NeoConShooter

After reading the article, I was greatly impressed with it's thoroughness, but disheartened by it's glairing mistakes. As an amateur ballistician I found the simple mistake that heavier shells carry farther, but that is only true if all other things are also equal, and they rarely are. The four main factors that determine range, penetration and damage of any shell are it's Muzzle Velocity, Sectional Density, Shape and Construction. How these things affect a gun are that it will weigh more as the square root of ME. (Muzzle Energy, if all other things are equal!) So for any given weight and thus strength of gun the heavier the shell, the less powder that can be used to push it out of the barrel, thus it will have a disproportionally lower MV. The heavier shell is harder to push up the bore making more pressure for a longer time. Both things that require you to use less propellant and further reduce MV. The lighter the shell, the easier it is to push up the bore and the more propellant you may use to give disproportionally higher MV. Higher MV is more important to get longer range than a heavier shell is! A "Lite" 47.7 Kg 155MM shell will go 30,600M if fired at 897 M/S, but a "Super Heavy" 152 Kg 203MM shell fired at 762M/S will only go 27,437M! The heavier shell has a SD, that's Sectional Density of 3.687 and the 155MM shell has an SD of 1.985, but the heavy shell can not make up for the increased MV. High SD increases penetration in a linear fashion, but not as much as MV which must be squared to show the difference in penetration. thus the perforation power of the two shells, if they were of identical construction, would be 155MM is 897X897X1.985=1,597,149 and the 203MM is 762X762X3.687=2,140,834, or only 34% greater! The one shell is three times heavier than the other but only goes through 34% more armor at close range. At longer range the heavy shell looses less perforating power with range, but the maximum range is still >3,100M less! The trade offs are myriad and even at the 1880's start date were to numerous to easily comprehend. (Look for a program called "Big Gun MT"! Or if you are well heeled, PRODAS!)