The range on the 16" naval rifles on board the battleships was a little
in excess of 20 miles (~32 km). The sounds of the aircraft canon that
you are referring to generally are too rapid to discern individual
explosions. The 20 mm is what I am most familiar with, and it sounds
almost like a monstrous big sheet ripping. It's more of a sustained
noise than a series of big bangs.
Rand E.
"W. J. Liles" wrote:
>
> Chris Barker wrote:
> >
> > >I can only imagine...:)
> > >Anyone who will ever have heard just how much sound a normal, say 9mm,
> > >hand gun already makes when it is fired, will probably look in awe at
> > >how laughably small such a bullet is when compared to the 20mm,
> > >27mm, and especially the 30mm rounds pictured on my page. I wonder
> > >if the sound gets proportinally louder as the size of the rounds
> > >(well, the casings, really) increases. Makes me wonder what the
> > >sound would have been that was produced when the 120mm Howitzer
> > >casing I have at home was fired. Then, to take things to the
> > >extreme: I don't think I would have particularly liked being close
> > >to the guns that were used on ships like the USS Missouri to send
> > >the 800+ KG projectiles on a one way ticket towards the enemy. ;)
> >
> > The bigger guns like that have a lower muzzle velocity than say a 20
> > or 30mm machine. Consequently you can almost hear the round
> > travelling up the barrel with a whoosh after the bank of the charge
> > firing. Then there is quite a long period of quiet as the round
> > travels towards the target - on a range for a firepower demo there
> > might be 3 or 4 km between gun and target.
> >
>
> The 8" howitzers I was blessed with had a max muzzle velocity of about
> 600 meters per second, the later, long barreled guns, were considerably
> faster. The 175mm gun got over 900ms. Believe me you did not "hear the
> round traveling up the barrel". The muzzle blast on the 175 firing max
> charge or the 8" firing max zone charge with the special weapons
> projectile could do serious damage to anyone in front of the barrel.
> Just standing 50 meters back the concussion felt like a slap in the
> face. The rounds from the 8" are big enough that, observing from behind
> the gun, they can be seen traveling down range, particularly if firing
> one of the lesser charges. These guns are impressive enough but are
> popguns compared to battleship artillery! The projo on the 8" weighed a
> mere 200 lbs for regular HE. The 16" naval shell weighed as much as a
> Volkswagen Beattle and the muzzle velocity was higher. An artillery
> shell traveling overhead makes a paculiar ripping-tearing sound that
> once heard is never, ever forgotten. From behind the guns it is a kind
> of hollow sizzling sound as it flys down range. Is artillery louder
> than a 9mm? Of course, but you stand further back from the tubes when
> firing, and it feels more physical than just a mere loud noise, however,
> I have much more hearing damage from small arms and the noise of armored
> vehicles than from the guns.
>
> Jerry Liles
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