Forcing cones

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by John Keegan

A friend came by, looked down the breech and said, "Someone took the forcing cones out." A bit of reading told me that many guns of this era did not have cones but shoulders as mine does.

Parkers made with 90 degree "shoulders" were intended to shoot brass shells with no crimp. It would be extremely unusual that a VH would have been made this way, but not impossible.

Some said that using modern ammo without a forcing cone would loosen the hinge pin. Others said adding a foxing cone could create excessive pressure.

Not so! I have 2 D-Grade lifters chambered for brass shells, one a 12 and the other a 10 and I shoot modern (RST) ammo in both without a care.

Does anyone have any info or suggestions about the desirability of forcing cones in a 114 year old gun?

The gun is what it is and unless the chambers have been lengthened and by doing so, the cones have been removed which raises serious questions about the wall thickness at the front of the chambers, can probably be used with modern ammo of the appropriate length and pressure.

[OH Osthaus]

rings like this

[JCK]

Yes, that is what they look like.

[OH Osthaus]

BTW - your avatar - a napoleon 6 pounder?

might want to lighten up on the charge

[JCK]

It is a full scale reproduction mountain howitizer. The bore has a steel sleeve and we fire a 3# lead ball with 4 oz cannon grade blackpowder. Fortunately in Arizona there are a lot of places where you can fire off a cannon.

[Eldon Goddard]

Originally Posted by John Keegan

It is a full scale reproduction mountain howitizer. The bore has a steel sleeve and we fire a 3# lead ball with 4 oz cannon grade blackpowder. Fortunately in Arizona there are a lot of places where you can fire off a cannon.

How can you not love this country? John I do not live to far from Peoria can I come see your cannon. Ill bring my 8 gauge.

[TxHuntermn]

The 1889 DOM DH 12 G "one " frame that i just received today has chambers that look like the photo above. When i slid in a rolled card to measure chambers, the card made a "hard stop" at that ring, instead of just binding to a stop as usual when measuring chamber length. So, that means my gun was designed for brass hulls? The depth to that "ridge" is 2 11/16ths. Thanks in advance for any info/ advise

[Dean Romig]

... or the chambers were cut after it left Meriden. A research letter may answer that question, but probably will not.

[JCK]

Always happy to show off my cannon.

Just took it out last weekend for a fundraiser for the Boy Scouts. Generally we shoot the big gun then some of my other antiques such as .45-70 Springfield, both infantry and cavalry model, '03 Springfield and M-1.

[Bill Murphy]

If your chambers actually have 2 11/16" chambers with square edges, you should probably have the square edges rounded a bit, or punched with a 2 3/4" chamber reamer, which solves all problems. Maybe someone here has such a reamer to lend. A member lent me a 28 gauge chamber and rim recess reamer that successfully converted two guns to usable condition.