The Night Mail

[petethemole]

17 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

the artillery appeared to be on both sides simultaneously. 

That's almost prototypical.  Professional gunners of that period were highly skilled professionals plying a trade.  If they turned up at a battle they could be persuaded to change sides for more pay.

[Hroth]

Also, running a re-enacment artillery company (of just one gun) is expensive and licencing an artillery piece is a bit more involved than getting a shotgun licence.  Consequently, artillery is pretty thin on the ground and in demand during the summer months when reenactments take place.  Often, the artillery will work for the Royalists in the morning, and the Parliamentarians in the afternoon...

 

[Winslow Boy]

58 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I remember seeing a bunch of them at Howard's Castle one summer afternoon. They certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves. The two Commanding Officers appeared to be of the Large Ham school of acting, there was smoke everywhere and the artillery appeared to be on both sides simultaneously. 

Ooh smoked ham. I hope they cut the gristle off.

[Winslow Boy]

25 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Also, running a re-enacment artillery company (of just one gun) is expensive and licencing an artillery piece is a bit more involved than getting a shotgun licence.  Consequently, artillery is pretty thin on the ground and in demand during the summer months when reenactments take place.  Often, the artillery will work for the Royalists in the morning, and the Parliamentarians in the afternoon...

 

So no first past the post then, just proportional representation.

[Hroth]

42 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

So no first past the post then, just proportional representation.

 

Eventually post-mortem.

 

[SM42]

The beauty of Polish birthday parties is that there is always enough cake to feed four times more people than attend. 

 

Don't want to run  out you see.

 

Thus there are lots of left overs that get shared out. 

 

Guess what will be served soon with coffee. 

 

Andy

Livin' the dream

[Happy Hippo]

The old rifle was collected from its service at Eccleshall this morning, and it feels like a new one:  The bag containing the old bits feels as if the only original bits left are the stock and the barrel.

 

The new rifle was given a good clean, the barrel was really full of oily gunk, and once I'd got it cleared out, I then zeroed it  in the back garden.

 

It was a bit blustery when I did this, so it will need a further session when there is less wind.

 

However, it does seem very accurate at 30 M with the final 10 pellets creating a large ragged hole in the target where the impact points were overlapping.

 

It's obviously the prop forward of rifles, because it is short, stocky and is a lot heavier than it looks.

 

I'll post some photos from my phone later on.

Edited April 29 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

As threatened!

 

The latest artillery piece of my collection.

 

In a break from my usual calibre, this one is in .177 as opposed to . 22.

 

it won't win any beauty contests, but I prefer function over form.

 

Next on the list is a infra red night sight.

 

(Thermal imaging is just out on my price range🤣)

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

37 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

It's obviously the prop forward of rifles, because it is short, stocky and is a lot heavier than it looks.

 

Not like the Secretary of State for Wales of rifles then - long, sleek and lightweight?

 

Dave

Edited April 29 by Dave Hunt

[polybear]

34 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

As threatened!

 

The latest artillery piece of my collection.

 

In a break from my usual calibre, this one is in .177 as opposed to . 22.

 

it won't win any beauty contests, but I prefer function over form.

 

Next on the list is a infra red night sight.

 

(Thermal imaging is just out on my price range🤣)

 

 

 

Would a Bear need a Licence for one of those?  Just askin' for a friend......

[Winslow Boy]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

 

Would a Bear need a Licence for one of those?  Just askin' for a friend......

I think we're going to need a bigger boat.

[SM42]

A bear packing heat. 

 

Run 

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

Wouldn't that just be a - hot bear?

[Dave Hunt]

I thought HH looked better with his old gun.

 

Dave

[polybear]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

I thought HH looked better with his old gun.

 

Dave

 

An unhinged Hippo with a Blunderbus.

Run.

[Happy Hippo]

33 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Would a Bear need a Licence for one of those?  Just askin' for a friend......

No🤪

[J. S. Bach]

Not over here, either. Other US areas may differ, though.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, SM42 said:

The beauty of Polish birthday parties is that there is always enough cake to feed four times more people than attend. 

 

Don't want to run  out you see.

 

Thus there are lots of left overs that get shared out. 

 

Guess what will be served soon with coffee. 

 

Andy

Livin' the dream

Oddly, I just finished some pierogies* for dinner; commercially made/frozen but still good.

 

*I had to look at the package to make sure that I spelled it correctly; as autocorrect wanted to substitute " groupies" for pierogies!

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 ...snip... In a break from my usual calibre, this one is in .177 as opposed to . 22. ...snip...

.177 would be my choice as BBs are that calibre (I think) and they also make great weights for hopper cars! Almost infinite total weight adjustments.

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

As threatened!

 

The latest artillery piece of my collection.

 

In a break from my usual calibre, this one is in .177 as opposed to . 22.

 

Shouldn't they really be referred to as 4.5 and 5.6?

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

Shouldn't they really be referred to as 4.5 and 5.6?

Almost, due to the very slight differences between imperial and metric barrels, they get listed as 4.5mm and 5.5 mm.

 

So my BSA rifles, apart from the  new Defiant are .22 calibre, but my German made Weirauch HW 100 is listed as 5.5 mm. 

 

As an aside .223' and 5.56 mm are 'interchangeable' insofar as they will fit the opposing barrel, but the big difference is that the Remington.233 round is not as powerful as a Nato 5.56 mm round and there is a big risk of blowing up the .233 if you fired 5.56 mm out of it, and very degraded performance if fired vice versa.

 

Regarding the HW100, although it is quite happy firing .22 diablo* pellets, the skirt of the pellet is quite happy to reform to the very minute difference in diameter involved, when firing Prometheus plastic and alloy pellets, the difference is enough for the rifling of the barrel to strip shavings of the plastic seal away from the pellet, which floats to earth as the pellet disappears off to the target.  Compared to the standard type of pellet, I found the Prometheus type pellet fired high and left, when compared with standard lead.  This meant you really needed to re zero the rifle, or create a seperate ballistic range card so you could aim off at known distances.

 

*Diablo is the pellet shape and not a brand name

 

 

 

Edited April 30 by Happy Hippo

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[pH]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Would a Bear need a Licence for one of those?  Just askin' for a friend......

Perhaps, but the granting of a licence should be a formality. After all, the US constitution guarantees the right to arm bears.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, pH said:

Perhaps, but the granting of a licence should be a formality. After all, the US constitution guarantees the right to arm bears.

 

I always thought it was the right to have bare arms.

[rockershovel]

I must confess, I hadn't given a thought to the practicalities of owning and operating an artillery piece of any era. I have had experience of the procedures involved in storing and using explosives for construction (tunnelling) work and that's enough for me. 

 

I did once own a quite snappy little 177 air rifle which I used for occasional rough shooting along the route in my land rig drilling days. Wouldn't do that now.