How to get a loud cannon blank load

[northjdr]

A friend has asked me for some help. I reload my rifles and handguns but know NOTHING about cannons. His dad has a cannon he only fires once a year on the 4th of July. Shooting only blanks. It was made while he was in the Navy. Bore is slightly under 1" and length is approximately 2 feet.. I'm not sure what it's made of (bronze possibly).They have used 2 - 4 FG (?) powder in the past, but they say it's getting harder to find. They tried Pryodex but only got a Whooosh instead of a bang. I pointed him to this forum and some of the relevant threads and it appears this question has been addressed numerous times.  Is there a safe substitute that will generate a nice, safe, kaboom? Or, where in the greater Minneapolis area would you find older powder. Thanks. i'll forward the responses to my friend.

[Rickk]

HI northjdr,

Several of us here shoot 1 inch bores. Before I give you some advise that might be bad for you, can you tell me a bit more about the barrel? What is the breech diameter (around where the powder would be)?

Any chance of posting a picture?

Pyrodex doesn't work very well for blanks. 2F Black Powder is what you want for blanks in a 1 incher. 1F would be prefered fror live loads.

There are places that you can mail order it, but the hazmat charge makes it expensive per pound for anything less than 5#.
25# is where it gets really cheap. Look at http://www.powderinc.com for a good place to order black powder. You have to order in 5# increments. The prices include shipping and hazmat charges.

Maybe there is someone else here that knows where you can get some locally.

Rick

[northjdr]

Sorry for my slow response. I got busy at work and forgot to check in. I don't have any pictures and my friend couldn't supply me with anymore information. I don't know if they found their powder for this year, but with a little more lead time I'm sure they could get it anywhere. Thanks for information.