A friend and took the cannon in my avatar and traveled way north in Maine to a gravel pit without a house, or with any luck at all, another person within 20 miles of us. We started off with a 1 oz. charge of 1F without wadding, then with dry newspaper wadding, then increased to 1 ¼ oz. with wadding , then to a 1 ½ oz. charge with wadding. We then loaded a 1 ½ inch ball with 1 ½ oz of powder. The first shot, at about 75 yards, hit just low of the target, climbed after hitting the ground, put a hole through the target, hit the ground again and disappeared. Second shot hit the target, then a large rock that was holding the target upright The rock shattered into four large pieces and a bunch of smaller fragments. The ball was found 5-6 feet from the rock with a few scuff marks. We reloaded it and made one last shot, that passed just over the target. We became convinced that the balls were climbing out of the pit (backstop not steep enough) so hung it up for the day and went looking for a better range.
Shooting ball was some different. The increased noise and recoil, and the way the vortex from the ball seemed to drag the smoke along behind it, hauling the smoke much further from the muzzle than with wad alone, something that I had never heard mentioned here, but them maybe it was just the wind? In the future I will likely decrease the charge to 1 oz. when shooting ball.
I loved the process: worming, stopping the vent and wet swabbing, dry swab, and so on. We used long fuses and got a good distance away with some cover, and checked the gun over carefully after each shot, always aware that preignition is the most common cannon accident, and that vertical backstops are very important (though very hard to find).
I want thank all those who have contributed to this group, who made so much information available in one place, so that a novice such as myself could shoot without making the more common dangerous mistakes that have been made by so many others.
I want to apologize to boomlover for the lack of pictures and video, but we felt that the first time out such distraction might just distract us as we learned the process.
Again thanks to all for this forum.
Best,
The Hayman
