Punt Gun?

[Double D]

FWIW, I have a video of Tom Knapp shooting a punt gun on my computer. It's tied to a shooting bench but still kind of seriously recoils.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5761844884252922352

[EL Caz 66]

Wow!! Man the punt gun is nuts , does anyone have the history on this animal ?

[NitroSteel]

We weren't able to shoot Saturday morning.  It looks like it will be about 2 weeks before we can shoot again.  I did just get off the phone with my stock builder.  We're going with black walnut.  I have developed and installed a new ignition system using 209 shotshell primers.  It is reliable, but a little bit cumbersome to setup before each shot.  I am trying to refine it to make it simpler and easier.  It is still much better than using the fuse for ignition. 

I'm planning on converting my BB mortar using the same system.  I am using a CVA stainless breechplug (for muzzleloaders), threaded into the fuse hole.  3/4" deep, 9/16" diameter hole tapped with 18 tpi.  I have a snatch cord that pulls out a clip and releases the firing pin to the primer (firing pin is pushed by a spring).  Am thinking of changing to a slap hammer, but haven't came up with the perfect design yet.

[Eightbore]

Have you done any photos of the wee beasty yet  , would like to see them.

[NitroSteel]

I finished my cannon yesterday.  It is in true cannon form right now, but he "gun" can easily be removed and installed into a gunstock as soon as the stock is finished - it comes off with two bolts and the stock of the punt gun will be designed to accept it "as is".  We are waiting on the wood to dry a bit more before we start working on the stock.  The cannon ended up really nice, has alot of great features and looks very good to me.  I'm not a civil war specialist, but it truly looks like an old cannon of this era and is flawless in function.  It REALLY packs a wallop.  I don't know anyone else that has one, but it has the most impressive non-military gun report I've ever heard.  I've been making aluminum foil "cartridges" as shown on the site (for safety and ease of loading), and typically use 2.9 ounces of BP.   

The "gun" is mounted on an old tobacco trans-planter frame and wheels. The wheels are about 30" in diameter, they are all steel and have steel spokes.  I have it fixed so that I can pull it behind our golf cart. 

All this being said, I have some good pictures of it (bowling ball mortar too), but don't know how to post them.  If someone who does will email me or give me their email address I will email the pictures to them to be posted on the site.

Thank all of ya'll again for your help.  This has been alot of fun to build and tinker with.  Once the pictures are posted I will go into more detail about the pull string 209 primer firing mechanism and other features.

NitroSteel

[Eightbore]

Hi Nitro,

I was beginning to think that this subject had died or you had stopped posting on it. Glad to see it is still alive, can not wait to see the pictures.

8bore

[radio2]

Check your PM!

[GGaskill]

Here is NitroSteel's picture of his mounted punt gun.

[Eightbore]

What a good un, nice looking piece. In fact you are starting to wet my appetite again, maybe I should ....... no getting to old for lugging that sort of weight up and down the slipways.

Thanks for the photo's. Roll on some more information and pictures of her in action.

[NitroSteel]

I normally shoot on our farm, but last night (after much begging) I took the cannon to my brother-in-laws shooting club and we shot several times.  Had a great time.  Folks were very impressed with it.  Normally I'm shooting in the open (fields and pastures), but we were shooting next to some trees into a huge pile of dirt used as a backstop.  It seemed considerable louder.  Almost painful to the ears (I forgot to put my earplugs in once).

I've been making my "cartridges" as described in an article on another section of the website and apparently I am getting better at it because they are almost always coming out perfectly in one piece.  I've got a short section of steel pipe that is almost exactly the same OD as the ID of my bore.  I use it to make a perfect cylinder with the tin foil.  There are a few tricks I've found that really help.

Well at any rate, this week I though it would probably work to load the ball into the tinfoil cylinder on top of the folded down plastic bag of powder and crimp the tinfoil over the top.  I was a bit nervous about this increasing pressure, but reasoned out that it should be fine, considering worse case scenario that part of the tinfoil would be blown out.  I loaded two of them for last night and they did function perfectly.  What I liked most about it was that the ball didn't have to be patched (or barrel elevated) to keep the ball from rolling out.  Also, it sped up the loading process and just plain looked impressive.  I was still able to remove the spent tinfoil cartridge in one perfect piece.

It led me to another answer I'd been looking for but have really been unable to find on anypart of this site or the muzzleloading rifle site.  How do you load BB's or any "shot" in the cannon without it rolling out or not being seated good?  Using the same concept as the golf ball cartridge I believe that I can do the same thing with a cartridge of shot and have an easy to load, perfect load each time.

Let me know if you have any opinions about what I'm doing and if you see a problem with it - safety is my main concern.

[Eightbore]

This may help, I used to use a very fine cloth filter bag (it was made for filtering milk as in the machine used when milking the cows) I have some still laying about somewhere but search as I will I can not find them. They are about 1 1/2" dia and 10" long and where spot on for holding the shot. I just used to glue an over shot card to the top just to give something to push on.
These fired great and would even stand a bit of getting wet with out soaking them. You might not be able to find the product but the idea is still sound. Would be very simple to get some very light cotton or muslin bag made up to suit the bore size.
I used to use Airfix model aircraft dope (don't know what you call it) to seal the bags with. This was done over a waxed wooden mandrel, before filling with shot. This gave them a slightly better life but as I had 1000's of the bags I didn't bother that much.
If they were kept dry they had a good life expectancy and stood up to reasonable handling.