Thanks for the tips on were to find golf balls guys, but I will almost certainly stick to lead balls cast from a sinker mould. 90% of the shooting I will be doing is going to be on state owned public land and I don’t want to be out there looking around and trying to recover golf balls that I have fired, and I wouldn’t feel good about leaving them either. The lead balls, even though lead has gotten a “bad rap” in some circles lately, are a different matter in my mind. Although metallic lead rarely occurs in nature and is usually found mixed with zinc and copper in ore form, it is still a naturally occurring material, and I don’t personally consider it (the lead balls) to be “trash” or the act of leaving them in the field to be littering… naturally others may disagree, but that’s how I see it. And like I said in my previous post; I really like casting lead and have plenty of it to make cannonballs!
Nobody mention what they use for casting their cannonballs? Are the golf balls so much more convenient that few use lead balls for shooting?
Double D, even though the barrel will be fairly light, my carriage wont be… so I think the cap lock or slap hammer will work out ok for what I have in mind.
I don’t want to go into too much detail regarding my carriage design for fear of being banned from the forum as a “non-traditionalist freak”! But… oh well, what the heck… The carriage is going to be maid from a 5’ or 6’ long chunk of 8” “H” beam, and the axle will be ¼” wall 2” od seamless tubing. Two small leaf springs will support the “H” beam (thru 2” x 2” box beam extensions) on the axle. Tires and wheels will be 27-11-12 ATV wheels. I will incorporate mounting provisions for either a Dom. Dictator Mortar or Coehorn Mortar, aft of the cannon mount directly on the “H” beam, and also several Mil surplus ammo cans for powder, shot and whatever else I might need. Worm, swabs and ramrod will be stored in some manner that is yet to be determined… When its complete, it will pretty much be a “cannon, mortar, limber combination carriage” kind of thing….. and I estimate that it will weigh in around 250 to 300 lbs give or take…
The thing is, that here in AK we have plenty of wide open spaces to shoot, but very few roads to get you to those wide open spaces…. Basically if there is a road, there will be people and houses, and if there are people or houses, I wont be shooting. So my answer is a carriage specifically designed to be pulled behind an ATV over ATV trails or across the tundra, creaks or what have you. The trails that I frequent are rough enough to dictate a sprung carriage lest the cannon end up inverted somewhere on the trail (although it probably still will), or at the very least jarred to pieces from the relentless bouncing, well, not the cannon it’s self, but all the ancillary items. I want to use the same size wheels and tires that I have on my ATV so that I always have two spares around the house. From a practical and functional standpoint I think I’m on solid ground…. At least in theory. Esthetically…. Well, that is going to take some really cleaver thinking and engineering on my part to keep the final product from looking like some kind of cobbled together, hideous contraption…. Rest assured that you fellers will have an opportunity to weigh in, as once its finished I will post pictures and eagerly await the acclaim…… or the shame….
