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How the USS New Jersey's 16-Inch Guns Work: Top to Bottom (Ad-free) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-13 12:00:07
Imported:
2026-08

Content

I had a chance to spend some time on the USS New Jersey, today docked in Camden NJ as a public museum ship. Today we are looking at the main armament of the ship, the absolutely massive Mk7 16-inch guns. These are the largest guns ever used by the United States Navy, and they are really very complex systems requiring dozens of men each to operate. We are going to start at the very bottom of the ship and explore how the guns are loaded, aimed, and fired, going all the way up to the spotting Director 15 stories high on the very top of the vessel. 

Many thanks to the awesome staff of the New Jersey for their hospitality and to World of Warships for making the visit possible! Check out their YouTube channel for excellent coverage of all sorts of cool details of the ship:

https://www.youtube.com/battleshipnewjersey

Files

How the USS New Jersey's 16-Inch Guns Work: Top to Bottom (Ad-free)

I had a chance to spend some time on the USS New Jersey, today docked in Camden NJ as a public museum ship. Today we are looking at the main armament of the ship, the absolutely massive Mk7 16-inch guns. These are the largest guns ever used by the United States Navy, and they are really very complex systems requiring dozens of men each to operate. We are going to start at the very bottom of the ship and explore how the guns are loaded, aimed, and fired, going all the way up to the spotting Director 15 stories high on the very top of the vessel. Many thanks to the awesome staff of the New Jersey for their hospitality and to World of Warships for making the visit possible! Check out their YouTube channel for excellent coverage of all sorts of cool details of the ship: https://www.youtube.com/battleshipnewjersey The best firearms reference books: https://www.headstamppublishing.com http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons http://www.floatplane.com/channel/ForgottenWeapons Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.forgottenweapons.com

Comments

SomeMI_Guy

Can't wait for the obligatory mag dump!

David T Klein

Operating that canon assembly-line, it seems like you got your workout (and then some).

John Simpson

Don't even want to imagine unload procedures for one of those popguns.

Glenn Miller

Amazing detailed video, thanks. I would not want to be the primer man!

maxmfs

Great video! I still remember staying on the USS Massachusetts, one of the South Dakota class battleships, when I was a kid in Cub Scouts. Your video brought back a lot of memories.

Steven Taylor

Great video. You and Ryan need to do another collaboration where maybe he meets you at a range or museum and he shoots the small arms of New Jersey. Like what guns ship's forces, ships security would have shot from the M1911 to the M2

Steven Minniear

You probably heard me screaming that throughout this wonderful video. Thanks for the education!

Thomas Batha

The barrels are relined by lowering them vertically, into a shrink pit, heating to expand barrel and contract the liner, then swap liners and remove from the vertical pit. The only one left that actually works is at Watervliet Arsenal. This was all tested when the Iowas were recommissioned in the 1980's. Quite a fascinating story.

Dale Farmer

The primers are the same as the primers used by the army field artillery. IIRC, they are basically just 45-70 blank cartridges. Developed back in the day when breech loading artillery got developed, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Did Ryan show you the cleaning brushes for guns? Yup, ginormous cleaning brushes that use about a pint of CLP for each pass. something like 15 guys pulling or pushing a really long cleaning rod screwed into the brush.

Dale Farmer

You have to remove the powder bags, that is relatively easy, there is a strap on the back of the bag you can reach in with a long hook and snag to haul them back out and strike down to the magazine. The projectile is jammed into the rifling so the copper driving band is engaged and it won't slide back onto the powder bags and do baaad things. So pulling it back out of the rifling is something that requires a big fscking hammer that you push down the barrel from the muzzle. Its a heavy cylinder of steel that will not strike the nose of the projectile but has a collar to hit all around it. You put it into the end of the muzzle, attach a hauling cable, raise the gun to maximum elevation, then let it fall down the barrel to strike the shell, possibly dislodging it from the rifling. Lower the gun to horizontal, open the breech, look to see if it moved. If yes, pull it back out onto the loading tray and strike back down. If not, close the breach back up, haul the hammer back to the muzzle, elevate to maximum, repeat as many times as you dare. After the Iowa turrent explosion, there was a projectile in the left gun barrel for a couple of months until all the repairs were completed, as they couldn't pull it out. then it was discharged through the muzzle with a powder charge.

FreedomDelivery

Ian when talking about small arms design: "the hardest part of designing a gun is the magazine" Ian on the New Jersey: *spends 25 minutes explaining the magazine*

Larry Cohen

I got a real kick out of the 3D printed model of a powder kernnel, I was wondering what the powder looked like . Great information.

Guido S

things you do for people. who would travel to jersey.

Guido S

so powder for ONE shot would last me reloading the rest of my days. that magazin is a very dangerous thing indeed! man those are numbers. who they expected to haul around 110LB bags in a hurray in a battle? did those 79 guys rotate nonstop or what?

WayneWiiki

Nice to see Ryan! If only Drach were visiting at the same time. :)

JFLGA

If you are firing the main battery with less than the full, 6 bag, charge, I assume the shell still has to be inserted all of the way, in order to engage the driving band into the rifling. Where then, do you leave the gap?

JFLGA

The primers are much more complex than a blank cartridge. The primary firing system is an electrical impulse, so the primer contains a wire that heats when electrified. For the manual firing mode, the firing lock on the breech contains only the hammer. Each primer contains a firing pin. Somewhere on Youtube, there is a video on this subject. I think it was created by a gentleman on the staff of the USS Texas.