Winchester Ringblaster industrial gun - video and photo

[skibo]

These guns were made for industrial use only, I have had many hours in using these in the pulp mill I worked at. We shot the rings of lime build up in the cold rear part of the kiln, the lime goes in as a mud slurry and flows down to the turning slopped hot end (1100 degrees) of the kiln as in a near molten state! Sometimes the lime mud slurry might get hung up at the beginning of the brick lining and start to form a small ring. It soon get's bigger and if not caught in time it forms a ball that get's bigger every rotation of the kiln, same as the ring, it get's bigger and chokes the kiln. These guns we had were 8 gauge and larger Rimmington and Winchester! We used to shoot the ring out with and shoot what ball was there! Yes these guns shot what looked like shotgun shells but no shot, just solid lead slugs, very heavy slugs! I hated to shoot these miserable things, the repercussion would make the lime dust fall off from everything like the ceiling rafters, a very miserable time! Anyone ever had dry hands from working with cement? The lime we had to contend with was many times stronger and if you sweat it turned into a open burn! But the job was usually was done on overtime and I did make a lot of money doing it! cement kilns are the same thing as lime kilns, as both cement and the paper industry use lime for manufacturing!