Author Topic: My 1st Cannon (Read 760 times)

Two Bears · « **on:** January 02, 2005, 06:46:33 AM »

Well I have built my first cannon....It is 32" overall in length and 10.5/8" wide and 10.25" tall.
Its barrel is 14" long and is 2.50" across with a .75" hole.
It sits on a really heavy steel frame and has nice cast Iron wheels that have rubber around the outside to roll on.

It was build buy my imagination and not by any particular design but It looks great.

My concern is that it does not burn all of the powder with the small bore so I would like to ream it out larger so I can use the same amount of powder but not have it fill a third of the barrel.

I do not plan on shooting any lead out of it but might enjoy shooting "Golf Balls" if I can ream it out large enough to do so safely.

So with a 2.5" barrel how large can I ream the barrel out to and what charge could I use in it?

Of course I am looking for a "Loud " report so when fired on the 4th of July it will be heard...

Thanks for your help with this

Lee1966 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2005, 07:10:40 AM »

Do have any pictures you can post? Would like to see a 1 of a kind.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2005, 07:14:31 AM »

2.5" in diameter is right much big for 3/4 bore.

As I've said in the past ammunition is a prime consideration.

Is the barrel cast or is it steel? What type of steel?

I would be tempted to do either Fuji plastic film container caliber or golf ball caliber.

Noise is a function of pressure and barrel length - greater noise from shorter barrels. Deep troated roar from really big bore - a shock wave that you will remember forever.

Two Bears · « **Reply #3 on:** January 02, 2005, 08:04:56 AM »

Right now I do not have any pictures of it but will get some as soon as I can and post them so all can see.

The barrel is steel but it is not cold rolled it is the next hardest kind of steel..The shop where I got it said that they have made some barrels out of this kind before.

What kind of load would be good for a film canister size of bore and a golf ball size bore?

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #4 on:** January 02, 2005, 08:52:41 AM »

Loads -

Let me give you a feel for them. Golf-ball caliber mortar - barrel is 2 calibers long, cut tight (1.70" diameter) will with 1 to 2 45acp cases full of fffg will chuck a TopFlight from 100 to just under 200 meters.

With your longer barrel you could use a slower powder ffg or fg and get more range, you could use more powder and get much more velocity (the mortar has only a very short time to get the velocity up).

Golf balls are light - you really need more mass if you're going for range. A lead ball, from the former owner of my Napoleon (1-7/8 bore) was launched over a (measured) MILE by an ounce or so of powder. That is scary to me.

Film canisters? Haven't had time to fire my hand-held Fuji-film cansiter mortar yet - only finished it a week or so ago and am hot after finishing the cannon-on-a-stick right now. (Which will be 3/4" copper tubing caliber.)

DD has the charts for calculating proper loads for a given bore diameter.