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MAIN GUN FIRING DEMONSTRATION

I’ll round off my tour of the Royal Armouries Museum with some pictures of the Portsdown Artillery Volunteers, wearing period uniforms, demonstrating their gun drill using one of the 7 inch rifled breech-loading "Armstrong" guns. Here the crew assemble outside the casemate housing the gun.

Up on the ramparts, a member of the crew watches as his crewmates assemble for inspection.

And off they go, some crewmembers rushing to the gun itself to prepare it for firing whilst two other men head to the magazine storage area to collect a shell.

Well-drilled and working in unison, the gun is readied for action.

With the gun sitting on an angled frame, the crew have to raise the gun and move it forward clear of the ramparts to fire. This is known as "running out". The Volunteers were of course only using a blank charge, but when this type of gun used a live charge, the gun and its carriage would recoil up the angled platform.

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