Item Number: A00981

Item Title: Excellent Example CS 12 Pounder Lead Side Loader

Price: $295

Shipping: Not included

Provenance: CS

Type: Cannon Ball Side Loader

Size: 12 Pounder (4.62 Inch Caliber)

Sabot: Wood Cup (Missing)

Fuse: CS Copper Time Fuse Adapter

Book:
Dickey and George (1993 Edition) Page 32
Melton and Pawl (Paperback Editon) Page 34 A-16

Location Recovered: Unknown

Description:As most of you know the side loader was a way of the south being able to use iron case shot balls instead of lead when their lead supplies were running low. They wanted to save the lead for bullets. Lead case shells have their power cavity created by drilling through the fuse hole down the shell full of matrix laden lead balls. With iron case they can't drill through them so they use a wood rod through the fuse hole to become the powder cavity and then pour matrix and balls though the side loader hole to fill the powder cavity. Then they remove the wood rod and plug the hole and they have a case shot ball with a powder cavity in the center of the shell.

I got this example in a recent collection and at a glance it looked like a messy old side loader. But closer inspection showed it just needed some TLC and out came a really nice projectile. The iron isn't slick but it is just lightly evenly peppered with some ground action. It has a nice dark chocolate brown color. The fuse is really nice and the lead plug is top notch. The side plug is smooth with no real corrosion and still has a decent amount of white oxidation to make it really stand out. The shell was drilled through the fuse so there is no external hole visible. This is a really nice display piece especially for the price. If the iron was slick it would cost way more.

Note: the shell is a bit darker in person than in the images. The extra light used to get clear, non-grainy images tends to lighten them a good bit and make the surface look more peppered.

Shell is inert, cleaned and coated.