Fourth of July noisemaker

[Bill in Oregon]

Stumbling backward to the 15th century ... I recently received this order from The Rifle Shoppe: their steel "hand gonne" in .75 smoothbore. Still working on the tiller, which has a bit of runout as you can see. I plan to rotate the barrel to have it point a few degrees high due to the inherent aiming challenges of holding the tiller with both hands and resting on the right shoulder. Touchhole with fuse will be rotated about 20 degrees to the right to keep the fuse out of the line of sight. Will try it with balls from a Lyman .735 mold, wadding of tow. I blued the thing with Brownell's Oxpho. Should be interesting -- at least the first time!

[AJMD429]

.
Looks fun. When I was a kid our neighbor had one big enough to shoot soda cans out of. It was awesome. As I recall he used very little black powder but the cans went a couple hundred yards if they were filled with something; I think he just used aquarium gravel but I was a little kid and don't remember the details.

[gamekeeper]

That looks like FUN Bill... do you have any 15th century armour to test it on

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[Bill in Oregon]

Out of armor at present John.

For more on gonnes:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16149

https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/med ... 849081566/

[Grizz]

Stumbling backward to the 15th century ... I recently received this order from The Rifle Shoppe: their steel "hand gonne" in .75 smoothbore. Still working on the tiller, which has a bit of runout as you can see. I plan to rotate the barrel to have it point a few degrees high due to the inherent aiming challenges of holding the tiller with both hands and resting on the right shoulder. Touchhole with fuse will be rotated about 20 degrees to the right to keep the fuse out of the line of sight. Will try it with balls from a Lyman .735 mold, wadding of tow. I blued the thing with Brownell's Oxpho. Should be interesting -- at least the first time!

Thanks so much Bill. I just spent the last three hours cruising from link to link all the way back to the 1300s I think.

What a great signal gun on a boat. And maybe a trip-wire intruder alarm if I can find a friction canon igniter . . .

the Possibilities !

[GunnyMack]

Buddies dad was approached by the mayor in town for the bicentennial to put a cannon together for the parade. He found a place that had 2/3 scale Napoleon cannons cast in brass. Finished turning it, bored it about half way and built an oak carriage. He towed it behind his pickup for the parade. Next day he called the mayor and asked where he wanted the cannon. Oh you can keep it.
So it went back to the shop, onto a lathe for finish boring and a touch hole.
You can guess what came next- touching it off!
Tennis balls?✓
Soup cans filled and frozen?✓
Live tennis balls? ✓( filled with 2f and fused)
We always wanted to load it with 4buck...
Anyhow on July 3rd we would carry the barrel from basement to barn, assemble the carriage and wait for the 4th. About noon slide the barn door open roll it out and touch off a few ounces of cannon grade black powder, roll it back into the barn and close the door. Wait for the police to drive by as they normally did, give it an hour or so and repeat the process.
They lived in a valley and the reverberations of the report were great!

[Grizz]

Buddies dad was approached by the mayor in town for the bicentennial to put a cannon together for the parade. He found a place that had 2/3 scale Napoleon cannons cast in brass. Finished turning it, bored it about half way and built an oak carriage. He towed it behind his pickup for the parade. Next day he called the mayor and asked where he wanted the cannon. Oh you can keep it.
So it went back to the shop, onto a lathe for finish boring and a touch hole.
You can guess what came next- touching it off!
Tennis balls?✓
Soup cans filled and frozen?✓
Live tennis balls? ✓( filled with 2f and fused)
We always wanted to load it with 4buck...
Anyhow on July 3rd we would carry the barrel from basement to barn, assemble the carriage and wait for the 4th. About noon slide the barn door open roll it out and touch off a few ounces of cannon grade black powder, roll it back into the barn and close the door. Wait for the police to drive by as they normally did, give it an hour or so and repeat the process.
They lived in a valley and the reverberations of the report were great!

That's All American the Great again . . . should be on a plaque in the school yard . . .

[2ndovc]

Pretty cool, Bill!
My uncle gave me this before he moved to FL year around. It has a .75" bore and makes quite a racket.
I haven't experimented with projectiles yet, too dangerous where I live.
My dad has one in a walnut Naval carriage that has a bore large enough for a D cell battery. Those are fun!

jb

[Bill in Oregon]

Jason, that looks like an old yachting salute cannon, but not the breech-loading 10 gauge that Winchester made. With that elegant Dahlgren curvature, it reminds me a little of the biggest of the carbide cannons, which I could never talk Dad into buying.

[4t5]

Be careful with anything called a “hand GONE “.

[Bill in Oregon]

Well, she's all ready for her debut.

The great patriot John Adams said this in a letter to his wife Abigail about what would come to be known as Independence Day:
"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

I shall do my best to mark the morrow with flag and gonne, now fitted with completed tiller. I will shoot it for real with black powder and lead round balls at the gun club in the morning, but will fire a blank in the afternoon to celebrate the Fourth.
Finished overall length is 53 inches and weight just under four pounds. One can hold it with both hands and the rear of the tiller under the arm, or hold it overhand with the rear of the tiller atop the shoulder.

[GunnyMack]

Get video Bill- we need to see this belch smoke!
I'm going to make smoke tomorrow but on a rack of ribs!

[Bill in Oregon]

Well, what an armful of fun this thing is! I only fired a couple of rounds as the wind was really stiff and I had a heck of a time lighting the fuses, but on the second shot, aiming instinctively from the waist, I managed to clobber the steel silhouette at about a dozen yards. I was only using 30 grains of Olde Eynsford FFg black powder, but the charge was sufficient to flatten that big .735 round ball. The recovered slug weighed 590 grains; as cast these run about 600 grains.

[GunnyMack]

Only 30 grains ? What happened to the old 1:1 BP formula ? You should've gone right to 73.5 grains Bill. ( all kidding aside, I wouldn't be all that enthusiastic about loading that up!)
I'm glad your project is a success!!
My ribs are almost ready- my success is yet to be determined!

[Bill in Oregon]

Will, I can smell those ribs from here. Ya done good!

[GunnyMack]

Here ya go Bill- right off the smoker

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