New Handgonnes from Dom

[Victor3]

Boom,

 You're aware that HIND (Soviet helicopter) is not short for HINDenburg, right? 

Hey, take it easy, I think these jokers are now (at least in some circles) regarded as a kind of ally.

 Mebbe so, but I doubt many of them will ever forget that our Stingers turned hundreds of their choppers into black smudges on the ground in Afghanistan.

 Back on topic - Remember that rifled antique black powder Brit cannon recovered from Afghanistan cannonmn had? Bet the Afghanis made a ton of handgonnes over the years

[GGaskill]

If I'm reading right, you're calculating for a steel ball. Isn't 500 fps a little low? What charge would give that velocity?

Yes, that is correct.  It is an entirely WAG and I have no idea how much powder would be required.  However, a typical gonne has a relatively short bore compared to a more modern cannon so I would not expect the ball to achieve similar velocities and, since the gonnes are typically chambered, I wouldn't expect the charge to be as great as a cannon.

Time for some measured experiments.

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Of course, if you were to measure the muzzle velocity, you could also measure the recoil, so in this case, the muzzle velocity wouldn't be needed.  Not that you couldn't measure both...

[Cannoneer]

Remember that rifled antique black powder Brit cannon recovered from Afghanistan cannonmn had? Bet the Afghanis made a ton of handgonnes over the years

I do remember; I think he had two of those English made rifled steel muzzleloaders.

The Afghans probably have made a whole bunch of 'Assadullah Khan Mörkös' through the years, but I'd bet that all the surviving specimens are missing their heads by now.

[Victor3]

If I'm reading right, you're calculating for a steel ball. Isn't 500 fps a little low? What charge would give that velocity?

Yes, that is correct.  It is an entirely WAG and I have no idea how much powder would be required.  However, a typical gonne has a relatively short bore compared to a more modern cannon so I would not expect the ball to achieve similar velocities and, since the gonnes are typically chambered, I wouldn't expect the charge to be as great as a cannon.

Time for some measured experiments.

 I guess if the charge were light, the weight of the gonne fairly hefty and with a short bore it wouldn't be bad to fire, even with a lead ball.

 I was thinking along the lines of some larger bore gonnes I've seen, being dimensioned more like a cannon on a stick than a mortar.