.45-70 at Two Miles: The Sandy Hook Tests of 1879

[Snidely70431]

I was looking for information about long range Black Powder shooting and came across this article. Interesting stuff.

.45-70 at Two Miles: The Sandy Hook Tests of 1879
by W. John Farquharson

Published in Long Range Express, Volume 1 - Issue 8, November 1995
Originally published in Rifle Magazine, Nov-Dec 1977. Reprinted with permission.

THE SHOOTER at the heavy bench rest squinted as he aligned his .45-70 Allin-Springfield Model 1873 Army rifle on the distant target. The rifle fore-stock and barrel was cradled in a rest; the butt was supported by his shoulder. The rear sight was flipped up to its full height, so with no stock support for his head, the rifle tester from Springfield Armory worked carefully to align high rear and low muzzle sight on the speck that was the target - a surveyed 2,500 yards distant.

Holding his breath, he squeezed the 7-pound trigger. The rifle fired, and some 15 seconds later, signals from the target indicated that his shot had struck well inside the 6-foot diameter bullseye on a target well over a mile away!

The Report of the Secretary of War, 1880, Volume III, under the chapter titled, "Extreme Ranges of Military Small Arms" had this to say:

"The firing was done by Mr. R.T Hare of Springfield Armory who has the enviable distinction, so far as is known, of being the only person in the world who has hit the 'Bull's-Eye' six feet in diameter at 2,500 yards with three different rifles, and who has ever fired at and hit so small a target as that described in this report at 3,200 yards.

In comparison with this, all other so-called 'long range firing' pales into insignificance. The gun was held under the arm, a muzzle rest only being used."

http://home.earthlink.net/~sharpsshtr/CritterPhotos/SandyHook/SandyHook.html

 

[Old No7]

Good stuff! I recall reading about that years ago when I got my first Trapdoor.

Mine is the repro H&R Officer's Model. But if you really want to get a "black rifle shooter's" attention at a gun shop, tip up the Buffington rear sight on a Trapdoor rifle and then extend the sliding leaf ALL the way up... Then point out to them how the sight leaf is canted... Most likely won't know (many probably don't care...) but that's designed to offset the impact of the rifling twist for those 5 to 15 seconds while the bullet is in the air. I think it's a pretty obscure but cool piece of firearms history and engineering.

Which reminds me -- I need to shoot my trapdoor!!!

Old No7

 

[TheDr]

I love reading about long range black powder and about the snipers who used them back in the day.

 

[paul harm]

Please explain in a little more detail about the rear sight being canted. How does canting the sight, whatever that means, relate to the rifling twist while the bullet is in the air ? I'm about 90% shotgunner so some of this rifle stuff has me baffled. Thanks for any info.

 

[TheDr]

In a nutshell,without too much boring mumbo jumbo,when you cant your sights,your adjusting for how the gun shoits,left right etc etc.
For those longe range shots,like the one being mentionted,you cant your sight because #1 you gotta aim high at those distances,and if your gone shoots off center,the cant corrects it and it also helps to give the bullet more arc during the 5 to 15 seconds it takes to reach the target.

 

[arcticap]

The entire gun can torque and twist as the bullet travels through the rifling unless the butt stock is held firmly in place.
I can't imagine that the cant would have anything to do with the bullet trajectory once it is in flight. (pun intended)
Rather it's the torque that's produced while the bullet is traveling through the rifled barrel that would affect the trajectory that may need to be compensated for.
The torquing of the gun can be more easily controlled when it's being fired off a bench or rest if a person makes the effort to do so.
Less likely if being fired offhand or if not firmly grabbing hold of the buttstock while shooting off the bench to minimize the torquing.
Torque, or torquing is torsion, rotation or twist. Defined--->>> https://www.dictionary.com/browse/torquing

 

[TheDr]

Cant has everything to do with trajectory.
Say if your rifle is shooting 1" right at 200 yards.
Now at 400 yards,its shoot 2" right etc etc.
There is 1760 yards in a mile.
3520 yards in 2 miles.
At 2.miles,which is what is referenced in the title,your rifle would be shooting around 18" to the right.
Canting to the left will compensate for that,and bring it back to zero.
Then you'd have to adjust for drop,wind,curvature of the earth etc.
All in all,tons of factors gotta be ironed out,and a steady skilled person pulling off the shot.

 

[paul harm]

I understand everything now that one of the rifle shooters explained it to me. I had copied this thread and shown it to a bunch of guys. Only one saw the sights rail as being narrower at the top on one side [ and thicker on the other]. Your using the term " cant " to me at least, is a little misleading. To me to cant is to hold it at a angle, not to have them " slide " to one side or the other. I couldn't understand how making the sight cant within the rails was going to do anything. You're right, that really is something how they figured how much to make the sight move over to compensate for the bullet twisting in the air making it fly one way or the other. I guess if you didn't have such a fancy sight you could just cant the gun and hope to hit your target. Simple amazing. Thanks for posting such an interesting article.

 

[Snidely70431]

No matter what the initial muzzle velocity or ballistic coefficient, a heavy projectile will carry further than a lighter one, and have more energy left at the end. In the Sandy Hook tests, a 500 grain bullet fired with a muzzle velocity of just 1375 fps carried 3200 yards and had enough energy left to penetrate 2 inches of oak board and several inches of sand.

Thinking about heavy projectiles, I looked up the ultimate heavy projectiles, the 16 inch guns on the Iowa class battleships of WWII. They fired 2,700 pounds (1,225 kg) armor-piercing projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,500 ft/s (762 m/s), or 1,900 pounds (862 kg) high-capacity projectiles at 2,690 ft/s (820 m/s), up to 24 miles (21 nmi; 39 km).

 

[Old No7]

Here's some more info to follow-up on my image of the canted rear sight stem...

The rear sight is canted to shift the point of aim (and thus "impact") -- at VERY LONG range, remember -- to offset the spin induced onto the bullet by the rifling that continues to act on the bullet long after it leaves the muzzle (for 5 to 15 seconds, based on range). This has all been documented in the detailed history of the Sandy Hook Tests and other ballistics tomes.

And, if you really want to be more accurate, after you account for the spin of the bullet -- at VERY LONG range you also need to account for the spin of the Earth while the bullet is in flight.

The Coriolis Effect is the rotation of the earth and the movement of a target downrange (a very long way) from the shooter. Google "Coriolis Effect on Rifle Bullets" and you'll read more than you ever wanted to know.

Essentially, every moving object not connected to the ground is always deflected to right in the Northern Hemisphere -- and that's why the long-range stem is canted to the left -- to offset the Coriolis Effect, as well as the Rifling-induced Spin.

Old No7

 

[RWMC]

It is nice to take out my 1884/87 Springfield carbine and " walk " rounds out across the open harvested corn field, watching the 405 grain lead bullets kick up the dirt along the way!

Thank-you for posting the recorded historical archives about the early long range shooters from years by past.