Tennessee bolt sabot

[alwion]

I just reattached a 6.4 sabot, which had a clear impression of a square headed bolt. Mike has a 5.82 for sale, which shows a round circle, did it have a washer, a washer headed bolt, or was the circle machined into it for some reason?

[CarlS]

Hello,

I have that sabot that Mike listed here with me.  As you can tell the bottom is very roughly cast.  The underside is much smoother.  My guess is that many of the pock marks seen are air bubbles that rose to the top of the molten copper in the mold.  At any rate, the round place you see is likely a wear spot caused by the rotating square headed bolt pressing down on the metal.

[alwion]

Hi Carl, well I thought about that, but it looked fairly deep. My sabot bolt imprint was from firing ( you saw it before I got it) , i would have expected this one to show a similar head imprint from firing. I wouldn't thing that original production tightening would have made what looks like a deep round area, but maybe it just shows more from the picture. also the lack of a bolt head imprint since it was fired seems odd, unless the bolt gave way immediately, seems it would have left an imprint like mine. interesting to think about

[emike123]

Actually the one I have in my collection has a similar sized hole in the sabot and the bolt fits through it snugly.  On the one I have in my collection, the bolt is eroded but I was checking it out the other day to see which one was better.  The one for sale is has a little more complete sabot, but no bolt to show you what I am talking about.

[CarlS]

There is no real depression. The patina gives it a little shadowing around the edge that certainly makes the circle look recessed.  I looked on two other full sabots (7-inch Mullane and 7-inch Brooke) for marks around the center hole.  One was pretty rough cast but didn't show anything by he hole.  The other was also rough cast and there was perhaps both some of the circle as well as the square depression from the bolt at firing but both were faint.

[emike123]

Here is a photo of the bottom of the one I have in my collection:

[alwion]

Ok must just be a shadow cast. If its not deep, then was probably where the head turned down when tightening.  I see the bolt depression on mikes. but now another question. why does mikes have the extra dimple? looks like  it has more than 3 recess's on the base?

[emike123]

That dimple you see is a false start and not nearly deep enough for one of the sabot pegs.  All three pegs are intact and go about 3x further into the iron base than that dimple is deep.

[alwion]

Thats interesting too:}