Its got a 8" barrel and fires a 75 caliber 632 gr ball.
Turned it from 2" brass hex stock. Oak carriage frame, 6" wheels with steel rims, has elevation adjustment screw, the draw bar pins down (I have a 1/2 lag bolt 6" long to screw into firm ground,) , made a ram, a brass monkey, cleaning brush and a touch hole rod. Should be fun to shoot, figure about a 100gr of FFG should do it. Probably start down around 75 though. Once I have it figured out I set the powder up in paper containers. Just having some fun in the shop in between yard clean up and stuff.





Much better picturess on post #15

Looking forward to a range report!!!

Be safe......

__________________
Tom Graham SWCA #2303

Nice job, now don't forget to keep your powder dry and watch the front sight when you fire it. Should be a tack driver!!!

I think 75 grains of FFg may still be too much! If using FFFg, reduce about 5 to 10% even further. Think of the recoil of 45-70 in a much heavier gun!

One of my shop teachers in Jr. High School, along with a bunch of neighborhood boys, made a 2" bore cannon. The barrel was 1/4" walled bearing reese stock 3 feet long. They used a Gerber baby food jar as their powder measurer.(Approx. 4 OUNCES! or 1700 grains) of Fg! The first shoot ripped the barrel from the wagon axel they used. The shot cleared their backstop by over 5 feet, went an additional couple thousand feet and KILLED a cow! (The cow was paid for buy all the families, butchered and enjoyed). The cannon was repaired by 2 of the fathers, and a charge of 1 ounce (440 grains +/-) was allowed, and distributed by the parents.

But do have fun!

Ivan

Oh Great..... another "Is this enough gun for bear?? " thread.

Well you got enough bullet...... question is velocity.............



Sweeeet...Nice winter project........

I can hear it now; 4th of July, every hour on the hour!!!!

I am sure the recoil will be heavy. But, I don't think my barrel will rip from the axle. The trunions were made from 1/2" brass bolts, those are held by side sets each held with 2 1/4"x 3" hangar bolts. The trunion housings sets were machined from 2 pieces of 1"x3/4" brass bar stock. Plus, my cannon weighs 9lb and 10oz. which should be a heavy as most 45-70s The cross piece that holds the mounts is 2" oak and it is match grooved to the bottom piece of 2"oak and then they are glued together with Gorilla glue as well as a counter sunk 1 1/2" 3/8" lag bolt with a washer. It is very substantial for its size. The tongue of the carriage is a steel piece made from pieces of 1" wide 3/16" flat bar welded together. This is held on with 2 1/4" bolts passing through the top steel piece and the tongue and into the threaded bottom piece. It has a 5/8" hole in it and I am going to use a 1/2" lag bolt to anchor it to hard packed ground. My first mini cannon, years ago, fired 45 cal balls and was on a wheeled carriage and I didn't stake it down and the cannon traveled quite a ways. I learn slow, but, I learn. LOL. My initial back stop will be a huge dirt hill with no cows or anything else. Plus, I have lots of long slow burning fuse. I have a lot of FFG and the ingredients to make a lot more high quality BP.

I also have more brass hex stock, more wheels, more oak, more 6" pipe to cut rims from. But, I will reduce the initial charge to 50 gr to see what happens.

I am surprised that 1/4" walls didn't split running 4 oz of PB.

A freind of mine made cannon out of a piece of rail car axle and it shot the small individual sized tomato juice cans filled with concrete a long ways with that much PB, put his cannon was very heavy compare to 1/4" walls. Did you mean bearing race stock? That is 51200 and very good steel when HT properly.

I have always wanted to get a 5' piece of 6" drill collar from an oil drilling rig. It had a 1 3/4 inch bore and was a little over 90 lb per ft so that would be a 450 lb barrel before adding any hardware. Rifle it and make a breach loader using a hinged breach. Fire machined steel bullets with copper or brass driving bands to engage the rifling. I have several large hydraulic cylinders and a 5 hp, 2 stage hydraulic pump and could use those to cut the rifling. Make a 4 groove cutting head and a spiraled pulling jig. My step dad rifled several muzzle loader barrels. A 5" one would be a lot of work, but the bore size would allow you to use big tooling and apply a lot of force to pull the cutter.

One of my brothers spend his time int the USMC with self propelled 8" guns.

Awesome. I bet it looks great in focus.

Yea, crummy cell phone pictures. Will get it out to the light box and hit it with the good camera soon. Yesterday was in the 90s, spend most of the day arranging stuff and wiring lights and outlets in my 14x32 storage shed with a metal roof.

The cannon was all done just waiting for the wood portion of the wheels to show up to finish it. The came in the afternoon mail, so I finished it up. I was dirty hot and tired, but, couldn't wait to show it off.

I shoot 20 grains of old powder in mine and stuff it with do do paper or a 50 caliber ball or bullet and a fuse. It was built in a shipyard in Kaliforney in the 70s. My friend who built it gave it to his dad and he didnt like it so I gave him $60 for it in the 80s. It is a hoot to shoot. It is a 9 inch. It is a fun way to get rid of old powder.

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That is cool! I hope you video the shoot and post that too. I may have to build one of these also! Sure looks like fun! Thanks for sharing your new toy. Kyle
I

I agree. I love seeing all those fabrication talents.

While we're waiting for a video of this Marine firing his new cannon ......

The Feds get a little squirrely about any breech loader that's rifled and over .500". Then if it uses a cartridge they demand one of two things: 1) They approve you own it and pay a $500.oo Transfer or manufacture tax for Dangerous Ordinance paper work. or 2) Go To Jail, do not pass GO!

Muzzle loaders, smooth or rifled, Black Powder or smokeless, don't freak them out too much. (There is a guy out West that has a Sherman tank with a welded breach, He muzzle loads a cannon smokeless and shoots at a 5mile range! doesn't seem to have any problems.)

There is a salvage yard owner in Central Ohio that has a repo Civil War 5" Ordinance Rifle (similar to a Wentworth) He had the Gunsmiths at the Ohio Historical Society make a bullet mold that used melted Mag rims from wrecked cars. Three points, 1) it can only use Black powder (or will blow up) 2) and it has phenomenal accuracy (regularly hits refrigerators at 2 to 3 miles) 3) around 20-25% of the projectiles ignite from the powder charge, a 5" magnesium torch flying for miles is a sight to behold! (my best friend was a helper on that project in the early 80's) For artillery purposes, the accurate range is estimated to be almost 8 miles!

Lastly, in your response, you kept referring to "PB" as a powder charge. PB is a smokeless powder. I was referring to Black Powder, Fg, FFg, FFFg refer to grain size. The is also Cannon grade powder of Cg, CCg, and CCCg. ("F" Means fine, and "C" means course.) The smokeless PB actually looks like FFFg Black Powder, but the burn rate and energy is many times greater in the smokeless! and most likely it would destroy your project.

Ivan, the buzzkill!

OMG! Another "COW CANNON" thread!

Is there a concealed carry holster available for this hog leg?

here are some better photos plus I did a little bit more tune up on it

PS, I didn't mean PB, but BP for black powder. Plus, if I made a breach loading cannon I would not use cartridges. But, bullet followed by a bagged black powder charge. I have several cans of FFG plus, the ingredients to make about 12# of quality red gum black powder. It is much cheaper to make it than buy it. If I needed to get a transfer stamp so be it.

My brother spend a bunch of time at 29 Palms firing 8" Howitzers. He said once during a firing exercise his crew got their gun set up and ready to fire on coordinates and he looked down the line and one gun was setup 180 out. LOL. Said they were pretty accurate up to almost 20 miles. Bet they could kill some cows.

Next I am going to cut up an old pair of jeans into circles and make a soft swab. The brush I made uses a 1" diameter bottle brush. Powder dipper is a copper pipe end cap with a brash handle, ram is made from a 3/4" dowl I turned on the lathe, touch hole rod is from nail set into a nob. About ready to go. Made a ball remover to. Got a couple balls stuck in the barrel when I was honing it and checking them for fit. They go in now with just a little pressure and will pop out when I smack the muzzle on a piece of aluminum on my anvil.

Phil: Wonderful workmanship as usual from you. What fun!

There is a small group here in the Vegas area that are building cannons that shoot old bowling balls. The bore is made from the big oxygen tanks welders use. They have tried to get me interested, but at my age the last thing I need is one more activity to waste my time on. .... :-)

.....And, I suspect that they are really interested in my machine shop more than me......... :-(

Powder charge is 1 35mm film can of FFG black powder. Golf balls are the ammo.

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__________________
Paul
Salome, AZ

I think I will just open carry it. Montana being like Wyoming thats not a problem.

About 25-30 miles from my place is Murfield Village, outside Dublin, Ohio. That is where the golf tournament is held. There are several housing developments in and around the various golf courses. Along the 14th or 15th fairway is a huge French Colonial house, the back of which overlooks a lake and a gazebo on the opposite shore. The Gazebo belongs to Jack Nicolas, and the Big house belongs to a different Jack, They went to High School together and very much dislike each other! While the big house was under construction, two and sometimes three of my friends were on trim crews there. About 3 or 4 months before completion, my best friend was chatting with the owner and mention how the house resembled the French fort at Niagara on the Canadian side. My friend said as a joke, that the terraces would be perfect for several cannons. Jack the owner, said it was a shame they couldn't get any! To which my friend replied that Dixie Gun Works made functional 3/4 scale cannons that used pop can filled with concrete for projectiles. A few weeks later my friend (and his wife) was on an all expense paid trip to Dixie to pick up several cannons. They were last seen on the terraces, all zeroed on the gazebo. This took place in the late 80's or early 90's. It is a gated community with armed patrol, so I can't get in any longer.

Ivan

Nice job!!!

i have one of the CVA "Old Ironsides" 45 caliber BP cannons. When firing with a 45 caliber round ball I use about 25 grains FF bp. Any more than that and the little cannon will do backflips. You tube has some nice videos of home made black powder cannons. And I have a section of 40 mm bofors anti aircraft cannon barrel sitting in the garage. Frank

Sweet. I take it you have plans for it? How long is the piece and how much does it weigh? That's just a bit over 1.5". That would make a great cannon and should be able to have a lot of accuracy.