Hello,
I picked up a nice Parrott 30-lber half shell from fellow forumite "Dave the plumber " at Gettysburg. It has a nice brass sabot and the black matrix. The thing I like a lot about it is the tin powder charge sleeve that runs from the fuse to the bottom of the shell cavity. Due to manufacturing flaws this shell could have never exploded when fired. The tar leaked into the sleeve and sealed off the bottom of the fuse likely preventing the fuse from igniting the charge. I've also included my 20-lber which has the iron sabot and yellow matrix. In both examples they contain lead case shot. To the left of these is a non-case shot Read-Parrott half of the Bormann fused variety. Note the squared off powder cavity at the top as compared to the normal cavity in the other two shell halves.
