big Bertha was also the name for a giant mortar during WWI

Well, I guess that now that we have defined "big bores" as 8" then we should move the little stuff like the 404 to the medium or even small bore forum!
Peter.

i don't know, looks like it headspaces off the belt instead of the shoulder to me...

quote:

now that we have defined "big bores" as 8"

Actually the Gustof guns were 31.5" bores! (800 MM)

IIRC the Turks had a black powder gun larger than that.

There's a mortar round in the static display at Aberdeen that they claim is the largest such round ever developed. I wish I could remember more about it but IIRC it was 36" in diameter or thereabouts. The mortar was never put in the field because it was too cumbersome to tranport and assemble.

quote:

It was the Paris Gun of WWI that reached the outer atmosphere.

Here's a photo of that gun.....what a bedding problem!

A 1200-1300 era Islamic cannon....

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
There's a mortar round in the static display at Aberdeen that they claim is the largest such round ever developed. I wish I could remember more about it but IIRC it was 36" in diameter or thereabouts. The mortar was never put in the field because it was too cumbersome to tranport and assemble.

As I recall, it was named "Little David", and was designed as to test aircraft bombs. More control than dropping them from planes, on test targets.

Keith

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
Push feed

quote:

Big Bertha which was a name for a class of Howitzer of large size from WWI....Big Bertha was also the name for a giant mortar during WWI

You are pretty close Vapo.

"Big Bertha" was a 42 cm gun that the Germans refered to as a mortar, but we would call a howitzer. It was breech loaded and fired like a mortar would be at a high angle. The case was about the same lenght as the bore size (give or take a bit) with a proj that looked to long.

There was also a 21 cm verson. Called "Slim Errma" (about 9" tall). I had a case for this one, back when I had my arty collection of 180 diff types.

Keith
Keith

..I am sure SafariKid is calling some poor gunsmith these days for a new caliber set-up

If I remember correctly, "Die dicke Bertha" (Fat Bertha) was named after Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the daughter and heiress of the Krupp munitions manufacturer, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, whose company built the artillery pieces.

quote:

Originally posted by xausa:
If I remember correctly, "Die dicke Bertha" (Fat Bertha) was named after Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the daughter and heiress of the Krupp munitions manufacturer, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, whose company built the artillery pieces.

quote:

Originally posted by jens poulsen:
..I am sure SafariKid is calling some poor gunsmith these days for a new caliber set-up

at 6.25#

Use enuff gun !! Elmer Keith would have been proud
And the Square heads still lost the war

The Germans on Anzio had a big gun mounted on railcars. It was in the mountains and recoil took it out of sight. We named it Anzio Annie. I have a still photo of her till this day.

RLittledavid was 900+mm shot a 3600lb shell it was loaded from the muzzle the shell was so heavy it would push itself down,the barrel . It was more like a short barrel cannon than a mortar. You coukd tow in on a semi,traiker but needed a dozer to,build its embankment

An ode to all fallen German soldiers:-

A soldier is just a pawn on a chess board, they follow orders and if they disobeyed them they would be shot,

just like the russians were in WW2 if they retreated from a battle..

War does not prove who is right, only who is left.

It is no treason to honor the courage of a fallen warrior, even if they were the enemy.

It's governments, politicians and dictatorila leaders in most cases, not the people that cause the wars.

The German nation is a great nation, let us forget the fact that they were tarnished by circumstances.

"Big Bertha" The Paris Gun:

http://youtu.be/UyAM030ryHM

http://youtu.be/r-QX_SZwDeE

German Military War Songs-Schatz, ach Schatz:

http://youtu.be/xDihxsESeJo

Warrior

I would like to know how the hell they turned and rifled it? In stages? A ninety plus foot bed on a lathe would really be something, How many steady rests would it need and maybe they had to chamber it "through the headstock"

It's too heavy to take hunting.

I wonder if that very nice Dr. Goebbels helped produce this piece of Nazi propaganda. May he roast in Hell. I wonder who the Krauts were shelling here. Russians? Poles? Belgians?

Mauser schmauser. I guess this is a Springfield:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...Pau8&feature=related

Wow, I think I'd have to go with the carbine version of that one!

Chilling stuff. I was two months old the day they fired that gun.

My grandfather was blown up by a German railway gun. It was a chilling story to hear him tell it. The look on his face and the shadow in his voice was enough to make me uneasy. He said the shell was so slow you could see it coming in, it rotated, slowly, like a football.

He managed to dive in a sewer as the shell impacted mere feet away from him, detonating inside of a building. The fact that it detonated inside the building saved his life. Instead of getting hit with shrapnel the building came down on top of him. Being in the sewer also saved his life, but the "contents" of the sewer made his injuries even worse.

While those big guns are incredibly interesting... every time I look at one I have this uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Was that the one? Was that picture taken when they fired the shell that hit my grandfather?