Often in books, movies and games devoted to military topics, one has to hear the concept of "buckshot". Most often, it is applicable to works describing the war in the era of the New Age. However, another concept is often applied to the same era - “shrapnel”. Both of these strike people with small or not very metallic balls. So what is the difference and is there any at all?
The first field firearms were extremely ineffective against infantry and cavalry. Only by the end of the 18th century would European artillery engineers learn how to cast cannons and cannonballs, as well as how to make gunpowder so that the shells spinning, jumping and ricocheting after the first collision with soft ground, thereby causing maximum damage to manpower enemy. Therefore, to fight infantry and cavalry, a grapeshot grenade for a cannon was invented much earlier. In fact, this is a metal or stone shot enclosed in a mesh or bag with a wad on one side of the projectile.
It is important to emphasize that "buckshot" in a broad sense can also mean shot for a rifle cartridge. However, when talking about artillery, this word refers to grapeshot grenades. Card shells could have a variety of configurations and characteristics. They differed in the number and size of the shot, the material of the shot, the wad, the size of the mesh and bag, and much more. At the same time, all buckshot grenades worked in the same way - after the shot, the mesh was torn and the shot pulled forward, gradually scattering in different directions. This weapon was absolutely monstrous at short distances, however, it did not allow effective shelling of manpower at a long distance, since the body of the grenade collapsed immediately after the shot.
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Everyone was saved (well, or killed, how to look) by an officer of the British army and artillery designer Henry Shrapnel, who in 1803 came up with a fundamentally new type of grapeshot grenade for artillery. The main difference between Shrapnel's grapeshot grenade was that it received a detonation mechanism in its design, which allowed to destroy the body holding the buckshot not at the immediate moment of the shot, but when it was necessary command. In other words, thanks to the detonation mechanism, the buckshot mesh turned into a buckshot projectile that exploded and scattered damaging elements at the right time and in the right place. Most often this happened over the heads of the enemy. Thus, it was possible to significantly increase the maximum range of firing cannons with buckshot and to further increase the effectiveness of artillery against manpower. As you might guess, the new type of grenade got its name precisely in honor of the name of its creator.
So that buckshot and shrapnel in a broad sense are different concepts, shrapnel starts with buckshot. In a narrow sense, shrapnel is a type of grapeshot grenade.
In continuation of the topic, read about who was the best Soviet artillerymanand how his fate unfolded.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/260322/62522/