Through some horse tradin' (no actual horses were involved) I was lucky enough to aquire this gonne from
Powder Keg.
The gonne is made from 1018 steel. It's .50 caliber and the bore is 7" deep.
The machine work is first rate. The unique "wasp-waist" ahead of the tiller socket and milled "priming pan" around the vent being its two most distinctive features.
Before testing, I fire-blued the gonne. This finish held up well but wasn't perfect and needs to be redone now anyway (more later).
The tiller is a 48" poplar dowel 1" in diameter. Since the diameter had to be reduced to fit the socket, I decided to dress it up a bit with some copper I had. A 6" long ¾" repair tube was a near-perfect match to the diameter of the dowel, so I cut a second step behind the socket and slid the copper tube onto the tiller. The gonne butts against the copper tube. The other end is fitted with a matching ¾" copper cap. The tiller was given a light stain (Olympic Golden Oak) and finished with two coats of low gloss tung oil.
Test firing the gonne was a hoot! I have never fired a weapon of this sort before.
I started off light, 50 grains of FFg behind my own cast .490 balls. I gradually progressed to a max of 90 grains, which was the load I was shooting in my new .50 CVA rifle that was also getting its first taste of powder that afternoon. Surprisingly, the rifle kicked hard against my shoulder while the gonne had little felt recoil.
I shot each load both patched and unpatched, with no noticeable difference in recoil or report between the two. I did have a couple of embarrassing "roll outs" early on with the unpatched balls. This was mainly because of the layout of the range, the closer target stands are just slightly below zero elevation. If I was careful, I was able to level the gonne toward the target without depressing the muzzle enough to let the ball roll, and as powder fouling built up this was not so much of an issue.
I shot using my linstock with and without fuse. Using a priming charge was fun but most of the shots were fired with fuse because not matter how careful I was, I would get some spilled powder on the range floor from the priming pan.
The gonne digested everything I stuffed down the tube. After the gonne was clean and cool I checked the diameter with a micrometer. Comparing this against the measurements I took before the range session showed no deformation. No difference in dimensions at all. That came as no surprise, this is one beefy chunk of steel and I did not expect that the loads I used would come close to stressing it. But in the interest of scientific evaluation, and ultimately safety, the measurements were necessary.
I had a great time, and lost track of the number of balls I shot (I cast a sackful). The audience went from a disdainful
"What the hell is THAT thing?" to an enthusiastic
"C'mon, shoot it again!"Accuracy? Well, it's about as accurate as pointing a stick can be. Nuff said...
My only compliant was that the bore was not as smooth as I would have liked. Not that bad, but a little difficult to load after several shots. Wes acknowledged this and said he now reams the bores after drilling for this very reason (mine was not reamed). A few passes with a ½" ball hone and the interior of the bore is now slick as a baby's bum. I also finally got around to drilling the screw hole in the tiller socket. This was not an oversight, I requested that Wes leave it for me to drill later. Hence the need for a refinish.
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This was a great experience (despite a few embarrassing rookie moments) and I have had a lot of fun with this new addition to my arsenal.
Wes is a fine machinist and a damned nice guy. I can highly recommend his services.
