Intro and ID help

[The Hayman]

 Hi to all,
I have just joined this forum and recently bought my first cannon. I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to its origin. I found this cannon at a local gun shop. The owner of the shop had bought it from a guy who needed cash. The guy who sold it had bought it from Dixie Gun Works complete with the teak carriage. I looked it over and went home, looked at Dixie’s site, and figured it must be their 5/8 scale carronade barrel, and decided to go buy it. When I got back to the shop a few days later I realized that though the size was very similar, it was not the 5/8 carronade barrel, but I liked it enough so that I bought it anyway. It has a 1 ½ inch steel lined bore that is 23 ¼ inches long inside. The barrel is 25” inches long,, the gun is 27 inches long including the cascable which includes a loop. The trunnions are 1 ½ inch long as well as 1 ½ inches in diameter and it measures 7 ¼ inches across (narrower than the Dixie Barrel) at the trunnions. The bell on the barrel is also less pronounced and the taper of the barrel between the trunnions and bell less than that of the Dixie barrel. Measurement at breech and bell are the same as the Dixie 5/8 carronade barrel, 5 inches at the breech, and 3 ¾ at the bell. I have not found any markings on the barrel, and I have looked pretty closely.
Thanks to all for your help!

[KABAR2]

From what I understand most of DGW cannons were cast by Hern Iron Works, and from what I know about their products they never made a cannon like this one, also the quality of the casting looks better than what Hern produces..... Are there any markings on the trunnions? It may be a Lapan barrel....

[The Hayman]

Thanks so much KABAR2. I just double checked, there are no markings on the trunnions. I have learned a little about Lapan by reviewing  some of the forum posts and links, but as they are no longer casting cannons, there were no pictures of the guns that they produced for me to refer to.
Best,
The Hayman

[KABAR2]

Thanks so much KABAR2. I just double checked, there are no markings on the trunnions. I have learned a little about Lapan by reviewing  some of the forum posts and links, but as they are no longer casting cannons, there were no pictures of the guns that they produced for me to refer to.
Best,
The Hayman

Where are my manners..... To The Hayman,Welcome to the forum! I guess I focused on the cannon........ 
I believe there is a member here who has one of their old catalogs maybe he will be able to shed some light on the subject......   

[Artilleryman]

Welcome to the board.  The barrel you have may have been produced by South Bend Replicas.

[exlimey]

Welcome to the board Hayman. I have just checked an old 70s  La Pan,s Foundry catalog and i do not see it there. They had a rather bad fire there last Monday so are still in the stages of recovery from it...looks iffy tho.  John

[The Hayman]

Thanks for the welcomes, appears to a wonderful group here.
 
I did look at some pictures of the brass Lapan cannons that were discussed here on the forum and were for sale on ebay. They looked somewhat similar to mine, but lacked the ring on the cascable. I had also checked out all the links in the sticky section, including South Bend Replicas, again I saw nothing that matched. I do have a friend who does reenactments and who is good friends with the cannon guys. He sent them copies of the pictures. One thought it might be an older signal cannon (from a turn of the century yacht) that had been lined later in life, but I thought that unlikely for absolutely no good reason. I paid less for her than a new 5/8 carronade barrel from DGW, so I'm happy, but wish I knew more about her history. I'll try writing DGW and see if they know anything about her as that is where the owner claimed he purchased  her, and they do sell used stuff as well.
 
Thanks again to all.

[The Hayman]

 While reading through the archives, I came upon this post: http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,218758.0.html The cannon in this thread is exactly like mine.
The thread had this copy of an old DGW catalog. My barrel is the one on the right: MC0619 (catalog copy supplied by ZULU)
  The dimensions and description of the barrel match mine exactly. (The carriage material described in the DGW catalog do not match the carriage of my gun or the gun in the other thread. I believe my carriage is teak, definitely not white oak painted grey. It is also a couple inches longer, etc. Maybe an earlier, later, or a deluxe carriage).
I emailed DGW twice without receiving a response, so I called the information line this morning. I was told they could no longer get that barrel. I was able to determine that they bought these cannons from Tennessee Cannons (not a Hern barrel). A Google search brought up nothing, but there apparently is a Cannon County in Tennessee, so the search results were severely diluted.
I don’t know if Tennessee Cannon cast their own barrels or bought them from someone else. Does anyone here know anything about Tennessee Cannon or who might have cast this barrel now that I have added a little bit more information to the pot?
Thanks so much.

[KABAR2]

Looking at both threads I do not think either cannon is a Dixie Gun Works cannon,
look at the catalog photo and notice the hight of the ring on the casable it is much taller and out of proportion to the rest of the gun.... an after thought... both your tube and the tube in the other thread have better lines than the one in the catalog.... I think the jury is still out as to the maker.....

[flagman1776]

I have no idea as to the maker but you have scored a fine signal cannon that any of us would be pleased to own.
Russ

[The Hayman]

 I think both KABER2 and flagman1776 are right. There are other differences in the style at the breech as well....I tried to write it off to the poor quality of the picture shown in the add, but a second study makes me agree with KABER2. The fact I was told that the cannon was purchased from DGW for about the same price as that in the add may have helped make me jump to that conclusion.
So I have beautiful little cannon, fuse, and a few pounds of Goex 1F powder. I have made a rammer (the large size closet pole fit perfect), a pricker out of brazing rod, sponges out of dowel and hair on sheepskin, and I have an old Meyer's snow plow spring that just fits the bore that I will heat, stretch, and cut to make a wormer. By then the snow should have melted and I'll be ready to take her for a ride to a local gravel pit for a test firing. I think I have the basics down, pre-ignition being the biggest danger. I plan to start with a ½ oz. of powder, and increase the charge gradually to 1 ½ oz, unless someone here advises differently. I think a 1 oz. will become the standard load.
Thanks to all for all the help and information that this forum has provided me.