Location??

[Double D]

I heard from Blaster and he is fine!!!

[GGaskill]

I heard from Blaster and he is fine!!!

That's good.

[Blaster]

Hey, I am still alive and VERY well.  Other than minor aches and pains (the normal ones for a 74 year old guy) I feel like I'm good for another ten or fifteen years.  I have done so much research prior to my prostate cancer eliminating procedure that I feel like my brain is almost totally saturated with knowledge about prostate stuff and that has been edging out some of my already small amount of black powder shooting knowledge.  Just today I was checking out my two mortars, little SBR one inch Dahlgren and the Dom fabricated thunder mug but with the EXTREME fire danger out in my place which is heavily a wooded area, I am very reluctant to fire any of them.  So, I'll just dust em off, put another coat of preservative on them, inside and out, and wait for the severe fire threat to subside.  Of course, I may just wind up taking one or two of them down to the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, NM (only 30 miles away) and fire up a few charges down there. Thanks for the concern about me by my fellow Graybeard Mortar/cannon shooting buddies.
With all the travel and stuff going on with ole Double D, I'll certainly have to overlook the lack of the empty BP powder can in his pictures for scale. Thanks for posting those great pictures DD.

[seacoastartillery]

     Thanks for the update, Blaster; glad to hear you are doing fine.  Mike keeps trying to convince me and Gary to go down to the Whitington Center to use their 500 yard general purpose range for some small bore cannon shooting.  Send us an email if you decide to go and want some company there after this weird weather settles a bit.  Take care.

Mike and Tracy

[Cannoneer]

Hi, Blaster Bob!

Douglas,
You said that they appeared to be 6-pounders; what are the diameters of the bores?
Are all four cast iron guns identical other than rimbases and sights?
Is that convex square shape on all the gun's trunnion faces?
Were there any marks (numbers, letters) anywhere on any of the cannon?

Well there use to be a tape measure in the truck...measurement was based on my hand over the muzzle and comparing that to how my hand fits my own 6 PDR. 

All all four are identical cast guns,  The bores as far as I could see are in excellent shape.   That convex square, or is it a diamond?, is the only mark found on any of them and is found only on one.  It is a clue to there origin, I believe.  There is just to much small detail and precision work for these to be replicas.

Douglas,
My opinion matches yours about these guns being the genuine article, but we're kind of back to square one in furthering their identification.
The "Encyclopedia of Civil War Artillery" (which is now contained on the "Robinson's Battery" website) was originally put together by Wayne Stark and Chuck Ten Brink, and it shows a photo of the cannon with the blade front sight that is part of the Oquawka monument identified as a "12-pounder iron field gun, heavy, early unknown pattern."
I have no doubt that the photograph is of one of the cast iron 'Oquawka Monument' cannon, but the question now is; was a mistake made when this web version of Mr. Stark's data was created? 
There's not that great a difference between the bore diameter of a 6-pounder and a 12-pounder, so the next time one of us gets there we've got to get an accurate bore measurement.


"12-pounder iron field gun, heavy, early unknown pattern. Several guns of this and similar patterns survive, both with and without rimbases. While almost certainly made prior to 1830, some would have been available to both sides and utilized during the Civil War. Total length, various to 85 inches; Weights vary to 1,800 pounds."

[Double D]

Well, I would defer to the experts, that for sure!

I found my tape measure...someone put it away in a different place than I would have put it away..bless you dear, your spirit is with me. .  She would annoy me when she did that, she must be smiling down on me now. 

Maybe I will run back over there.

[Double D]

They are  6 PDR's ...more in a bit.

[Zulu]

They are  6 PDR's ...more in a bit.

You are teasing us with your 10,000 th post!
Zulu

[Cat Whisperer]

THE 10,000th has to be of such nature that you'll remember it for YEARS!
 


Drum roll please .....

[Cannoneer]

They are  6 PDR's ...more in a bit.

Okay Douglas, the hook is set, now all you've got to do is reel me in; what did you find out?

[Double D]

First sorry for being so cryptic, the RV park's internet connection is painfully slow and it only barely possible to anything more than typing.

I went back to Oquawka yesterday with a steel measuring tape.  The tape has that little steel hook on the end so internal measurements were a bit tough to make. All four guns had the same measurements.

Here is a large picture of one of the guns. http://www.fototime.com/06EF43A1BD09C32/orig.jpg

Here are the measurements.

Bore 3 3/4"
Length base ring to muzzle 59"
Diameter of breech in front of base ring  33 1/2"
Trunnion length 3 3/4"
Trunnion diameter 3 3/4"
Distance from rear of trunnion to base ring 22"
Width of trunnions 17"












This is the right trunnion on the barrel withthe diamond on the end of the left trunnion; another diamond.



Two of the barrel have not rimbases, to have what appears top added on rimbases.  Here is some additional detail of the added rimbases

v

[Cannoneer]

I liked the anecdote about Katherine and the tape measure, Douglas; I'm going to try and now not be annoyed by some of those little things that I may possibly fondly miss in the future.

Alright, good work DD, so now we know that they are definitely 6-pounders. There had to be a mismatch when the photo of one of these monument guns was placed next to the description of heavy 12-pdrs of unknown pattern on the web page put together by Chuck Ten Brink. Another clue was the fact that Wayne Stark was the man who conceived of, and then brought to fruition the "National Registry of Known Surviving Civil War Artillery", so why wouldn't these '12-pdr's' be on the list (and they're not). Unfortunately, there are no iron 6-pounders listed as being located in
Oquawka,IL either, but there may be reasons for that; let me do a little digging to see what can be turned up.

[Max Caliber]

There's something about the moldings on these guns that remind me of the Carron Company.

[Cannoneer]

Max,
At the very least, these gun's profiles show a strong British influence.