Shawn,

I'm not really sure. I will ask our Ordinance Chief. He is more up on that. We have not used any shells yet. The fuses present a safety problem. Our live shoots are on private property for training purposes but we compete at National Guard bases.Our biggest being at Camp Grayling, Michigan in July. This takes precedence over any reenactment that might be happening during that time. I don't know of anyone who actually shoots shell. As I mentioned the fuse situation is a bit touchy. We shoot the following
2 US 3 inch Ordinance Rifles
1 6 pounder Cadet gun (smoothbore)
2 12 pounder howitzers
1 2.25 inch Confederate Mountain Rifle
1 3 inch Blakely Rifle
1 24 pounder Coehorn Mortar

We plan to shoot live and drill with the horses on January 20th. This will give us a chance to ready ourselves for Shiloh. I will ask our Ordinance Captain about your questions. He is very knowledgable as he was an ordinance officer in the U.S. Army a few years back. As for me, I'm just an old Marine Grunt who happens to like big guns.I was trained on the "hip pocket artillery" ( 81mm mortars) and spent my time in combat as a forward observer for them. I guess I like hearing big booms! I hope to acquire an 8 inch siege mortar in the future! Now that's my kinda toy!

Len