First of all, Mike, Bruce, Gary and I dedicated our western version of the Cancer Shoot envisioned by Lance to him, Blaster Bob and everyone who is battling these nasty diseases. We extend our very sincerest wishes for your complete recovery.
We thought canister was the way to go following what you East Coast fellows said about using it fir increased hit probability, but what smoothbore did we still have capable of firing a multiball load? The choices were very limited, so we picked the biggest we could find. We had a bunch of balls cast for Gary's Brown Bess, so why not use them and cast about 300 more. Bruce and I cast 30 pounds worth one afternoon two weeks ago, for a total of 40 pounds, 120 balls, or 10 pounds per shot out of the replica 1797 4" mortar. Cancer cell targets watch out!
Before we began we made a large target out of a 20" Black foam disk with a mix of small cancer cell 5 X 7 inch pictures glued around it's edge. Any shot in the 'Black' counts as a strike against all the types of cancer that exist, not just the 5 or 6 represented. our goal was to obliterate the dark heart of cancer by giving the center of the target more holes than Swiss Cheeze!
5 photos and 4 movies tell the story,
Tracy, Mike, Bruce and Gary
The target and 5 X 5.5 foot back board. The pure white cardboard is free packaging matl. from Costco.
We dug the rear of the mortar in to the rock hard prairie soil. 27 deg F. did not deter the cancer blasters. We tried 3 degrees elevation for the first shot at the 35 yard target.
7 oz. of 1Fg BP and 10 Lbs of lead balls brought the mortar right out of it's hole! MOVIE
We tried 2 degrees on this shot as all the balls except 7 went over the target on that first shot. MOVIE
Another 7 or 8 shot, with one in the black. Still too high. A couple sabot marks from the first shot in the lower right.
We tried 1 degree elevation this time. The flash reflection on the white backing show the moment of powder burn, then the shock wave from the muzzle blast shakes the camera. See the canister fly. MOVIE
That shot added about 30 holes to the target, but still was too high! Zero elevation was tried next.
MOVIE Zero elevation worked. The cancer target was pretty much obliterated! All 120 75 cal balls ripped the center out of the target and folded up the backboard and frame too. We wish defeating cancer was this easy. Only took 480 balls!!
The blasted target center. Eat lead cancer cells!
Third movie in a high res. option that doesn't squash it back and front: MOVIE
Fourth movie in high res. MOVIE
Moderator note. Last two movies are MP4. Make sure you viewers are up to date. Move your cursor over the pictures in this post and clcik on them, they are all active.
