golf balls as projectiles

[Artilleryman]

Has anyone had any problems with golf balls fired from cannons bouncing back or changing direction radically after hitting something?  I don't shoot them and I was wondering.

[little seacoast]

Oh yeah! Hit something unyielding with one and find out all about their elastic and surprising rebound properties.  I understand steel balls have some of the same tendencies but I have no personal horror stories thankfully.  Zinc and lead are way better at not rebounding in exciting ways.

[Doc Brown.]

I never seen it happen yet but check out this 50 Cal rifle ricochet to the head.

[seacoastartillery]

      Our friend Gary bought a scale Parrott gun from Dominick Carpenter in 2008.  We had to take it out and fire it.  He brought regular golf balls and steel FOX balls with wood sabots.  We had lots of fun until he set up a railroad tie plate, about 8 X 10 inches by 1/2" thick at 25 yards.  It was just barely balanced and he figured that a golf ball fired at it would tip it back and then the ball would ricochet upward at a high angle.  To say it DID NOT happen that way is an understatement.

     This is what happened:  He fired the golf ball down range from his Parrott.  He hit the heavy tie plate.  The ball rebounded violently, straight back at him, but missed.  It then rebounded violently off the front tire of my Suburban parked 10 feet behind him.  It missed him again and ricocheted 5 times out to 75 or 80 yards.  With luck like that he should have headed up to a Blackhawk casino later that day to double his money!  We all agreed to NEVER shoot a golf ball at any hard object again and we never have.

Tracy


Dominic Carpenter made this beauty and RocklockI shoots it very well.




Gary loads his Parrott cannon safely with our inexpensive shepherd's crook rammer.




Gary fires his Parrott gun at a safe cardboard target out at 50 yards.

[jeeper1]

I have had golf balls ricochet off trees in the past. They weren't launched out of a cannon rather they were launched from a golf ball firing attachment screwed on to the muzzle of my Colt CAR AR15. Fortunately they did not come back at me.

[little seacoast]

Gary, I really like your Parrott. Looks to be a Tredegar piece just like my 1/2 scale Dom Parrott. Shame he's not making them anymore. Mine shoots pool balls which thankfully don't rebound hardly at all.

[gunsonwheels]

I would think golf balls for their mass and typical velocities on a golf course should not be a lethal or even very dangerous projo... but maybe with BP powering them at non-golf velocities??  If they were I would also think golf would have been banned a long time ago...??
 
Any of you avid golfers care to comment on their damage to people in typical golf rounds?  Anyone know the terminal velocity of a typical golf ball and considering its mass its Momentum and K.E.?
 
GOW/George

[keith44]

I doubt they would be lethal after bouncing off a target or backstop, but a broken nose, busted window, or dented vehicle could be an issue.

[Artilleryman]

I guess it would depend on several factors such as muzzle velocity, distance to target and back, and how many bounces in between.  I would hate to get hit in the eye with one.  Whom am I kidding, I would hate to get hit at all by one.

[Cat Whisperer]

I have had golf balls ricochet off trees in the past. They weren't launched out of a cannon rather they were launched from a golf ball firing attachment screwed on to the muzzle of my Colt CAR AR15. Fortunately they did not come back at me.

Not a golf ball, but a 7-1/2 lb concrete filled piece of 4" pvc pipe - hit a 3" tree at the 110yard line, it flexed back and tossed it to another tree and it flexed and tossed it back to a 3rd tree - where it dropped to the ground with a thud.  It was like watching a cartoon - LIVE!   Distance between trees wasn't over 10 or 15'.

[Spuddy]

I have a Parrott very similiar to the one that Gary has, also made by Dom.  I have shot golf balls thru pallet boxes made of hardwood.  I used to have a picture of one if I can find it I will post it.

[Doc Brown.]

      Our friend Gary bought a scale Parrott gun from Dominick Carpenter in 2008.  We had to take it out and fire it.  He brought regular golf balls and steel FOX balls with wood sabots.  We had lots of fun until he set up a railroad tie plate, about 8 X 10 inches by 1/2" thick at 25 yards.  It was just barely balanced and he figured that a golf ball fired at it would tip it back and then the ball would ricochet upward at a high angle.  To say it DID NOT happen that way is an understatement.

     This is what happened:  He fired the golf ball down range from his Parrott.  He hit the heavy tie plate.  The ball rebounded violently, straight back at him, but missed.  It then rebounded violently off the front tire of my Suburban parked 10 feet behind him.  It missed him again and ricocheted 5 times out to 75 or 80 yards.  With luck like that he should have headed up to a Blackhawk casino later that day to double his money!  We all agreed to NEVER shoot a golf ball at any hard object again and we never have.

Tracy


Dominic Carpenter made this beauty and RocklockI shoots it very well.




Gary loads his Parrott cannon safely with our inexpensive shepherd's crook rammer.




Gary fires his Parrott gun at a safe cardboard target out at 50 yards.

 
Is the breach welded in to this parrott rifle? Is it rifled? It looks fantastic and its the next thing I want to build.

[Old Nukee]

A few years ago, we came upon a group of paramedics bent over an incapacitated golfer on an adjacent hole. A member of his group told us that his shot dead-centered a sapling about 10 yards in front of him and ricocheted into the side of his head, knocking him out cold. Never did get any followup on his condition.
Given  the fact that an amateur golfer rarely hits the ball faster than 200 fps, and the rebound of a golfball is about 75% of its initial velocity, it's pretty clear that a golfball can be a lethal projectile.
A simple test you can do to assess the potential for ricochets is to drop your projectile from eye level unto a concrete floor and see how high it rebounds. Not infallible, but it'll give you a good start.

[Max Caliber]

http://everythinggolf.blogs.heraldtribune.com/11108/death-by-golf-ball-not-all-that-uncommon/

[GGaskill]

Maybe people who are going to be around flying golf balls should be wearing steel pot helmets. 

And I would say that the handful of incidents described would not justify the use of even uncommon as an accurate description considering the number of rounds of golf played in the period referenced.  Very low probability but not unheard of.  Probably many sports with higher probability of death than golf or shooting.

[p51]

Golf balls are cruel and powerful orbs. The moment you turn your back on them, they can ruin your day. There's a lot of kinetic force in one at speed, more than most would think, given their weight.
My day job is handling liability issues in accidents and I've seen plenty of golf balls where someone walloped the ball, sliced it terribly, and the ball went completely through both side windows of a car.
When I was in the Army, a solider in my Brigade was killed while riding a bike past a golf course. A retiree made a powerful but bad drive at the tee, and the ball passed between two trees and hit the poor guy in the temple, right below the helmet line. The guy was dead before he hit the ground after falling off the bike. Normally, soldiers have a dark sense of humor when someone is killed in an odd way, but I remember that nobody made any jokes or comments except how tough it had to be on his family.