Talk:41cm Triple Gun Mount Kai/@comment-24702213-20170529140417/@comment-24.68.120.111-20170601071621

The US 16 inch Mk. 7 used a super-heavy shell with 20% additional weight over the Japanese 41cm shell, giving it greater deck penetration at long ranges at the cost of comparatively poor belt penetration and a small bursting charge. The guns themselves were 20% heavier then the Japanese 41cm guns with much larger shell elevators to accomodate the heavy shells (The older Mk I 16 inch guns on the Colorado were incapable of firing the super heavy shell).

In reply to the fellow above, Japanese DC and FD cordite powder was of acceptable quality, the Japanese did not use granular powder for its naval guns, following British practice. Post-WWI adoptation of German powder manufacturing practices also made a satisfactory powder. The US on the otherhand struggled with low quality flashless powder throughout the war, in particular needing to import flashless powder (Cordite N) from Canada which was considered to be substandard due the brittleness of the cords and the presence of dangerous amounts of nitroglycerine.

Wire wounding was stopped largely due to cost, not because of it's performance. Drooping was a problem only in early guns, particularily the US Army coastal guns. With advances in Metallurgy larger calibre all-steel guns became viable without the need for wire-winding. The Japanese likewise stopped making wire-wound guns until the 46cm guns of the Yamato which warranted their introduction.

In addition, muzzule velocity of the 41cm firing a type 91 shell is 806m/s for a new gun, not 785m/s.