for posting the picture. I'll give your technique a try.
Cat- I'm about 100 miles west of Ft McCoy on the MN/WI border.
This cannon was built in 1983 by a small group of close friends called the Smouth Bros. Im not sure exactly what roll Pa, Elliot, Harley, or Buford Smouth played to generate the actual design and construction, but the cannon has become somewhat of a mascot for the Smouths for the past 20 years.
The 31 steel barrel supports a 1-1/2 bore with 7/16 thick sidewalls. This came off a detasseling machine used by seed companies to detassel seed corn production fields. The barrel is capped off at the breach with a trailer hitch ball flawlessly welded to the end of the tube. A 3/16 flash hole allows for flashing the powder, though cannon fuse is most often used. The 26 steel wheels were donated to the project by a brother-in-law of Harley Smouth and are mounted 30 apart onto a 1-1/2 steel axel and carriage frame. Two handles are welded onto the end of the carriage to allow for easy maneuvering of the cannon. The overall length of the unit, carriage and barrel, is 5.
2oz FF black powder or Pyrodex RS and some newspaper wadding will give a report that will echo 4 times in the valley where I shoot. We usually dont shoot projectiles but that is not always the case. Like the time we shot the leaf rake
. Now that is another story.
Enjoy the shot.
bj
