Wartime No5 Cleaning kit brush?

[Strangely Brown]

I could write a book about things stuck in barrels. But an even BETTER book about the antics of the blokes attempts to get the even greater amount of stuck stuff out again before they just HAD to come down to the QM's department and into the Armourers, hoping that the QM or the CQMS/RQMS didn't ask why. Nails, bits of straightened wire coat hanger, filling the open end of the barrel with petrol from the MT sheds and setting fire to the barrel............. And attempts to shoot it out with blank and ball. If it all came good that was fine by me. Just a few beers later or the usual tea/coffee/sugar and milk stolen from the fitters and turners

Some 50 years have elapsed since I and three others were guilty of this offence, I should add though that it wasn't a rifle we had something stuck in the barrel of but a 105mm Abbott SP!

We had been part of the yearly Warminster fire demonstration complete with Phantom jets firing rockets directly over our heads and Chieftain tanks in support of ground troops. The reason why we ended up with one up the spout alludes me after all this time but we were told to unload.
Unloading a rifle holds no mysteries but to unload a gun howitzer which had the shell rammed by hydraulics is a little bit more difficult, however the solution is fairly straight forward, you use an item of equipment called, an ejectors projectile. This piece of kit attaches onto the muzzle brake and allows you to screw and put pressure onto the shell to push it out.
Very straight forward to use and the scale of issue from memory was one per troop (3 guns) the problem being even though we had a full compliment of 6 guns on the position nobody knew where they were.

We decided that with the aid of some cardboard ring packing from the ammunition we could knock it out with the cleaning rods and brush attached to the end, the gun No.1 (sergeant) was concerned about damaging the shell so more cardboard rings were place on the end of the barrel brush and shoved down.
After the best part of an hour and being the last vehicle on the demonstration ground we finally gave up. The Battery commander who had returned when hearing our plight but not witnessing out attempts to get the shell out managed to get the range opened so we could fire the round.
All three of us in the gun compartment looked white as the order to engage a lone Saracen on the crest of the hill was given.
I can remember crossing myself and I'm not even of the catholic faith but thought it might do some good, was it possible for the round to premature on this occasion?
We were bricking ourselves in case there was a problem but everybody from the No.1 down to the gun loader (me) didn't have the balls to say what we had done with the packing that was now compressed onto the HE shell.

The command fire was given and the gun layer whose sense of humour was always present turned and said, nice knowing you all.
The gun fired and the relief could be seen in our faces, shortly afterwards the hatch at the back opened and the BC poked his head in and said, Sgt Buckingham I don't know what happened there but that round fell 300 metres short of the target!

No CO's charges, no courts martial and we lived to fight another day, after that we made sure we were the gun that had the ejectors projectile in the side cage of the gun.

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[Flying10uk]

shoved down

I like the use of technical language.

[mrclark303]

That's hilarious Mick, I wonder what the breech pressure was on your Howitzer.....

---------- Post added at 02:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:07 AM ----------

That was my first exposure to a stuck pullthrough...we had lots of reservists to give lots of bad info to recruits when I started. So when I got my pal's pullthrough stuck in the barrel, I immediately took it to my section commander. Since we were in the field, he managed to hammer a blank in after it and fired it out...towards the front of the defensive position. He was a full Sargent... Rifle survived,

I wonder how the C1 headspaced after spitting out a pull through Jim, size up locking shoulder perhaps!

[mrclark303]

The only jamming incident I have seen, that led to a catastrophic failure was a chap in my rifle club many years ago, who had accidentally jammed a Jag and cloth in the barrel of his .22 bolt target rifle and forgotten about it, (can't remember the make), first round stopped behind it, second round sheared the bolt and made one almighty bang, he escaped serious injury, but it wrecked the rifle.

I remember running out to the firing points of our underground range after the 'boom', the poor chap was wondering about in shock, rifle still in hand, with blast marks on his face and the smell of burnt hair hanging in the air.

Respect for the humble .22lr round firmly imprinted on my young mind.

[browningautorifle]

I wonder how the C1 headspaced after

Don't know, it would have gone through normal inspection after the course or at least during annual...(ATI)...I later broke the ejector as I recall so there's a chance at course end to sort it. It was right at the course end too...