| CooperSteve | 05 May 2005 8:56 a.m. PST |
I'm told my FREIKORPS 1860s Austrian artillery pack has no ram rods/swabs because rifled cannon didn't use them. In my Czech childrens history book an artillery man at Sadowa is busy swabbing his gun. Who is right? |
| jizbrand | 05 May 2005 8:58 a.m. PST |
Rifled cannon did use them; breech-loading cannon probably didn't. |
| CooperSteve | 05 May 2005 9:31 a.m. PST |
Got a reference for that?Just makes it easier to convince LKM to amend the packs... |
79thPA  | 05 May 2005 9:39 a.m. PST |
Assuming it is a muzzle loading cannon, there is no safe way way to load it without a ram rod and a swab. What crew poses do you get? Since most gamers use 2-4 castings to represent an 8-12 man crew, I don't know if no "ram rod man" is a big deal if you already have a nice crew selection because you are not using a casting to represent each crew position. |
| CooperSteve | 05 May 2005 10:43 a.m. PST |
There is a guy with arm outstretched with open hand and nothing to put in it |
| vtsaogames | 05 May 2005 10:53 a.m. PST |
"Got a reference for that?" ACW muzzle-loading rifled guns have rammers used by the crews - plenty photos of crews posing. If the Austrian guns are muzzle-loaders - and breech-loaders are real obvious in 1860's - then a rammer would be used. But 79thPA is right - you probably don't have a guy with a thumbstall either, so your crew will look OK. Maybe the open-handed guy is holding a wheel? Or gesturing? |
| HistoryBuff | 05 May 2005 12:29 p.m. PST |
You can always make a rammer for the open-hand guy out of a piece of wire with a blob of glue on the end. The Prussians were just starting to use breech-loaded artillery at that point; I don't think the Austrians had breech-loaders in any significant numbers. |
| Sky Captain | 05 May 2005 12:57 p.m. PST |
You definately got to convert some ram-rods unless it is a breech loader. Even then some Breech loaders used rammers for cleaning the weapon in between 'gigs'. |
| Gefreiter | 05 May 2005 11:06 p.m. PST |
Hi! All of the Austrian field artillery used in the 1864 and 1866 campaigns consisted of rifled muzzle-loaders. A swab and rammer were used. If you want further information, feel free to e-mail me direct. Mike |
| GreyONE | 06 May 2005 2:43 a.m. PST |
Rifled gun used rods/swabs. The only guns that MIGHT not use them were breachloaders... but, during the 1860s, many breachloaders were used like muzzleloaders because it was found that you could load them quicker as a muzzleloader. The Wittworth 12pdr breachloader was often loaded as a muzzleloader by both North and South. The breachloading device was slow to operate. |
| CooperSteve | 06 May 2005 10:48 a.m. PST |
Out of the 8 odd crew the rammer/swabber would tend to stand close to the gun. So they are pretty essential! |
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