16 Inch Gun Training Film

The USN sold off a bunch of their stockpiles of those 16 inch powder bags starting back in the late 50's and continued until the early 60's, I know of several people who bought the bags and then reground the black powder down to FFFFg, FFFg, FFg, and Fg sizes, reapplied graphite and then sold it in bulk to Black Powder shooters. My father, being a competition back powder shooter, bought and stored well over 500 lbs of it over a few years time and had them stored in numerous different powder magazines among his rural properties. When I began to get serious about shooting in the 90's, I shot that powder made for the USN in the 40's for the first 3 or 4 years, this after he had been using it since the late 60's going through around 50 lbs a year. To this day, I have yet to be able to find a more consistent shooting powder for matches than that old DuPont reground stuff.

Knowing the broad strokes of the process to get a gun loaded now it seems like a miracle that it could fire once every 30 seconds

It absolutely amazes me that this amount of engineering was possible over 100 years ago. Not this ship specifically, but the basic operation since WWI ships.

During Desert Storm, I was the naval gunfire liaison officer for 1stBn/1stMarines Taskforce Papa Bear and had Missouri (BB-63) firing in direct support for me. I have some 16 inch shrapnel which I dug out of a 20' deep hole at Kuwait Airport.

Amazing, 80 years later and these ships and this gun mechanism still looks state of the art

"An outstanding case of, it's better to give than receive." 😂

I imagine these rooms had some nasty pinch points to keep fingers away from.

For those wondering about 16"/50, it means that the gun diameter is 16 inches ( " is the symbol for inches) and that the barrel is 50 diameters, or 800" (66' 8", or ≈ 20m) long. So a 14"/50 gun would be 14 inches in diameter and 700" (58' 4", or ≈ 18m) long, and a 16"/100 gun would be 16 inches in diameter and 1600" (133' 4", or ≈ 40m).

I am just stunned by the level of engineering and precision in these gun systems... no CAD, no calculators, just a pencil and a slide rule, and the skill of the men manufacturing these parts....I suddenly feel inadequate as a man in 2023....

I love these old training films. Just awesome!

My Dad was a Gunners Mate on the Missouri for a reserve cruise in 1945-1946. His duty station was in the Gun House for the #1 Turret. We had the opportunity to go inside the Gun House when we toured the MO when we visited Pearl Harbor. I have observed the firing of a 16" at the Naval Proving Ground in King George, Va. (Now NSF Dahlgren). And I have physically stood beside a 16" projectile. There is no question, I would not want to be anywhere near the impact zone of one of those projectiles.

I served aboard the USS Missouri BB-63 from 1984-88. I worked where the power bags were loaded into the cars. 

Was a US Navy Fire Control Tech in Nam. Had the dubious distinction of being a Gun Fire Support Spotter in Nam. Had an occasion to call in fire from the USS New Jersey. They let loose with a staggered salvo of 3 16” on a bunker I called in . I wasn’t very far from the impact point. The sound of 3 Cadillac size projectiles yards away

I would love to see the recoil from inside the turret, it must be insane to see such a massive piece of machinery get thrown back so quickly

Really incredible the amount of analog mechanized steel that was mobilized during that war, the scope of manufacturing this beast and then the whole operation of it is just unreal

that was really neat. I'd never thought about the inner workings of a gun crew in a battle ship.

Easy to see in this video how the IOWA suffered that fatal overram back in 1989 which set off the turret explosion. There are no separate settings for ramming the projectile and ramming the powder.

In the powder room there is no fire extinguisher, just a sign that says, "In case of fire, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye"

So when this thing is firing at full capacity, it's losing minimum 45,000 lbs per minute.

I've been looking for this video since it was deleted from another channel. So glad I found it here. The introduction music gets me every time.