Re: Thoughts on Veldtgrunt-- SG2 Zulu Wars

In a message dated 11/17/00 3:50:19 PM Central Standard Time, 
peter_mancini@msn.com writes:

> I reverse myself then - these guns were killers.  How many rounds a
minute 
> could one get off?  

Five or six aimed shots per minute, but the barrel heated rapidly and
there 
was NO FREAKING recoil absorption whatever so after some time the
soldier 
might become unable to properly seat the weapon in his shoulder and so 
increase the effects of the hammering at his shoulder socket. In Africa,
many 
soldiers wrapped a bit of green cowhide around the barrel, carefully
cutting 
a slit for the rear sight to peep through. Once wet and dried this made
it 
much easier to actually sustain fire without blistering the left hand.

For years after the war, white missionaires and medical personnel
reporte4d 
on the ugly scars and wound damage from the .45 Martini-Henry boxer
cartridge 
round which weighed almost one ounce. It was of course a low velocity
round, 
but the mass of the projectile made up for it nicely.