I hadn't shot a gun in years due to my cataracts (repaired in 2004) when I discovered that Betty really liked firearms and had kept a loaded .38 Long Colt in her house for years but didn't know how to shoot.   We were at my son John's house when he brought out a couple of .45 ACPs.   Betty was delighted!   On the way home she asked me if I would teach her how to shoot, I said yes.   We bought a .45 then a .40 and, after some instruction at home, we went to the Garland Public Range.   Now Betty really likes to shoot 9mm and .40S&W but her all time favorites are .45s.  

That was in 2010, now Betty is pretty good with all our shooting irons.   We frequently go to gun shows which we both enjoy.   Betty has grown very fond of firearms of all kind, this page is about that.  

Here she is at the Garland Range, loading her .45 magazines.

She just emptied her .45 compact XDm and is looking at the target as she drops the mag.   You can see the 3 yard targets in the background, she is shooting at 15 yards.

The targets, hers is the NRA B-27, second from left.   This is the 15 yard range, you can just see one of the 25 yard targets on the far left.

Looking over her shoulder as she drills the silhouette.   The XDm compact .45 has a distinctive sound due to it's short barrel, which means wer're still burning powder after the bullet leaves the barrel.

She is checking out a 200+ year old cannon on the NW corner of Presidio La Bahia in Goliad (where the massacre of Fannin's men took place).

A Spanish cannon in the garden on the North side of the Alamo.   Missy interrupted her investigation.

Betty and a Parrott gun (rifle) at Chickamauga.   Mostly, the old cannons we see around in parks are bronze smooth bore (no riflings).   A bronze smooth bore cannon's bore is slightly larger than the projectile, which allowed the burning propellant gases to leak, thus reducing the pressure in the barrel. The parrott gun is a rifle, the barrel has riflings (lands and grooves).   They were made of cast iron whith a wrought iron wrapper around the breech.   The rifled barrel was a tight fit which kept the pressure behind the projectile, increasing muzzle velocity and range.   However this increased pressure was hard on the brittle cast iron, thus the wrought iron wrapper around the breech.   They still exploded ocassionally. Note the monuments, in the background, each notes a place where one of the military units in the battle of Chickamauga was positioned at a particular time during the battle.

As she decends the stair from the flight deck to one of the starboard sponsons, she spotted something on the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi Bay.   Notice the smile of anticipation on her face.

Its a quad 40mm mount with radar director.

Now what happens if I rotate this wheel.

It moves both 40mms up and down.

See, they elevate or depress to track an attacking aircraft.   The wheel on the other side of the mount traverses the guns side to side.

Now she found something even better, a dual 5" mount.

Inside you can see a mock 5" round just below the sign saying "loading tray".   Betty has her left hand on the right cannon's loading tray.

Betty reading the inscription on a 280mm atomic cannon from the cold war years.   The inscription said this is a 280 mm cannon, thats just over 11".   Just behind the barrel of the atomic caonnon you can see the wing with engines and tail of a B-52, and on the left the tail of a B-29.   This is at the National Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque NM.   The National Nuclear Museum contains all kinds of equipemnt used to deliver nuclear warheads, aircraft, missiles, torpedoes, depth charges, and even this cannon.   BTW a nuclear depth charge, from a ship, was a suicide mission, I don't know why they ever built one, unless it was just to stay up with the Soviets.   We went there as part of our trip to the Trinity Site in October 2012.

This is what it looked like when the atomic cannon was fired.   That nuclear cloud is 7 miles away, according to the above plackard.   Don't you know those guys were worried the first time this thing was fired.

At the entrance to the "Pacific War Zone" at the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg Tx, you can see the two 3" naval guns and some of the other stuff.

Back end of Mark 14 Torpedo showing the two counter rotating, steam powered propellers.   They counter rotated to prevent the torque from the props from affecting the guidance.   Torpedos were also fired from surface ships.   The steam was generated by an on-board chemical steam plant. Since the steam exhaust formed a trail right back to the sub that fired it, Mark 18 electric torpedoes were tried later in the war but the Mark 14 was the standard.

A 'K' gun. The original depth charges were in, what appeared to be, a 30 gallon barrel, with flat ends.   This barrel tumbled and twisted as it sank slowing it.   This newer depth charge design has fins and is somewhat streamlined so it will sink quicker, thus giving a submarine less time to evade.

Called a 'K' gun for firing depth charges off the side of a destroyer.

This Betty in Fredericksburg at the Museum of the Pacific War.   Beside her is a surface ship, trainable Mark 15 quintuple torpedo launcher.   These were typically mounted on destroyers.

'K' guns on the Stewart, Seawolf Park, Galveston Island.   Note the older type charges looked like 30 gal. barrels.   A destroyer would have these on both sides, to throw the depth charges to the sied of the destroyer's path, and racks at the rear to drop directly behind the ship.   The net effect was to increase the width of the total pattern.

Depth charge racks on the Stewart (Seawolf Park, Galveston Island)   The depth charges were rolled off the rear of the ship along with firing 'K' guns to give a wide pattern as the destroyer passed a suspected submerged enemy submarine.

Note this Hedgehog only has 4 of the six rows loaded, you can see the spigots sticking up in the last two rows on the left.   Normally there would be a firing station (or control) just behind (to the left of) thes mortars.   Pics of a HedgeHog on the USS Stewart at Seawolf Park in Galveston.

An almost fully loaded Hedgehog on the Stewart, Seawolf Park, Galveston Island.   I see one spigot in the foreground that isn't holding a mortar. Hedgehogs The Hedgehog was an interesting anti-submarine weapon, it was developed by the Brittish for U boats, then adopted by the US Navy for its own destroyers late in the war.   The hedgehog's spigot mortars only exploded on direct contact with the sub's hull, thus reducing the amount of explosive required to breach a sub's hull.   The hedgehog fired it's Spigot Mortars in a spread pattern ahead of the destoyer, thus the sub could not easily avoid them.   Since the hedgehog only exploded when it struck the sub and it was fired in front of the destroyer the destoryer could continually track the sub by sonar.   Statistically, in WW-II, hedgehogs had a 5.7 times better chance of killing the sub than depth charges.   Please see the wikipedia page on Hedgehog.   An interesting YouTube video about the hedgehog.

Japanese 2 man minisub used in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7 1941.   Not technically a "shooting iron" but it did carry two torpedos.   This is in the main building at the "National Museum of The Pacific War" in Fredericksburg Tx.   For more pics of this and other hardware please look at National Museum of the Pacific War.

Betty, under two 14" rifles on the USS Texas.   These are turrets one and two at the bow of the ship.

14" bullets (projectiles) as we go on board the USS Texas.   You can see 4 of the 14" (two after mounts) rifles behind her on The Texas.

As Betty goes on board the Texas, note the 14" projectiles (bullets) on either side of the walkway, and 14" gun turrets 3,4, and 5 (right to left) on the after end of the Texas.

Betty and a HedgeHog, with 75mm gun to left, on board the USS Stewart in Seawolf Park, Galveston.   You might notice this Hedgehog isn't bolted down nor does it have the firing station behind it.

Forward torpedo room of the USS Cavalla, at Seawolf Park in Galveston.   Two of the tubes were removed when she was in cold war service but the front 6 (these included) were used to sink a 26,000 Ton Japanese carrier, the Shokaku in June of 1944. Shokaku launching

Betty and Texas Ranger Tillerson (I think?) at the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco 09/13/17   BTW: The Texas Ranger Museum in Waco is Adjacent to the the Texas Rangers company F headquarters.   We just happened to run into him and Susan asked if he would let us take his pic with Nanny.