Swivel Gun Mount

[Poor Private]

I am in the process of making a swivel gun. It's going to weigh in at about 35 pounds. I am courious as to what to use for a mount or carriage while being used on land, or for display purposes ( will be fired using blanks). I don't want a funky pipe just driven into the ground. At home in the yard I plan on planting a treated 6 by 6 for use. but I want something I can take to a civil war event, or earlier period event. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Republican Blues]

Not an expert by far, but in the readings I have done so far I have not come across many swivel guns on naval vessels during the War of the Rebellion.

 

[mikekj]

I would think a replica piece of ships rail might be cool.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

I don't know about "swivel guns," but here's a pretty good discussion of pivot guns:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/moving-a-pivot-gun.76845

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

From an old discussion on the Authentic Campaigner forums :

"Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery" by George Neese

"August 25 (1862) The sharpshooters were firing at each other across the river all night, The Yanks made three attempts last night to burn the bridge but our sharpshooters drove them back every time.

This morning the Yanks on the hill near the bridge were firing swivels at us. A swivel is a species of young cannon light, and mounted on a tripod that looks something like a surveyors compass. The barrel is fixed on a swivel or turning point

The ones the Yanks fired at us this morning threw a shot about the size of a walnut . However I did not see any of them. I judge the size only by the keen whiz they made as they sped past us. I wonder what these Pope Yanks will try on us next- shoot a blacksmith shop or a buzz saw at us I except. This forenoon we moved back to our wagons , about three miles from Waterloo bridge. When we left , the sharpshooters were still firing at one another across the river. In comming back to camp we passed some of General Hill's infantry going toward the bridge . This evening we cooked three days rations."

From the OR's

Greenville, S.C., August 16, 1863.

Maj. C. D. MELTON:

MAJOR: Lieutenant Elliott and Sergeant Pool report that they were twice fired on last week in the mountains of Greenville while quietly riding in the road engaged in a reconnoitering expedition to ascertain the whereabouts of certain bands of deserters. They further report that a heavy log building northeast of Greenville Court-House, located in the vicinity of Gowensville, has been loop-holed and prepared for defense. Serious depredations upon the property of loyal citizens have been perpetrated within the last few days by prowling bands of deserters who are constantly on the increase. A number have arrived this last week from the Twenty-second South Carolina Regiment, who have walked across the country from Augusta.

I have ordered Captain Hawthorne to make a requisition on you for powder, shot, and buckshot and to report at these headquarters to take command of a detachment of conscripts which I am now engaged in detailing and getting ready to suppress this lawlessness and secure the deserters. You will please furnish him some forty or fifty rounds of the same for double-barreled shotguns to the number of forty. Nothing but prompt and determined action can save us from ruin in the mountains of Pickens, Greenville, and Spartanburg. I have ordered Captain Hawthorne to bring a swivel or 6-pounder to demolish a block-house. There is nothing left for us now but a determined front and to fight it out. By demolishing this building we may save the effusion of blood and so alarm these lawless men as to drive them out of the country and back to their duty. I deeply deprecate the necessity, but there is no alternative.

I am, with great respect, &c.,

JNO. D. ASHMORE,

Maj. and Chief Enrolling Officer, Fifth Cong. Dist. of S.C.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-14089.html

 

[Carronade]

Y'learn something new every day - I had never heard of the type of swivel gun 7miss cited.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Colonial era example

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/226009/

Korean swivel gun mounted for land use

http://historum.com/asian-history/65664-korean-navy-under-yi-sunshin-just-how-good-2.html

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Neither one of those had much of a recoil, I'm betting.

 

[Poor Private]

well I just completed my swivel gun. It has a 25" barrel and a 1" bore. below are a couple of pictues of it and it's land mount.

 

[vikingbear]

Hi guys,
Saw this once with a group of reinactors of the french and Indian war. It was a small gun mount ,with 2 small wheels, what a 3 or 4 pounder size cannon would have, a grasshopper looking affair. Where the cannon would be mounted, they had placed a upright 4x4 for the swivel gun mount, braced in the gun mount itself, by other 4x4's and smaller. It had only some 150 o swing range between the wheels, but being so light could be moved by two men. Have no idea if was based on a real design or made up.
Good luck on the build grizz

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Land based swivel guns were definitely real.

Although usage of this naval anti-personnel weapon reached it's zenith from roughly the mid 1700's through the Napoleonic era, (War of 1812) included . . . many remained as secondary back-up weapons until the American Civil War.

By the 1860's, such weapons were obsolete, but still a potent part of one's arsenal.

Think of a combo sawed off shotgun/blunderbuss.