Qball-Really like those husky barrels on your cannons.Look powerful.Vrichard-I really would like to acquire a winchester cannon but the prices I've seen are a little salty.Maybe I'll get lucky and find one at a yard sale.
Who has a cannon,(not camera)
- Thread starter joe52853
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Terry C
Member
These first two are actually the same gun. I built two styles of carriage for it.
Barrel is 3 bore (1.156"), 16" from muzzle to breech face, about 18½" overall. With proper windage it fires a 1.125" ball.
And yes it does occasionally get fired with ball (or canister, 27 000 buckshot pellets) but mostly it is used as a salute cannon. With 500 grains of GOEX Fg, it makes a LOUD salute!
These are my mortars, two of which I built from scratch and the smallest built from a 'kit.' They are from back-to-front:
Golfball (1.723")
3-bore (matches the cannon)
Paintball (.69)
Even Lucy (Lucretia MacEvil) has her own, a vintage "Big Bang" carbide cannon . . .
Barrel is 3 bore (1.156"), 16" from muzzle to breech face, about 18½" overall. With proper windage it fires a 1.125" ball.
And yes it does occasionally get fired with ball (or canister, 27 000 buckshot pellets) but mostly it is used as a salute cannon. With 500 grains of GOEX Fg, it makes a LOUD salute!
These are my mortars, two of which I built from scratch and the smallest built from a 'kit.' They are from back-to-front:
Golfball (1.723")
3-bore (matches the cannon)
Paintball (.69)
Even Lucy (Lucretia MacEvil) has her own, a vintage "Big Bang" carbide cannon . . .
rburg
Member
The Winchester 10 Gauge comes in a cool box. Its just a shipping crate with stenciled in red "one breech loading cannon". 2 weeks ago I saw some ammo for it at the gun show. The guy had a partial box for $84. It didn't make much sense to me and I passed.
My wife gave me a Napolean II cannon for Christmas one year back in the 1970s. We assembled it but it didn't give very good results. I had a buddy who was a machinist. I asked him if he could bore it out to 12 ga. He said sure. That turned a difficult toy in to a great one. All most of us seek is a very satisfying boom. The power pistons of shotgun fame can be used, then reused until they're torn. If you get a good load, you even get a smoke ring. That and the concussion shakes everything around you.
A good story. Back in the 1990s we were at a club owned gravel pit for the 4th of July. Just a bunch of friends sitting around, maybe some adult beverages. And the ever present fireworks. One of my buddies is a pretty good story teller. Up comes a little boy, maybe 7 or 8 years old. He kind of sadly handed my friend a burnt spinner. Just a little metal disk with pedals bent to form a propeller. The powder charge spins it and up it goes. So the buddy decided to put the little guy on and told him that when he was young, he could usually make them go off a 2nd time! Everyone was watching to see how Michael talked himself out of that one.
But the entire time my son and I were working like mad. We got the cannon turned on its base, put in a fuse (we always precut them) and then dumped in a couple of capfulls of black powder (4f) and pushed in a plastic wad, tamping it down pretty good. Then we set it back on its wheels with it aimed out across the way (safe direction) we lit the fuse. Long fuse, but good because the story was wearing thin. Then just before the sparkle went in the hole, the story teller just took a lighter, aimed it at the spinner and threw it up in the air. And of course it did nothing but flutter up.
And then the boom hit. A full compliment of innocent by standers, getting ready to laugh at the guy. You should have heard the things they were saying about him and me. Many of their comments can be refuted with a copy of my parents marriage license. We laughed about it for a couple of years. It was one of our better unrehearsed stunts.
Intheshop
Member
About 15 or so years ago,was going to get one of those 3/4 sized civil war era,field howitzers from Dixie Gunworks.It shot coke cans filled with concrete(2 7/16" bore?).
Wife,who is extremely tolerant of our shooting,guns,bows,etc.....just couldn't abide me and our four little boys out blastin/target practising with it?Defering....picking my battles if you will,we didn't get it.
All these years later,kids grown up....it's one of those things we really SHOULD have gotten.
Wife,who is extremely tolerant of our shooting,guns,bows,etc.....just couldn't abide me and our four little boys out blastin/target practising with it?Defering....picking my battles if you will,we didn't get it.
All these years later,kids grown up....it's one of those things we really SHOULD have gotten.
klondike
Member
My old neighbor was a master machinist and he made this beautiful piece modeling a 42# coastal defense gun.
BobC357
Member
I still have the small 1819 British Naval Cannon I made in high school metal shop. It's about 10 inches long and a .50 caliber. I don't have any photos and its packed away
Then, there are the 4 × 20 mm M39A1 revolver cannon in the Hun
Finally, here's a photo of a BIG Cannon!
Then, there are the 4 × 20 mm M39A1 revolver cannon in the Hun
Finally, here's a photo of a BIG Cannon!
pineappleshooter
US Veteran
Built one in machine shop in high school (1985 or so). Bored it out to take a golf ball for a projectile. Set it up along the Ohio River and proceeded to fire it. After about 10 shots we noticed we couldn't see splashes - we were clearing the river. That's when we realized the other side of the river was Route 7 - a very busy 4 lane highway with a cliff in the background - all our shots were landing on the highway! We broke camp and got out of there pretty fast - after throwing the cannon in the river - still there today I bet!
rburg
Member
At the National Gun Day show back in December a guy was selling bowling ball cannons. I was amused and considered it, but I don't have a stockpile of bowling balls to shoot. Not that I'm above it or anything.
I did buy a golf ball cannon. I was stupid and even thought golf balls were all the same exact diameter. They're not. So if you think you've got one bored to that size, you'll start running into some that won't go down the bore or others that just kind of roll in. Back in the 1990s I had a dog that loved to take me for long walks. We'd hit the woods around the golf course. many days we'd come home with my pockets bulging. To you its just golf balls, to me it was ammo. To the dog it was a challenge to chew the wrapper off. Everyone has his game.
Back in the past I had a D cell battery cannon. It worked better with a wrap of black electrical tape around the battery (insulation?) It sealed up pretty good and from the banks of the Ohio River would toss one, tumbling, halfway out. Empty coal barges are steel. I've even heard it said you could hear a battery as it bounced around the inside of a barge.....
I did buy a golf ball cannon. I was stupid and even thought golf balls were all the same exact diameter. They're not. So if you think you've got one bored to that size, you'll start running into some that won't go down the bore or others that just kind of roll in. Back in the 1990s I had a dog that loved to take me for long walks. We'd hit the woods around the golf course. many days we'd come home with my pockets bulging. To you its just golf balls, to me it was ammo. To the dog it was a challenge to chew the wrapper off. Everyone has his game.
Back in the past I had a D cell battery cannon. It worked better with a wrap of black electrical tape around the battery (insulation?) It sealed up pretty good and from the banks of the Ohio River would toss one, tumbling, halfway out. Empty coal barges are steel. I've even heard it said you could hear a battery as it bounced around the inside of a barge.....
Terry C
Member
RE: "rolling in" . . .
All cannon ammunition over about 3/4" should just "roll in."
People tend to think of smoothbore cannons in terms of muzzleloading firearms and up to a point (pistol/rifle calibers), they are.
But big guns are not. They are cannons and should be treated as such, and the rules and dynamics are different. Rule of thumb, once calculated windage (clearance) exceeds the thickness of a common rifle patch, then the gun is too big to safely patch and should be fired as a full-scale smoothbore would be: ball loose in the bore.
The established standard for proper windage is 1/40, so a ball should be 39/40 bore diameter. This is why a 1857 Napoleon 12 pounder has a bore diameter of 4.62" but fires a 4.5" projectile.
Small scale guns and modern metals give a lot of cushion with these issues and people don't often get smacked for unknowlingly violating the safety rules, but when it happens it can be very, very bad.
All cannon ammunition over about 3/4" should just "roll in."
People tend to think of smoothbore cannons in terms of muzzleloading firearms and up to a point (pistol/rifle calibers), they are.
But big guns are not. They are cannons and should be treated as such, and the rules and dynamics are different. Rule of thumb, once calculated windage (clearance) exceeds the thickness of a common rifle patch, then the gun is too big to safely patch and should be fired as a full-scale smoothbore would be: ball loose in the bore.
The established standard for proper windage is 1/40, so a ball should be 39/40 bore diameter. This is why a 1857 Napoleon 12 pounder has a bore diameter of 4.62" but fires a 4.5" projectile.
Small scale guns and modern metals give a lot of cushion with these issues and people don't often get smacked for unknowlingly violating the safety rules, but when it happens it can be very, very bad.
Here's my little brass cannon. I had a rough carriage, but it wasn't a very good one. I have fired a lot of black powder blanks AND a few .451 round balls, the same ones that I fire in my cab and ball revolver.
Oh, and it is stamped "CSA"!!
Oh, and it is stamped "CSA"!!
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I was in the 1/10 FA 3rd ID 155MM Self Propelled & 3/6FA 8" Guns...Big Red One... and.. technically as a taxpayer.. I owned at least one of them Big Cannons!
155mm Self propelled Howitzer
8" Self Propelled Howitzer 1st ID "Big Red One'
Big Cannons!155mm Self propelled Howitzer
8" Self Propelled Howitzer 1st ID "Big Red One'
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