[Silver Shield]

Some pictures of "Gonne Barrels " of the type seen circa early to mid 1400s Verses comparisons with a small boller that mimics the features of gonne barrels, all from the same area of Austria . The gonne barrels all exhibit 8 sides, some rounding of the facets , bores from about 1.8cm to approximately 2cm, all with somewhat out of round bores . From left to right weights ; .970kg, 1.282kg, 2.258kg ,2.112kg . The lengths from left to right aprox. ; 13.8cm ,14cm, 22cm,13.2cm. . The "Mimic" boller barrel is 14cm with a bore of 2cm , 6 sided , and very near perfect round . the vents or touchholes of the gonne barrels , also do not have a pushed up flash pan , although the small barrel , the 1st on the left has a small sulcus in front of its vent ,certainly forged or made during its construction ,presumed to be a early form of powder pan , and the very squat barrel on the far right has cone at the vent that is inverted to hold a small amount of residual powder to certainly get a better fire . It will be noted that Pictures of the " Mimic" barrel the flash pan has been pushed up to form a cup that would be useless when barrel was in a horizontal position , and would only be useful if barrel was in a vertical or upright position and the evidence of not only time but use show that the barrel was used contemporaneously with this feature , as pitting and other indications are consistent over the whole body of the barrel and cascade down into the area towards the vent where the material was removed to push up the pan. Also enough cannot be said about the apparent similarities with the gonne barrels , as far as overall design , but also the very different overall workmanship and apparent precision of forging .
1st picture showing 4 presumed gonne barrels , the 2nd with addition of mimic , the 3rd a close up of vent and flash pan of mimic boller .