The solid shot of the Somerset gun weighed approximately while the gun itself weighed . The gun had a velocity of at and had a range of . The shell of the 110-pounder Armstrong breech-loader weighed . It had a muzzle velocity of and, at an elevation of 11.25°, a maximum range of . The 110-pounder gun weighed . All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells. Both guns were mounted on wooden gun carriages with slides "which were difficult to traverse even on an even keel; in a seaway few captains would have run the risk of casting them loose."