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Swivel guns

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crockett

Cannon
Joined
May 1, 2004
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I just finished watching a show about pirates and that they used swivel guns quite a bit. Swivel guns were mounted on some of the boats mountain men pulled up the Missouri River. In any event some folks shoot miniture cannons and the thought occurred to me that instead of a miniture cannon a swivel gun would be more pc. Did they shoot a single ball? Canistrer? I know nothing about them. Any swivel gun shooters around?
 
You might enjoy looking thru Gilkerson's "Boarders Away II" for an overview of naval swivels. He writes that three sizes were common - 1/2, 3/4 & 1 pounder, with most being the smaller two (bore size 1.15" to 1.5" for "1/2 pounder" and 1.6" to 1.9" for the 3/4). solid shot was used for longer ranges & grape closer in.
If we get down to what is PC, both swivels and little cannon are both period items. The swivels as real weapons for ships and places such as blockhouses and the (firing) little cannons as toys for sons of the wealthy or as desk ornaments & even as "noon guns" firing blanks from a sundial on estates.
 
Pretty much as Coot says, ball at distance, grape/canister up close. English Navy used them on the larger ship's boats for landings as well as in the fighting tops to sweep the enemy's quarter-deck and wheel crews. Basically, they're just small bore cannons with all the possibilities they provide.
 
Swivel were used in all types of land fortifications -- Washington had one at Fort Necessity. Here's my 1"...



Single ball and pistol-ball (.36) as buckshot...
 
When the Lewis and Clark Expedition met the Sioux for the first time , I think Lewis ordered the one pounder swivel gun loaded with 16 musket balls.
 
Alden said:
Swivel were used in all types of land fortifications -- Washington had one at Fort Necessity. Here's my 1"...



Single ball and pistol-ball (.36) as buckshot...
Nice swiveler. Thats kinda what I am lookin for. I want to take it to Civ. War reenactments and use it as a camp guard gun.
 
Or camp 'Russian Roulette" gun! Just spin it around and round and light her off which ever way it points! That'll keep'em on their toes!! :doh: :rotf:
 
I've got a slightly bent lantaka, does that count as a swivel gun or is it cheating? :idunno: :rotf:

lantaka.jpg
 
"Counts" Brave Sir. Especially useful for shooting around things, that's all...
 
I was perusing Dixie this morning(looking at a wish list). I found listed a Frontier Swivel Gun, cost 635 bucks. 24" long, 1 3/4" bore and weight is 91 pounds. a good stout small cannon, I am sure we all wish we could own. I wouldn't mind one myself.
 
$650 is cheap compared to an above-average flintlock, right? It's above swivel-gun size that things get REALLY expensive, and that's in the carriage, even for a good deck gun. Forget about mobile artillery!

In any case, re: the last two, you guys aren't going to get many places without steel-lined tubes these days, sorry.
 
Dave, I remember coveting that swivel gun that you made the first time that you posted it! Now you got me going again.
 
Did some experimenting a number of years ago with one of the 1 3/8" bore swivels from the Philadelphia II (Lake Champlain Maritime Museum). We took one ashore and set it up out in a field. The ship's carpenter had reproduced the a small section of the hull of the P2 with oak 4x4 frames and 1 1/2" oak planking front and back.

We fired 1 3/16" ball bearings with various powder charges. With enough powder the ball would punch through 3" of oak and keep going.

We then hung fascines (bundles of 1" saplings, used on the original boat) in front of the planking and tried again. The ball went through the fascines, parting the saplings, but only left a dent in the oak.

Then we tried a load of 50 cal. lead round balls. They just spattered off the oak and fell to the ground with wood grain marks on the flattened side.

So, for musket fire or case shot I'd advise you to hunker down. Iron shot, you might as well stay standing.
 
Or, find 1" saplings and sharpen your fascine knife as well as boarding axe just in case... No?

 
So there are folks that shoot these guns. How do you aim them? What type accuracy do they have? What is their range? On the balls- are they in a canistrer of some sort? What about recoil- a cannon has wheels to roll back.
 
Not having shot one myself, I get the impression that a swivel gun probably doesn't have much more kick than a musket(but I could be wrong). And if it's used on a ships' rail it would be pinned into it. Well it all comes down to this
I WANT ONE!!!! :thumbsup:
 
Lets think about the recoil of a Brown Bess musket firing a ball weighing approximately 1 & 1/3 ounces vs a swivel firing a ball of
8 to 16 ounces. There is a reason that they were mounted on iron yokes attached to the wall of a fort or side of a ship.... no hero hip shots here :grin: And yes, I want one too. :thumbsup:
 
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