June 2017

Contacts:
Chairman: A view from the Chair
@ Chairman@christchurchgunclub.org by Peter Lowe
T 07812 985122
Chairman of Christchurch Gun Club
Club Secretary:
@ secretary@christchurchgunclub.org
T 07596 442496 This has been my first year as Chair of our club, and after a number of years absence we have
decided to start sending members newsletters again. This will enable all members to be kept
A Christchurch Gun Club, informed of the future progress of the club.
P O Box 9174,
Verwood, As you all know my first year has been challenging on a number of fronts. My resolve was to
BH24 9FX . bring and apply my business experience; to put the club on a firm footing to allow us access to
funding sources which will enable us to expand the club. During this process it became evident
Membership Secretary: that key areas were poorly maintained for over two years and these became a priority. I can
@ membership@christchurchgunclub.org now confirm that this area has been totally restructured and with the help of the committee, we
T 01202 572257 have now appointed new officers with the appropriate experience, complemented by an over-
sight system which gives us total security.
Website: I must now ask members not to reflect on these issues further, accept that this part of the clubs
www.christchurchgunclub.org history is now closed and look to the future.
www.christchurchgunclub.com
Since these changes have been made, with the implementation of strict financial control, the club
Inside this issue: has started to see the financial rewards. We have been able to complete the 50 metre range works, includ-
ing installation of a new trap house, with associated drainage and landscaping; new target board holders to
allow multiple distances to be shot from the firing range; the expansion of the car park to allow safer park-
A view from the chair by ing and a greater capacity with 20 new spaces. All this has been achieved whilst substantially improving the
Peter Lowe financial status of the club.

Building a miniature can- The plans tabled before the last AGM have now been finalised and are ready to be submitted for planning
non by Tim Jenner approval. The works to improve car parking have inspired a new opportunity that when completed will
secure the future of our club, safeguarding us against legislation and social pressures including regulation
Just for fun changes regarding noise.

The flintlock and how it
works by Brian Thornton
Spot the clay Sponsored
by Lamberts of Ringwood
We have made initial contact with the landlords to allow us to add two underground ranges to our com-
plex. Allowing both a 50 and 100 metre shooting range. Since their favourable response we are having de-
tailed plans drawn up and these will be submitted to the planning authority as soon as possible. As a conse-
quence of this we at the club will be able to apply for Section 7.1 / 7.3 status, which will allow members to
own and shoot historic pistols and revolvers. In addition the underground ranges will allow the air gun HFT
range to be reconfigured and modernised and will operate in the area above these ranges.

These and other elements of my 5 year plan will be shared with you at the AGM in July.
Adverts
I would like to thank all members for their support throughout this period; special recognition should be
given to those members who have stepped up to take on additional responsibilities.
AGM information
Thank you once again for your support and I am looking forward to welcoming as many of you as possible
to the AGM.
2017 Competitions and
events

Notice board
Page 2

Building a miniature cannon. By Tim Jenner

If you visit HMS Victory at Portsmouth Dockyard you will find, on the lower gun deck, a row of Blomefield 32 pounder cannons running
almost the whole length of the ship.

These were the big hitters of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic period and were the culmination of centuries of development. To my mind
they are the most perfectly proportioned cannon ever made. The embellishments found on earlier cannon had not yet been completely lost,
but had been retained in the form of purely decorative bands, the muzzle flair and the form of the breech. By the Victorian period all this had
been lost and despite being muzzle loaders the guns of the mid nineteenth century were built entirely for function.

There are a number of considerations to take into account when planning the build of any muzzle loading gun and among those for a cannon
are, deciding what material to use for the barrel and the difficult problem of trunnions.

I was determined that the cannon be as faithful a reproduction of the original as possible and I realized that I stood a good chance of achiev-
ing this with a Blomefield model, as it has a much larger width in relation to its length than other designs. This would make dealing with the
trunnions easier as there is plenty of thickness of barrel at this point in which to mount them.

I knew the breech ring would present a challenge, but I would have plenty of time to worry about that.

Anyone who has an interest in cannons is very fortunate to live in this area as we have access to some of the best collections of historic
cannons in the world at places like Fort Nelson and Portsmouth Dockyard.

So, I was often to be seen frequenting these places with my camera, tape measure and notebook. I had a good accurate contemporary draw-
ing of a Blomefield 32 pounder barrel in a book (Fig 1), but it was lacking proper dimensions, however the drawing was good enough to be
printed scale size so that measurements could be taken directly.

Fig 1.
I had a number of diagrams and pictures of the carriage, but nothing that showed the carriage in direct relation to the barrel, however the
carriage will be covered in a later article.

So, I was ready to take the plunge and order a piece of stock bar from which to make my barrel. I had to make a decision as to what mate-
rial to use and in this I deviated from realism in that I would use bronze rather than steel.
Of course the cannon should be black with a yellow carriage, but I thought that a bronze cannon would look superb. So I started looking at
the various bronzes that were available. There is one actually called gunmetal and this would be ideal, it is a leaded bronze, the added lead
makes it easier to machine.

So I worked out the size of the largest cannon barrel that I could turn between centres on my Myford Super Seven 3 inch lathe and or-
dered a piece of stock 3 inches in diameter and 18 inches long.
It duly arrived weighing in at a hefty 46 lbs.

The first job when building any muzzle loading gun is to bore the barrel. A cannon is the only type of muzzle loader that is not bored right
through and does not have a breech plug. It is a lot harder to bore a blind hole than one right through. Swarf removal can be a problem and
there is no opportunity to introduce lubricant from the other end. Lubricant could be introduced through the touch hole, but it is most
important that the touch hole is not drilled at this stage as the barrel would then become a section 1 firearm. Also the depth of hole has to
be very carefully planned.

I wanted my cannon to have a reduced diameter breech chamber so that I could introduce a small amount of powder through the touch
hole in the event of a ball being loaded without powder. This would contain just enough to expel the ball.
After much consideration I decided to specify a reduced breach chamber of diameter 12mm and length 10mm. I then had to accurately de-
termine the distance between where the muzzle face would eventually be (my bar stock was slightly longer than the finished barrel) and the
centre of the touch hole, which was half a touch hole diameter from the back of the breach chamber, assuming that the touch hole was
drilled at an angle of exactly 90 degrees to the bore.
 Page 3

I also had to accurately determine the length of the main part of the bore excluding the reduced breech. I realised that I would not be able to
bore the piece myself as I did not possess suitable equipment to do the job accurately. I contacted a local engineering firm and they were
only too happy to undertake the job for me.

In order to make it easier for them I located the centre of each end of the bar and centre drilled the two faces, I then set up the piece in the
lathe and trued it up to the centres with a couple of light overall cuts to the whole length. I had to be careful as I didn't want to reduce the
diameter of the bar too much.
The rough outside surface of the bar as sup-
plied (Fig 2). This is turned between centres,
there is no chuck in the lathe. This allows the
bar to be switched end for end and always be
perfectly centred. I have faced the ends and am
about to take a cut along the length to true the
whole thing up.

I specified a bore diameter of 0.730 inch

(18.5mm). Why 0.730 inch I hear you ask, well,
a couple of reasons. The main one being trun-
nions. Yes, these had to be planned early. The
Blomefield design calls for the diameter of the
trunnions to be the same as the diameter of
the bore and for the top of the trunnion to be
level with the midpoint of the bore, with the
barrel held so that the bore is horizontal.

Fig 2.

I produced a drawing (Fig 3) of the cross section of

the barrel at the centre point of the trunnions and
this revealed that in order to bury the whole diame-
ter of the trunnion in the barrel and still have enough
thickness of metal between the bottom of the trun-
nion and it's threaded fixing and the bore, the maxi-
mum bore that I could safely have was 0.73 inch
(18.5mm), also this is 12 bore shotgun diameter and I
thought this might be handy for trying out shotgun
wads and cards. The correct scale bore for my can-
non is 0.866 inch (22mm) so this would just have to
be a compromise.

Fig 3 shows a cross sectional view at the point where

the trunnions are mounted showing one trunnion in
place. Im sorry that this is not too clear, but you can
see the trunnion position in relation to the barrel and
the bore. The diameter of the trunnion should equal
the bore diameter but, as you can see, the bore is
considerably smaller than the trunnion.

Fig 3.
The engineering company did a beautiful job of boring the bar. The surface looks much better after those initial cuts that I made with the
lathe.

The next job is to drill the holes for the trunnions. The position of the trunnions is critical to both the historical accuracy and the balance of
the barrel.

The trunnion holes had to be drilled at this stage as mounting the piece for drilling is relatively easy while it is still a straight sided cylinder.
The depth of the holes is critical. You can see on the cross section drawing (Fig 3) that the top right hand corner of the trunnion is just
below the surface of the barrel, taking into account that the diameter of the barrel at the trunnion mounting point will be considerably less
than it is with the barrel in its cylindrical unworked form.
Page 4

Fig 4 shows the method of mounting the barrel in the

lathe for the trunnion hole drilling.
It is clamped directly onto the cross slide (the top
slide and tool post having been removed). A spacing
piece can just be seen between the cross slide and the
barrel so that the barrel is set at exactly the right
height.

The lathe centre is precisely in line with the edge of

the bore, in other words the trunnions are set low on
the barrel. The three pieces of wood with hemispheri-
cal cut outs are part of my old banisters.

The position of the cross slide is critical to get the

trunnions in the correct place and is locked off with a
clamp to the lathe bed.

When everything is in place a 22mm slot drill is used

to drill the trunnion hole, this produces a very accu-
rate hole with a flat bottom. The depth of hole being
Fresh from the engineering company. very carefully controlled.

When the large diameter hole had been

drilled a smaller hole was drilled and
tapped M8 to accept the studding that
retains the trunnion.

In order to put the other trunnion in

exactly the right place, directly opposite
the first one, a centre drill was put in the
tail stock chuck and brought up to the
other side of the barrel.

The chuck was turned by hand and pres-

sure applied to mark the centre of the
other trunnion hole.

The barrel could then be removed from

the clamps, turned round and clamped
up in just the right place to drill for the
second trunnion.

Fig 4.
So, we now have a cylindrical barrel with two large holes in the side.
This cannot be turned in the lathe, the edges of the holes would
catch on the cutting tool and the whole thing would be spoiled. The
answer is to fit false trunnions, made of the same material as the
barrel and grind them off as shown in the above picture. Then, when
the barrel profile has been fully finished, the false trunnions can be
removed and discarded. I hoped I would not find it too difficult to
locate and remove them when the time came.

In the next edition I will show

and describe the really fun part,
turning the barrel profile.

Next article preview.

 Page 5

Just for fun.

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U K D T G V G R O S S I Y E

What's the difference between a hunter and a fisherman? If God wanted us to be vegetarians he would have
A hunter lies in wait. A fisherman waits and lies. made broccoli more fun to shoot.

Each day thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.

Help end the violence, eat venison.
Page 6

The flintlock and how it works. By Brian Thornton

Making a gun fire reliably regardless of the prevailing atmos-

pheric conditions, something we take very much for granted
in modern firearms, took centuries of trial and error to
perfect. The earliest hand-held firearms (handgonnes) were
fired by means of either a red hot iron wire or the glowing
tip of a lighted match cord applied direct to the powder in
the pan over the touch hole. This had obvious disadvantages
as: a) the weapon was difficult to hold at aim by one person
while this was being done and b) the whole process was
compromised by bad weather.

The next development in the search for reliable ignition was

to hold the lighted match in an arm that fell into the pan
when a small lever was moved. This simple innovation, the
origin of the matchlock system of ignition, while being a
great improvement on the handgonne nevertheless was still
rendered unreliable in wet conditions.

A costly improvement on the matchlock came in the form of the wheel lock
in which a piece of iron pyrites held against a clockwork powered, rotating
serrated wheel threw a shower of sparks into a pan of priming powder when
the trigger was pulled. These expensive but delicate weapons rapidly became
status symbols among the aristocracy despite their tendency to foul rapidly
to the point where they could no longer be used without extensive cleaning
of the mechanism. A much simpler and hence cheaper solution to the prob-
lem of ignition appeared in the seventeenth century when the flintlock
mechanism was developed in France from the earlier Dutch Snaphaunce and
Spanish Miquelet locks. So successful was this new lock that it remained
dominant for around 200 years until the percussion cap was perfected in the
1830s.

In the flintlock a piece of specially shaped flint held in the jaws of the cock
falls forward to strike a hardened steel plate or frizzen. As the flint strikes
the steel pushing it forward it uncovers the priming pan and at the same time
a shower of sparks (red hot steel particles shaved from the frizzen by the
friction of the flint) falls into the powder igniting it and thus initiating the
ignition of the main charge through a small hole in the breech.

The Flintlock in Action.

It is tempting for modern shooters to dismiss the flint-lock as both primitive

and unreliable but this misconception is based on a lack of understanding and
a measure of prejudice. We have to remember that flintlocks were replaced
by cap locks from the 1830s onward and that consequently we have long
forgotten how to tune and care for the locks to ensure consistent and rapid
ignition. However, when a flintlock is set up and loaded correctly there
should be little discernible difference between its lock time and that of a
percussion firearm. This is logical because whereas the flint will be generating
sparks while the cock is falling, a percussion cap can only explode when the
hammer has reached the end of its travel.

For reliability it is vital that the flint has a sharply knapped edge and that it is
held firmly in the cock sandwiched in leather or lead. The flint should be
adjusted to strike the frizzen a glancing blow between a third and a half way
down so that it scrapes off slivers of steel rather than trying to gouge them
out, damaging both flint and frizzen in the process.
 Page 7

Before loading the gun, the vent or touch hole should be blocked
with a quill, toothpick or pipe cleaner to ensure that it does not
become blocked with powder. This sounds counterintuitive but the
intention is to allow a clear path through which the priming powder
can flash without obstruction. If the vent is full of powder it be-
comes a fuse that can only burn one grain at a time and this of
course is much slower.

The gun is then loaded with powder followed by a lubricated

patched ball which should be pushed down onto the powder with-
out compression. This is because unlike the instantaneous explo-
sion of a percussion cap with its jet of intense flame, the flash from
the priming powder is gentler and must initiate a progressive burn
rather than a detonation. For this to happen, the granules of pow-
der need space around them so that flame propagation can take
place.

In theory that's all there is to shooting a flintlock but as those of us who have tried can confirm it isn't that simple. There are so many vari-
ables quality of flints; flint position; quality of powder; hardness of frizzen; moisture on the frizzen, flint or pan; fouling in the touch hole and
that's all before we consider ball to bore diameter; patch thickness; patch lubricant and powder charge, let alone flash-induced flinching!

Put simply, shooting a flintlock is a real challenge but when you do get it shooting consistently and reliably it is very rewarding even if like
me you can't hit a barn door with the bloody thing! For sheer shooting fun though they are very hard to beat.
Page 8

Spot the clay.

Spot the clay is sponsored by Ben at Lamberts of Ringwood,

The photo below was taken as a clay was in flight, we have removed the clay from the photo and overlaid a grid with coordinates, what you
need to do is guess which box contain the majority of the clay.

To enter email your coordinate (H9, for example), send your full name and membership number to CGCNewsUK@Gmail.com.

Alternatively, write your guess down and use the newsletter box in the club house, again including your full name and your membership
number.

If there is more than one correct guess the names will go into a hat and the winner will be drawn randomly.

Winner and the answer will be posted on the forum and in the next newsletter.

The Prize that has kindly been donated by Ben at Lamberts of Ringwood is two boxes of their Super Blues 12 gauge cartridges as seen

Thanks Ben and Good luck everyone :)

Page 9
Page 10

AGM information.

The 2017 AGM will be held at:

Chapel Gate,
Bournemouth Sports Club,
East Parley,
Christchurch,
Dorset,
BH23 6BD.
This will be on Wednesday the 19th of July at 7:30PM.

Please arrive at least 15 minutes earlier for sign in.

Membership ID cards must be presented to gain entry and

voting rights.

If you wish to be nominated or nominate you will find nomination lists

on all notice boards.

Any queries please contact the Club Secretary.

Including formal agenda items (closing date for Agenda items is the 21st
of June 2017).

Email: secretary@christchurchgunclub.org

Phone: 07596442496
 Page 11

2017 Competitions and events.

Dont Forget Service Rifle runs most Monday evenings over the summer months.

The Friends of St Catherines Hill history day.

The Friends of St Catherines Hill are holding their bi-annual history day this year and once again the club will be putting on a
display, it is held all over the Hill on Sun 24 Sep running 10.30am - 4pm.

If anyone would like to get involved either with organisation, being one of the shooters or just generally helping on the day
please let a Committee member know, any help would be very much appreciated, it is a very enjoyable event for all involved
and a good day out .
Page 12 Page 12

Notice board
Your Newsletter
So after many requests from members to restart the newsletter here it is.

As this is the first Issue in some time it is a little short on new content, some of the keen eyed amongst you will notice that Brian Thornton
has kindly allowed us to reuse some of his old content from past newsletters as many members will never have seen them before. And
thanks to Tim Jenner for his article on making his cannon, he has also kindly agreed to have an article in the upcoming newsletters too.

Following newsletters can only be a success if we have fresh content to add to them, if you feel you could help by writing an article on your
favourite kind of shooting, have a funny shooting related story, some photos or even have a good idea for a competition please let me know.

Even the smallest contribution can go a long way to making this a success for the future.

You can contact me on CGCNewsUK@Gmail.com or leave me a suggestion in the clubhouse or speak to me any time I am at the Hill

Yours in shooting Richie Bray.