Any cannon shooters here?

[Gobblerforge]

Well my noise maker is together and man, what a hoot. Because we live in a ridge peak we get a realy good echo.
Gobbler.
Cannon.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HCdX2fpCY4

[Topside]

Enjoyed your video and your Gobbler Forge site!

T.

[Borregos]

Neat

[TedH]

[kimwcook]

Cool. My brother used to have one of the commercially made smaller cannons about an inch bore. After a few libations we'd pack in some powder, top if off with some toilet paper and let'er rip. Good way to go through a lot of BP.

[TX Gun Runner]

I need to finish these 2 I made on my lathe , but here is one I got in a swap meet .

[lthardman]

I guess I qualify as a cannon shooter. I own two half-scale six pounders. One has a bronze barrel and is mounted on a field carriage. The other has a tube with a 4140 ordinance steel sleeve with iron cast around it. That one is on a solid oak naval carriage that I made from plans I found describing the gun carriages on the Constitution. I also have a new mortar, sized for soda cans/tennis balls, but I have yet to shoot that one. The two cannons will rattle your windows with up to 500 - 700 grains of FFg. Not recommended to use that much powder with a projectile, though. The bore on those two are both about 1 and 7/8 inches. Think golf ball.

You might want to consider a cannon lock. That way you can use a percussion cap to ignite the charge, eliminating the time it takes for the fuse to burn. A lot can happen in the 20 seconds that the fuse burns that can make your downrange area unsafe. By using a lanyard on the cannon lock, you can still stand pretty far back.

And be careful. If you get a misfire, wait a good 15 minutes before doing anything. Have a hose near-by, or at least a good water fire extinguisher or two. The wadding can ignite the area in front of the tube if it is dry, and you want something to flood the bore with if you get a misfire.

[C. Cash]

Nice Mountain Howitzer! Nothing brings families together like a good explosion......

[COSteve]

My cannons were a bit newer in design. In '67 - '68 I had one of these in Germany,



and in '68 - '69 I had one of these in RVN.

[76/444]

No cannons here,.... just a comment of surprise on how little the 3oz charge recoiled. Very nice job!!!Congrats on your success!!

[lthardman]

If this works, here are a couple photos of the cannons referred to in my previous post. The first is the bronze tube with field carriage. The second is the steel/cast iron tube with naval carriage I made. Neither shows the cannon locks, as they were added later.

[madman4570]

When I was a teenager used to use my dads empty tobacco cans and some carbide pellets/water dropletts and make cannons.

Also used to insert the pellets into a balloon add small amount of water let the ballon expand tied off to a 20ft string and pull balloon over a candle.You would get this huge yellow flash at night.
Warning"Dont try this at Home"


OR "maybe I am just dreaming I did that" ya,that could be it!

[nemhed]

Very cool! How did the dog feel about that?

[Pathfinder09]

What a hoot!

[Paladin]

Very Impressive, what size projo does it take?

[Ysabel Kid]

wannabe cannon shooter here... someday...

Very cool!

[44magHunter]

Awsome.

You can't do this in France!

[Gobblerforge]

Glad you all enjoyed it. The bore is about 1 3/4" in a tube that is about 4 1/2" outside diameter and 42" long. The barrel alone ways about 100lbs. and the cannon is designed, with the upwards angle, to plant into the soft ground if any recoil. The test shot moved it into soft dirt about an inch. Not much. The whole rig was put together just to make a good boom for New Years and such so will probably never be used with a projectile. The hot dog buns make great wad to give more boom and don't litter. They are biodegradable and what does land on the ground, the birds get. Win, win. 2 oz. loads will probably be the normal. We'll see. as far as cleaning, we made it with a removable, threaded breach. It threads in with a left hand, 4.5 tpi thread for 2.5 inches. As far as the fuse, I hear you but for me it's fuse. Part of the fun.
Gobbler

[2ndovc]

Very cool!!

My Dad has a cannon with a bore that fits a D cell battery perfectly.
I never measured it, but we save up our old D's and have "blast"
Barrel is about 2' long on a walnut Navy style carriage. Jumps back about 8-10"
when fired!


I need to get some photos!

jb

[2571]

Anybody got a lever canon?

[KCSO]

The last one I built was a fur trade cannon on a naval carrige. The bore was 1 3/4" and the grandkids found out that they could put a golf ball in the bore and then use my air gun to shoot the ball across the shop. Now when they come over they can't wait for fire in the hole!!! and a golf ball bounces off the far wall. So far my biggest gun was a 2 1/4" revolutionary war gun on a grasshopper rig, but i prefer the fur trade guns ad am workinng on a copy of the Lewis and Clark gun.

[20cows]

I guess I'll have to take some pictures of mine (I'm building others in a long, slow drawn out process).

The one I completed 25 years ago or so has a 40 lb barrel with an .875 bore. With a 1000gr round ball and 360 grains of black, it punches right through a railroad crosstie. I usually load it down to 180 to 270gr and can hit a coke can at 25 yds or a car body at 400.

[lthardman]

Would a 10 gauge lever action Winchester Model 1901 fit the bill?