25 pounder ammo

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Marcus Kwa
Posts: 176
Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 6:22 pm
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25 pounder ammo

Post by Marcus Kwa »

So we have our guns or at least the kit! We have Dave's update set. All we need more is some ammo!!!
I am not really at home in this scale but the only ammo sets I could find were the Cyber Hobby sets for the 105mm and 75mm fieldguns/howitzers. Though very nice (and expensive) they are either too big or too small ( and have a straight cartridge case instead of a tapered one).
For the casings or cartridges I was thinking of cutting down rifle cartridges. Some of the older types have rims and are tapered like the .303 or the russian 7.62x54R (Mosin Nagant). Both are however too small, ending up at 12mm OD or 1/1 : 72mm instead of 88mm. The best fit would be the Snider .577 but these are extremely rare (1853!, though there are recently manufactured rounds available by Ten-X).
There also should be 24 gauge full brass shotgun shells around though I have not yet found a source for these ( these have however a straight case). Incidentily reloaders often convert 24 gauge cartridges to .577 Snider cases! Does anyone have access to these shotgun cartridges? Our American breathern are a bit reluctand to ship these cartridge cases...... :roll:

Both cartridges and shells also have distinctive storage boxes: C206 for 8 cartridges, P59 for 4 HE/smoke shells and P60 for 4 AP shells. There should also have been a wooden box for the fuses. The boxes would be ideal to print on a 3D printer, does anyone have 3d scans of these boxes? I have seen them somewhere but cannot find them anymore..... :oops:
Could have been at a site that also makes 1/35 accessories.

Cheers,

Marcus

Marcus Kwa
Posts: 176
Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 6:22 pm
Been liked: 39 times

Re: 25 pounder ammo

Post by Marcus Kwa »

I have made some progress in the search for ammo for the 25 pounder.
There were several options but the .577 Nitro Express Casing came closest. It has a rim and is slightly tapered. I found a box with 20 empty shells to play with.
DSC_0930kl.jpg
First photo shows a real 25 pdr. casing with directly below the Cyber Hobby US 105mm round, the cut down .577 casing (+ full size casing), a 7.62x54 Russian round and the current service 5.56mm round.
DSC_0937kl.jpg
Another line-up showing the size of the .557 NE casing!! It is big! The .577 NE is used in real life as a big game round. The pic also shows that the 7.62 Russian is way to small.

On the projectile side, I am looking into converting a 88mm tiger shell into a HE/smoke shell as the shape is quite similar, however the 25pdr shell having a smooth surface where the german 88 has a more complex shape like the US 105mm shell. I have several resin copies of the 88 to play with!!!!

Keep you all posted!!

Cheers,

Marcus

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