APPENDIX II.

Precautions to be Taken when Firing Blank Ammunition.

1. No officer, non-commissioned officer, or gunner, is to command or form part of a section or gun detachment firing blank ammunition at salutes or on field days who has not been trained and passed in gun drill.

2. When bare charges are used, no gun is to be reloaded within 30 seconds after firing. When firing Q.F. blank cartridges, no gun is to be reloaded within 15 seconds after firing.

Even after these intervals no gun is to be reloaded unless the No. 1 has examined the chamber and the bore and removed any “debris” remaining from the previous round. (N.B.—With the 4·5-inch Q.F. Howitzer the lid of the cartridge is not to be removed when firing blank ammunition.)

3. In firing salutes not less than four guns are to be used. When firing signal rounds at field days and manœuvres, however, any number of guns may be used provided that the conditions of paragraph 2 are fulfilled.

4. In the event of a missfire, at least one more attempt should be made to fire the gun, when it is again its turn, but in any case the breech must not be opened for at least one minute with “black powder” charges and ten minutes with “smokeless powder” charges after the last failure to fire the gun. None of the detachment should be directly in rear of the breech when it is opened.

In firing salutes, an officer or senior non-commissioned officer should be detailed for the special duty of timing the interval after a missfire, and informing the No. 1 of that gun when he may open the breech.