grains to grammes

[Wedg1e]

With all the firearm regulations how is it that reloading supplies are available? How can they be accounted for?

Easy, just blame it on terrorism and use that as an excuse to ban sales. Er.....

 

[Sarto]

Here in Italy people is allowed to own up to 5 kg of powder, minus a tot for every shell or round
already written on the firearm list.
In Uk I don't know.

 

[sardine]

We still need micro weight measurements to ascertain what McDonalds are serving.

 

[Perry Owens]

With all the firearm regulations how is it that reloading supplies are available? How can they be accounted for?

Smokeless powders can be bought without a licence but you need one for black powder as it is classed as an explosive.Many of the calibres I shoot are not obtainable as commercially loaded rounds, so home loading is essential. I load 45-60, 40-65,.577 Snider and 56-50 because they are not available, and 44-40, .357 magnum and 45-60 because of the considerable cost saving over factory ammunition.

 

[cocker]

With all the firearm regulations how is it that reloading supplies are available? How can they be accounted for?

I think that here in England less than half of 1% of gun crime is down to people with firearms/shotgun certification , we can only get what we are authorised to possess and most of what you get is recorded somewhere .

 

[Seadog]

here in England less than half of 1% of gun crime is down to people with firearms/shotgun certification

This has always been true. The knee-jerk reactions after Dunblane and Hungerford did nothing to reduce illegal gun ownership and were just political moves to appease a whining minority.
So many ranges and dealers put out of business for nothing. Even out Olympic team can't train in this country anymore other than, ironically;Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

 

[Pete.]

We still need micro weight measurements to ascertain what McDonalds are serving.

You don't need them for the customers though...

 

[Wedg1e]

Here in Italy people is allowed to own up to 5 kg of powder, minus a tot for every shell or round
already written on the firearm list.
In Uk I don't know.

Just got back from Malta where we visited the Armstrong 100-ton gun at Fort Rinella; the restoration team are allowed to 'fire' it once a year, when they use 15Kg of black powder to scare the seagulls
Apparently the first time they tried with 20Kg and the guy who pulled the lanyard got a burst eardrum.

 

[brightspark]

Just got back from Malta where we visited the Armstrong 100-ton gun at Fort Rinella; the restoration team are allowed to 'fire' it once a year, when they use 15Kg of black powder to scare the seagulls
Apparently the first time they tried with 20Kg and the guy who pulled the lanyard got a burst eardrum.

cannons make more of a bang firing a blank than having a cannon ball fired from it

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@brightspark
Vark likes making cannons go bang.
But it is true, blanks in cannons etc are loader than with shot, ball.

But still fun.

 

[Wedg1e]

cannons make more of a bang firing a blank than having a cannon ball fired from it

Aye... the bang to shift the 1-ton shell up the barrel took 200Kg of the stuff though

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100-ton_gun

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@Wedg1e
They were a fantastic bit of gear for their day. There was a U tube short on the making of them. The guns were always in stress compression, until they fired. There was shells still in the underground armoury in Malta in the late 1980's (About 1988). As well as the powder mills needed to mill the powder, hydraulic powered. Nice made bits of kit. The driving bands were made with a tin coating. This was to reduce the chance of salt water corrosion building up. The only Armstrong gun to have that done.

 

[Wedg1e]

@Wedg1e
They were a fantastic bit of gear for their day. There was a U tube short on the making of them. The guns were always in stress compression, until they fired. There was shells still in the underground armoury in Malta in the late 1980's (About 1988). As well as the powder mills needed to mill the powder, hydraulic powered. Nice made bits of kit. The driving bands were made with a tin coating. This was to reduce the chance of salt water corrosion building up. The only Armstrong gun to have that done.

The preservation crew are looking to replicate or substitute the entire operating plant for the gun long-term, starting with some of the steam engine bits this coming December. Of course they can't properly replace the boiler etc. as that would need testing, certification etc. so I understand the plan is to have a mock-up of the real thing hiding an electro-hydraulic pump.
Sadly most of the bits needed to traverse and elevate were either stripped off in 1906 when the guns were decommissioned or have been robbed since. The other Malta gun was cut up for scrap (some pics of the scrapping are at Rinella). There are still some shells in the store but whether they're the real thing or replicas I don't know - only half the underground bits are open to the public so it could be there are more in the other side.
I've been to the MOD range where Armstrong test-fired most of their guns (not the 100-tonner though); a lot were brought in by rail and basically fired into a hillside
Last time I was there an automated firing rig was cracking off a sniper rifle at 5 minute intervals; after so many rounds the barrel is re-measured for wear and the firing intervals changed until they can predict what useful life it will have - the 100-tonner was expected to need a re-tube after 120 rounds! Rinella apparently only ever fired 40 times and never in anger.
Engineering the like of which will hopefully not be seen again...