I finally shot the "deck gun", my repro copy of the Civil War Whitworth gun. Had most of my things to do caught up so took the deck gun down to the field. I placed it about 50 yards from my back-stop and put about 15 lbs of sand bags on the upper rearend of the carriage. Inserted the projectile, inserted foil bag of 200 grains FG, screwed the big chamber screw on, punctured the foil bag, shoved the fuze down the fuze hole, lit it and stood behind the wood pile. Had the camcorder on making a video of the shoot as I had no idea of what to expect. It made a healthy BOOM, did hit the target and the projectile was laying on the dirt mound about five feet behind the target (which was a nice piece of corrugated plastic, same as used for many soft drink signs etc)
Was going to try it again with a little more powder, say 300 grains but the huge chamber screw wouldn't budge loose. I used a strap wrench, really put the arm on it and still couldn't move it. So took it to the shop, tapped on it rather briskly with a rubber mallet while using the strap wrench and finally came loose. Man of man, that was a job. The inside looked like a septic tank. I've shot cannons for a quite while now but never had one this dirty. Took about an hour to clean it up properly. There was absolutely no leakage of gases around the threads so that's no worry.
Next time it's to be fired, I'll use some powder - other than BP. I know that it will be much cleaner burning. The brass band on the projectile was very nicely engraved by the lands/grooves. Lot of fun but a whole lot of work for just one shot. Sorry about the length of this post! Blaster (Bob in CO)
P.S. Wonder if there is some type material to add to the threads to kinda help prevent them from sticking/freezing. Thoughts or ideas?? Thanks.