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cast iron bullets?
- Thread starter MJuingong
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Billnpatti
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Yeah....I think they were blowing smoke up the reader's skirts. But, I do remember reading in a more believable source that there were cases of dead bodies being flung over the walls of fortifications by catapults. Deaths from diseases were pretty common in ye olden days. Sometimes the diseased dead bodies were gathered up and flung over the walls of the enemy by catapults and similar devices with the intention of causing debilitating disease among the enemy. War is hell.
That was among mans first attempts at using biological warfare. :grin:
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When was the last battle using a catapult?....
They still get used on rare occasion in guerilla warfare to this day. Read something not to long ago about some dudes in the middle east who used one.colorado clyde said:
Many years ago when I was in Virginia, in the Marine Corps, I occasionally would go out with EOD to dispose of ammunition. One time we went out they brought along an old civil war cannon round that had been found in a farmers field which happens from time to time. Shaped like a short fat bullet about 10" thick or so and probably 15" high standing on end. When they blew it up the insides had really old powder inside and a bunch of cast iron balls about 1" in diameter. They gave me one as a souvenir and I still have it.
Billnpatti
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colorado clyde said:
I'm not really sure. I was in the service a long time ago but we didn't have catapults even back then. I went into the Marines in 1957 and we didn't train on them at that time. My main battle weapon was an M-1 Garand. I guess I must have missed the day of the catapult. So, I'm going to say that the last battle using a catapult was sometime before 1957.
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Long ago in the desert we had a green spring, which led to an explosion of pack rats. Got into everything all the time.
A creative bud built a rat-a-pult using a truck leaf spring, a 2x4, a hinge and a trigger. I'll leave the details to your imagination, but I can testify that it would send pack rats so high in the air you couldn't see them any more. When you were a kid did you ever shoot an arrow into the air, lose sight of it and run for cover? Same deal with descending rats! :shocked2:
A creative bud built a rat-a-pult using a truck leaf spring, a 2x4, a hinge and a trigger. I'll leave the details to your imagination, but I can testify that it would send pack rats so high in the air you couldn't see them any more. When you were a kid did you ever shoot an arrow into the air, lose sight of it and run for cover? Same deal with descending rats! :shocked2:
Billnpatti
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BrownBear said:
OOoh!!! Tremendous idea! :thumbsup: I can see the makings of a great shotgun game here. :hmm: Alaskan Trap Shooting. :grin: Set out several of those traps and wait for the action. Maybe use a bit weaker spring so you could keep track of the falling rats and fill them with #6 shot. Or for those who can actually do it, shoot the falling rats with a muzzleloading rifle. Now that would be a challenging sport.
colorado clyde said:
Ain't been fought yet...
I suspect that with advancements in electronic warfare and improvements in armor tech we will eventually end up with dudes in armor and high tech swords with molecule thick edges using modern versions of siege warfare devices to kill each other.
Nothing new under the sun as it is said...
Back to Iron Bullets....
Wouldn't be to hard to hammer out a handful of projectiles if you have the iron. For a 1400's black smith with a big arm and a few apprentices it would be a relatively easy task. Not like he would even be challenging his skills. Just need to get them roughly the same size, round and small enough to fit down a bore. No need to temper them or even get them all the exact same size. Bet a team of 1400's smiths could turn out a nice pile of bullets in an afternoon of work.
Nothing new under the sun as it is said...
Back to Iron Bullets....
Wouldn't be to hard to hammer out a handful of projectiles if you have the iron. For a 1400's black smith with a big arm and a few apprentices it would be a relatively easy task. Not like he would even be challenging his skills. Just need to get them roughly the same size, round and small enough to fit down a bore. No need to temper them or even get them all the exact same size. Bet a team of 1400's smiths could turn out a nice pile of bullets in an afternoon of work.
Think Ball Bearing
Bill from NJ
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Billnpatti said:
You made my day Marine with that comment.
Semper Fidelis Mac.
Catapults are very much still in use. ;-)
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:thumbsup: :grin:
"They did. Edges of the holes in the skull and the entire bone plug were found to be impregnated with fragments of iron"
Extrememly doubtfull. Any iron fragments would have become rust and have been leached away long ago. Blood has hemoglobin which also contains iron. How much iron was in the soil? The background iron levels would be a problem. I would guess Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used. Determining the source of the iron detected is not possible. 30-years ago people doing forensics were not as carefull as we are today.
Extrememly doubtfull. Any iron fragments would have become rust and have been leached away long ago. Blood has hemoglobin which also contains iron. How much iron was in the soil? The background iron levels would be a problem. I would guess Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used. Determining the source of the iron detected is not possible. 30-years ago people doing forensics were not as carefull as we are today.
Well I believe the scientists who did the work. Not the guy who shoots it down without citations.
Well I think looking at the wound is telling. Every stabbing spike from the time I have seen was square or triangular in profile not round. Did they make round ones or were they common, I don't know, but I would think if this was a stab wound it would have had flat angles???
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Col. Batguano said:
Lee's reloading book, which I got many years ago but gave away to a guy new to reloading, talked about him shooting modern rifles into his pool to recover the lead bullets. IIRC he talked about his son shooting a 30-06 from the high-dive board! I bet that made a splash!
I think they also used dead animals in the catapults...probably where the saying "when pigs fly" came from... :rotf:
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