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RML 7-pounder Mountain Gun

The Ordnance RML 7-pounder Mk IV "Steel Gun" was a British rifled muzzle-loading mountain gun. 7-pounder referred to the approximate weight of the shell it fired.

Ordnance RML 7-pounder Mk IV Mountain Gun

Mountain gun

United Kingdom

1873 – 19?

 British Empire
 India

Anglo-Zulu War
First Boer War
Second Boer War
Anglo-Aro War

200 lb (91 kg) barrel

3 ft (0.91 m)

7 lb 11 oz (3.5 kg) (shrapnel)
7 lb 4 oz (3.3 kg) (common)
12 lb 4 oz (5.6 kg) (double)[1]

3 in (76 mm)[1]

nil

968 ft/s (295 m/s)

3,000 yd (2,700 m)[1]

History[edit]

Development began in 1864 to replace the RBL 6-pounder 2.5-inch (64 mm) gun of 3 long hundredweight (340 lb; 150 kg), which had proved too heavy for a mountain gun. Several Mks of 7-pounder RML of 2 long hundredweight (220 lb; 100 kg) were tried in 1865 by boring out and rifling old SBML bronze guns, but were still too heavy.[2]


Several Mks of new steel barrels (the first British all-steel gun, hence the name "Steel Gun") were then produced of 190 lb (86 kg) and 150 lb (68 kg) but were not considered powerful enough.[2]


Mk IV of 200 lb (91 kg) with a longer bore was settled on for production in 1873.


It was superseded by the RML 2.5-inch Mountain Gun from 1879.

Battle of Laing's Nek

List of mountain artillery

at the Regional Military Training Center in Darulaman Garrison, Kabul. The garrison is near the palaces, and south of the where the British had their headquarters during the Anglo-Afghan wars.

Bala Hissar

A gun at

Royal Armoury, Fort Nelson, UK

Royal Artillery Museum, London

Johannesburg, South Africa

South African National Museum of Military History

Today, several examples of the guns still exist around the world :

Major Darrell D Hall,

"Guns in South Africa 1899-1902" in The South African Military History Society Military History Journal – Vol 2 No 1, June 1971

Major Darrell D. Hall, (web page is incorrectly titled 1900–1914)

"Field Artillery of the British Army 1860–1960. Part I, 1860 – 1900" in The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal – Vol 2 No 4, December 1972

W. L. Ruffell,

The Gun – Rifled Ordnance: Mountain Artillery. RML 7-pounder

Major D.D. Hall,

The South African Military History Society Military History Journal Vol 4 No 4, December 1978. "ARTILLERY IN THE ZULU WAR – 1879"

Major D.D. Hall,

The South African Military History Society Military History Journal – Vol 5 No 2, December 1980. "The Artillery of the First Anglo-Boer War 1880 – 1881"

MAJOR G. TYLDEN, ED,

The South African Military History Society Military History Journal – Vol 1 No 2, June 1968. Further Notes on Early Rhodesian Military Units and Early Rhodesia's Weapons

at Victorian Forts and Artillery website.

Diagram of carriage, 7-pounder gun of 200 Lbs Mk I and Text