Today was a day that I had been looking forward to for quite some time.... I finally got to take my half scale Napoleon out to the range and fire it for the first time. First lesson learned.... when loading it into the back of a pickup, take the barrel off the carriage. We tried putting the tail up on the tailgate and then lifting the complete cannon up by the wheels.... sure was pretty the way it rotated 180 degrees to completely upside down. Won't be making that mistake again.
As mentioned in a previous thread (New Toy) this is a 150 pound barrel with a 2 1/4" bore. A wheelweight ball in that size runs right at 2 1/2 pounds. With the entire cannon weighing no more than 225 pounds I was expecting some rather serious recoil. Had nine powder foil wrapped powder charges made up, starting at 200gr Fg and increasing 25gr at a time up to 400gr.
For sighting I threaded a simple vertical pin near the muzzle and glued on the rear sight from a 1903 Springfield rifle just forward of the fuse hole. Unfortunately I was limited to under 50 yards due to other activity on the range today. Used a 2 liter Diet Coke bottle placed on a dirt berm for a target. Those sights sure did make getting pointed in the right direction real easy. Launched that plastic bottle up and over the berm with 3 of the shots.
Recoil was no where near as severe as I'd anticipated. Was firing from fairly hard packed dirt and with the 400gr charge the cannon backed up maybe a foot and a half. 400gr also seemed to put that 2 1/2 pound ball down range with plenty of zip.
Next month at our local club shoot I will be trying again, hopefully at up to a couple hundred yards this time. Will also try for a few firing pictures.
