brand new to cannons

[44-40]

Hi people, I am brand new to the cannon world and would like some help. I just ordered a cannon barrel with a 1.250" bore, the 6oz mold I have casts 1.20" balls,Do you patch these balls? and if so what do you use for patch lube. I've had muzzle loaders for over 35 years but this is all new to me.The guy told me that 400 grns of powder would be a good place to start?Any difference using fg or ffg? If I can get ahold of another guy I'll be ordering a golf ball mortar tonight.One of my sons is in the welding business and thinks the carraige and wheels for the cannon will be pretty easy.I always wanted to fool with this stuff but $ family and life wouldn't allow, now that I'm a grampa several times over and its just me, the old woman and the gun-shy dog I intend to have some fun.Any advice will be appreciated

[Double D]

No patch. The 1.20 size ball will work.  Look around the board a bit and  find the posts discussing making sabots. Use Fg for a cannon this size.  FFg  will have a bit to much pressure.  Maximum load for this bore size is 500 grains.  I would start at 100 and see what you get, then work up.

And, welcome to our board.  Take a look at the stickies at the top of the board and you will find a lot of useful information to get you started.

[44-40]

Is the foil that the powder is in act as a wad between the powder and ball?Is this all you need or do you place a wad in after the ball?

[RocklockI]

Hi and welcome  ,I'd start w/much less than 500 grs.
rocklockI

[Artilleryman]

Is the foil that the powder is in act as a wad between the powder and ball?Is this all you need or do you place a wad in after the ball?

Welcome to the board.  You don't need to put a wad in after the ball unless you are shooting down hill.  In that case I would rather use a sabot to hold the ball in place. 

[44-40]

ok, do I need wadding between the powder charge and ball?

[Terry C.]

ok, do I need wadding between the powder charge and ball?

No, not if you have the powder packaged in foil.

I never use a wad between the powder packet and the ball. I DO tape the ball to the charge to prevent rollout.



(The quarter in the photo is just for scale.)

Others attach a sabot, but this is to prevent ball rollout and in some cases stabilize the ball in flight. This type of sabot isn't intended to create a gas seal.

I think you may find 400 grains behind a cast ball in a 1.25" bore
excessive. I would consider this a heavy load.

My bore is 1.156" and I only load 250 grains. Any more and the recoil is too violent, so much so that I worry about damaging the carriage. Personally, I would start at about 300 grains, and increase it according to how the gun behaves.

In my experience, the recoil is often the limiting factor. A well constructed barrel can certainly withstand the pressure of a maximum load, but the recoil could wreck a carriage that you spent a lot of time and money building.

EDIT: I've never had that much trouble getting a photo link to work, but it should be showing up now.

[Blaster]

44-40... Welcome to a great board/forum.  You will be able to pick up some extremely important pointers here and it is a friendly place to visit.  What part of the U.S.A. are you located in (assuming you are in the good ole U.S.A.)??
As Double D suggested earlier, I'd sure start with a small amount of BLACK POWDER and then work up from there.  Everyone here will really enjoy seeing pictures of your cannon/mortars so post them as soon as time allows.
Blaster (Bob in Southern Colorado)

[44-40]

I'm located in northen Wyoming, recovering from shoulder surgery, keeping wood on the fire !!-10 degrees yesterday morning

[Double D]

Take a look at the Montana Cannon shoot post and come up in August and join us. You are just down the raad a piece from us.

[44-40]

I may be mistaken , but I think Casper and Gillette also have cannon shoots

[Double D]

I believe Casper does, but it is a full size cannon shoot, ours is for model cannons...this year.

[Rickk]

For live fire, "F" is the way to go for 1.25.

For blanks "FF" might be more useful.

1.25 is sort of an "in-between" caliber. Bigger guns don't need any sort of wad when shooting BLANKS. Smaller ones (1" and under) definitely do. You may or may not need something over the powder for blanks, but I am leaning towards probably yes.  A couple of corrogated cardboard disks over the powder may be necessary when shooting blanks to prevent it from "wooshing" instead of "booming". I soak the cardboard disks in baking soda solution and let them dry in the sun as a fire retardent before using so they won't light things on fire.

Rick

[Double D]

I can guarantee you in a one inch bore, a foil wrapped cartridge is plenty loud.

[Terry C.]

My packets for the ¼-scale Napoleon are double-layer Reynolds Heavy Duty aluminum foil. I always use Reynolds Wrap because it's the thickest and stiffest foil I've found. Some of the generic HD is only about as thick as the standard Reynolds.

The ends are rolled and flattened so they're considerably thicker than the 2-ply sides. Especially the blanks which, in addition to being twice as large, aren't neatly trimmed before closing like the packets for live fire.

That's more than enough resistance to get a really LOUD boom!!!

[thelionspaw]

I stick with this and I have never made headlines.

[dan610324]

how to read out the second column ??
what does the L mean after the numbers ??
is it length in inch or ??

[thelionspaw]

I always assumed It to mean LENGTH with INCHES as understood.

You can always lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. That's why some with "cannons" make headlines, regardless of available knowledge.

Dan: Did you get my E-mail?  Answer me off line please.

Richard