Not for Boomershoot

Although I think it would be very cool to have one of these and have the money to afford shooting it I don’t really have a place to shoot it. The Boomershoot site just wouldn’t be appropriate. This 155 mm Howitzer really needs 5 to 10 thousand yards to show it’s stuff.

I have seen this gun at this same location ever since I can remember but this week while Barb and I were vacationing in Orofino was the first time I looked at it closely.

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I had no idea it was made in France. This really surprised me.

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And from 1918! That surprised me too. I had always figured it was a WWII era gun.

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4 thoughts on “Not for Boomershoot

  1. Very cool pics Joe. Yes.. agreed.. You would need a much larger “range” for this gun. 🙂 I wonder if you could do something on a smaller scale? I can understand the expense. The bigger the shell the bigger the cost. Also I’m not sure if you would want a giant crater on your land. 🙂 If you willing to go without actually firing a slug the replica market is packed full of fun stuff. Still it isn’t cheap. http://bismarckguns.com/

  2. Mr. Hoffman,

    When WWI broke out, the U.S. Army was experimenting with a 6″ field howitzer — and having some troubles. Once the decision to join the Allied cause was made, we needed artillery in just about every caliber.

    Something about moving from a frontier oriented force to fighting European Land Battles just did not favor what we had in hand. So, the Ordnance Department went shopping from among the Allied weapons available.

    We chose 3 actually — the French 75mm (Light Howitzer), the French Schneider 155mm (Medium Howitzer)and the British Vickers 8″ Heavy Howitzer (later rated in metric as 203mm).

    Interestingly, when the war ended our U.S. Army forces took as part of the spoils, the German Army 105mm Light Field Howitzer. If ever at Fort Benning, GA, the museum has one of those original “spoils of war” howitzers on display.

    More interestingly in the 1920’s and 1930’s, we made some small changes to the German design and then used it from WWII onward as the U.S. Army M101A1 105mm Light Howitzer. Something akin to getting production rights on a bolt action rifle from Mauser and then shooting German forces with it in WWI as the Springfield .30-06.

    FYI — the 155mm caliber remains the mainstay caliber of the U.S. Army today along with NATO forces. Even the Germans are standardized on the 155mm projectile.

    My thanks for sharing your photos. Not that many Schneiders made it out to our American home towns as display pieces. This one appears to be relatively well cared for as well.

    Best Regards, D.W.Hilliard

  3. I remember trying to read about WWI while in college (on my own, since I didn’t get around to taking a history course). I took the descriptions of the guns in stride, but while walking and thinking about them, I realized: 6mm caliber–that’s almost two inches! And 2500 meters–that’s 2.5 kilometers, about a mile! We’re not talking about rifles here, are we?

    Incidentally, the French’s guns had a greater range than the German’s, but they canceled out their advantage by having a rule that said, “You could only fire on the enemy when he’s within 1500 meters”, which was within the German’s range.

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