- Joined
- Feb 18, 2013
- Location
- Hoover, Alabama
No, it was used more like a bolt or solid projectile and used a great deal more for striking than for blasting. The threads would have had a brass plug secured by a brass pin in the side of the nose and as far as I know, none of these shells had powder in them. One idea behind the blind shell was that the friction of the shell passing through a target would have caused enough friction to ignite the powder, but that sounds rather far fetched to me and from that standpoint these rounds could have been considered a failure and never used, but Admiral Dahlgren was a powerful and well connected officer. Regardless, you still have a great projectile with an even better story behind it. The idea behind the Dahlgren Boat Howitzers was that they were going to be used on landing expeditions or as a light deck gun onboard ship. Photo LoCSo again at the expense of sounding ignorant, I still dont quite understand the concept of the "blind shell", was this a sort of practice shell?
My shell has a threaded opening at the tip, if it was a blind shell, there still would have been a plug threaded in the opening correct?
This is why I always thought it was a shell that did not explode and was de-armed.
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