So I get up early this morning and drive to Mason County to visit with my friend and conduct a little gun trading/buying. After making a trade and a few purchases the conversation turns towards this item. I have to say I really do not know exactly what it is, but it is mine now, so I may be very wrong in attempting to describe it.
I know it was made sometime in the early 80's, by an Austin man who has been making cannons and such for many years. The carriage was built to look like a Maxim Machine Gun, and fitted with a rifled Mountain Howitzer barrel? So I was told, but still not sure. Anyway it has been residing outside for many years and looks it. Birds have been roosting above it and their droppings show. I had no intention of purchasing this, but it came home with me. I plan on restoring this thing to make it look good again.40 mm Mountain Howitzer (18).jpg

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Wow hats cool!!! I cant imagine the hoops I'd have to jump thru here in NY.

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UNDER THE CONE OF SILENCE

WHOA!!!! And I thought MY pool had some cool landscaping touches

Very Cool.... Good luck with the resto..

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

Cool. I'd add water and aim it towards the pool. Fun for the kids.

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Dum vivo cano

That's a fine looking cannon ya' got there.
Is it pinned and recessed?


Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Not so sure I'd shoot +P's in it.......

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Even older, even crankier....

Not p/r as you ask, however it is pooped on and rusty.

^^^^^^^^^^^

Ya beat me to it!!

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

How about CTG?

The birds wanted it. They left a deposit!

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Corripe Cervisiam

Does it shoot? Larry

Supposed too. It came with all kinds of accessories, black powder, fuses, projectiles, and all of the accouterments needed. Some of the projectiles are round, some are rifled.
Tomorrow I'm going to test it with just an ounce of powder and some wet newspaper as wadding and see what happens.

That is a cool toy, what caliber is it?
Range report after you fire it tomorrow please.

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Hold my beer and watch this!

The gent that I purchased it from said it was a 40mm? I do not know anything about this mm stuff. I got home late in the afternoon and had to put it all back together, it was in pieces in the bed of my truck. I will measure it in the morning and try to come up with an idea.
It was an impulse buy, now I do not know where I am going to put it.

I saw something similar to this at a show in Mobile a couple of weeks ago. It didn't have those big wheels though. The guy that had it was sitting on a bench outside the show where it could be seen by those going in and out. I asked him if it went bang and he said it went a very loud bang. I thought about it for a second and decided I wouldn't even ask the price. Now I wish I had. It would have gone really well with my air raid siren on New Year's Eve and 4th of July.

Ok, looks like a cannon made out of a section of 40mm anti aircraft cannon barrel. Someone put a tang sight on the back end of the bbl (that rusty thing) and a globe front up front. Have a bucket of water to clean out the fouling from the firing of the black powder. Will rust a good barrel if not done as soon as possible. You can use a paint roller wired to a broom handle to clean between shots. Go to the greybeardoutdoors website and scroll down to the black powder cannon and mortar forum. You'll get plenty of help on firing, cleaning and maintaining your cannon. Frank

SWEET !! Looks like a good project for us retired coppers who live the american dream.......Congrats !!!!!

Rodger
Retired LEO

Oughta be just the ticket for thos pesky lowflying black helocopters!

Now that's a worthy bear gun.

That's pretty cool but I can hear my wife now if I brought it home.

Be sure and bolt it down, the metal thieves will steal it.

There was a thread on here about someones cannon getting stolen and I believe he was not in a well traveled area.

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Still Running Against the Wind

i wonder if el paso saddlerey can make a holster for it? cool gun. let us know if/when you shoot it. lee

My cousin who is also a forum member, comes over to the house today to take a look at this thing. After visiting for awhile we decide it's time to see if it works. We only packed a small charge into the bore, then some newspaper on top of that. It works.

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I can't begin to imagine how excited my wife would be if she saw m e pulling into the driveway with a cannon.

Are you married?

Yes, married to a little a little lady from Mexico. She really gets into all the gun buying/collecting/and especially all the gun shows we attend.

This purchase worked out very well considering it was on Cinco de Mayo.

I get home, tell her not to come in the backyard until I can get it put back together to surprise her. Then I tell her " En celebracion del Cinco de Mayo, te compre este canon. Es Rojo e Verde como la bandera de Mejico."

She replies " bueno, muchas gracias mi amor."

Does it have the IL?

I really do not know what my wife of 29 years would say if I bought a cannon. Course I could always fall back on plan A and say its for the zombies. My two daughters would probably really like it. Course the three dogs would run like the devil was after them if it went boom. One neighbor or would probably call the sherrif and the other would say shoot it again. Come to think on it, it would be a pretty good thing to have one. Load it up with buckshot inside a toilet paper tube and let fly. I really like it. Frank

looks like a good noise maker for the 4th of july parties and the midnight boom on new years !
I like it too!

Wow.... how cool is that

I want one to

makes my cannons blush (they are very small)

For zombies, load with canister.
Besides disease, canister probably killed more WBTS soldiers than anything else.

Canister

Very cool acquisition, btw.

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Georgia On My Mind

Two friends have cannon.
I have fallen behind in the local arms race.
May do something about that this year.

Howdy! I'm the cuz who was there and it is impressive! He only used about a 1/5 powder load for the pics and I am hereby testifying that definately WORKS! And it's rifled and w/o the IL! Notice I haven't used anything but !'s to end my sentences...can you tell if I was IMPRESSED!?

Steve Sprague
#1400

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Steve Sprague
SWCA 1400

I think an ankle holster for the .50 Deagle will work...

Talk about an eye catcher in the back yard, that is a really nice piece. Good luck with it.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Cool.

I really like the part of your post where you say "only an ounce of powder".

When I was a kid a buddy of mine's dad had a small ships cannon with a bore about the size of a tennis ball--whenever the call came that the old man was going to fire it up I got over there fast!

Ever see the pic of the guy that shot a deer with one of those? He used a canister load IIRC.

He fired a shot, then quickly wheeled the cannon into some brush and covered it, then emptied his shotgun.

He wanted to account for all the wounds should anyone show up asking questions.

There is a local re-enactors civil war group that has a cannon. They do some shots here in town. Every time they do it I always miss it. Time to get my own cannon. Frank

It reminds me of the video someone posted here, retired army vet vs retired navy vet. I keep imagining the army vet using the cannon and pointing it every morning in the direction of the navy vet; now that would be fun.

The video is in this thread:
Thank the Lord for old timers like these

Yesterday I was able to track down the man who built this thing 30 some odd years ago. I learned that he is still located in S. Austin and still making cannons and mortars. I learned that this barrel is exactly what a gentleman said it was from a previous post. A 40mm surplus military weapon, which was cut down and formed into what it is now.

Thank you all for all of your kind comments on my new toy.

Larry #2494

Now that's what's needed for flash mob control!

"Here....hold my beer and watch THIS!!!!!"