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.45 inch Gatling Ball Mark I
The "Cartridge S.A. Ball Gatling 0.45 inch Bore Mark I" was approved in July 1873 and shown in LoC Paragraph 2644 dated August 1874. In December 1880 the title was changed to "Cartridge S.A. Machine Gun Ball Gatling .45 inch Mark I".
As mentioned, the round adopted for service was a close copy of that supplied by Armstrongs.
The case was solid drawn brass with Berdan primer and two fire holes. The interior of the case was lacquered prior to June 1878 but afterwards was coated in a hard brown varnish. The case had one neck cannelure to secure the bullet.
Cases supplied by contractors were originally unheadstamped but after Woolwich commenced their own production contractors cases were headstamped, typically ".N.A. 45 GATLING" or "R/|\L 78".
The bullet was a lead alloy of 12 parts lead to 6 parts tin and weighed 480 grains with a white paper patch. Woolwich made bullets up to march 1874 had one cannelure but after that two.
There was a thick beeswax wad below the bulet with two glazed discs above the wad and one below.
The propellant charge was about 85 grains of RFG2 blackpowder which gave a muzzle vellocity of about 1350 fps.
The Mark I ball cartridge was first issued in 1873/74 and continued until 1880/81.
Packet label for .45 inch Gatling cartridges supplied by Armstrongs.
.45 inch Gatling Light Ball Mark I
When 12 Gatling guns were being made for India in 1877 a number of different .42 and .45 inch cartridges were tried and one of them gave good shooting and so was adopted for special service in India.
"Cartridge S.A.Ball Gatling Gun 0.45 Inch Light Mark I" was approved for service in India in October 1878 and shown in LoC Paragraph 3470 dated February 1879.
The case was similar to the normal Ball Mark I and was unheadstamped.
The bullet was lead alloy with a white paper patch and weighed 410 grains.
The propellant was 80 grains of RFG2 blackpowder.
The packets for the light ball cartridges were marked in red "410/80".
Right: Light Ball Mark I
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