When the Cheroot Cane gun made by Dominick Carpenter arrived at our shop, Mike and I examined it closely and found it was designed with both safety and a unique appearance. Being shaped in the Krupp style, we were quite familiar with the look and wondered if it would shoot as well as it looks. We decided 3 days ago to do a full Guns and Ammo style new product test on Dom’s newest release in his Cheroot Cane gun series. Five hours of testing yesterday proved this 1860s styled cane gun to shoot every bit as well as it looks.
Fully machined from 1018 steel, this Krupp style Cheroot Cane gun comes with a metallic grey painted finish with a coat of clear lacquer to give it a pleasant gloss finish. Complete with a sturdy oak dowel lower section and a rubber tread cap, it will be an appropriate accessory for a Riverboat Cruise or an evening out on the town.
Our testing is explained in the photo captions.
Regards from the testing staff, Mike, Tracy and Gary.
This shows the complete set-up for testing Dom’s Cheroot Cane gun. The cane gun is clamped in a Seacoast Artillery machined rubber jaw holder in a Ransom Rest, the laser bore sighting device is in place, the Crony chronograph is set at 4 feet from the muzzle with special clear tape over the screens to protect against black powder grains and smoke residue and the target is at 10 feet, exactly. The range was chosen after considering the width of the largest poker table used during the mid 19th Century.
Another view of the Cheroot Cane gun and test equipment.
Boresighting complete with the red laser dot in the 10X.
Mike pours a charge of FFFg BP from a small powder flask into the single-charge, adjustable measure set for 20 grains. Seacoast Artillery recommends that for your SAFETY, you never charge your Cheroot Cane gun or any other cannon directly from a powder flask.
Mike charges the cane gun with 20 grains BP from the single-charge adjustable measure immediately AFTER placing the fuse in the vent.
Mike rams the .36 cal. Lead round ball down the .375” bore. It is loosely patched with worn, (thin), bed-sheet material with just enough compression to keep the ball against the powder.
We measured the vent at 1/16”, so you can either fire your cane gun with a pinch of powder in the small countersink at the top of the vent or you can do as we did and use a short length of 1.4mm, (.055” dia.), Visco Cross-Match, GN1010, Green, Chinese made, high quality, stiff, fuse for cross-matching 1/4-inch time fuse. Burns at abut 1.9 seconds per inch. This is a bit expensive, but we like the small mini and micro and nano cannons with their tiny vents, so we bought some from
www.skylighter.com about two years ago. The current price is $19.95 per 50 foot roll.
This is a short Movie clip of the senior geezer on the testing staff firing the Krupp Cane gun authentically with a lit Cheroot. This is a first shot and Mike zeroed in to show the hole in the target. Placement with 20 grains of powder was right on!
We hope to post more later on group sizes and velocities and pine board penetration, maybe this evening.
