I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask about them, but thought it was worth a shot. I have always wanted a cannon for no real reason besides they are awesome. however, my only experience with black powder anything was firing a muzzle loader like 3 times a few years back. My dad also had a Bangsite cannon, but that was set off with hydrogen I think.

I'm curious about those little, almost toy cannons they sell online and stuff. I have seen videos of them shooting BBs through soda cans and stuff like that. I was thinking that might be a fun way to get started, as they are cheap and I would still get to start learning about and buying black powder and fuses, that kind of stuff.

I am a member of an outdoor range that allows black powder stuff, so I would be able to try it out in a real range rather than just back yard bubba, but if it's safe and fun I'd like to maybe set it off at holidays in the suburbs. I can't find anything that says that's illegal, so it must be ok ;)

anybody have experiences with these little guys and is it worthwhile or not so muhc?

My kids and I built a small model of a Coehorn mortar from 2" and 3/4" steel bar stock using basic tools; a drill press, a cheap welder and some hand tools. It shoots .72" caliber musket balls and works great:

awesome! how far does it shoot and can you ballpark how loud it is on my made up scale? suppressed 22, 22 rifle, 22 pistol, 9mm something, 223, big bolt gun (like 30-06), huge explosion

Not loud. Being black powder, the sound is not as sharp as with smokeless loads. Sound level is comparable to an unsuppressed .22 rifle I guess. It shot the lead ball about 100 yards, but we did not explore the ballistic limits... we just wanted to confirm that it shoots. The windage (looseness of fit of ball in barrel) is significant, so we are probably losing a lot of efficiency. It is basically a decorative piece now.

Mortars are addicting . . .



I can stop anytime I want, I swear . . .

Heres mine ,

Attached File


Attached File


Golf Ball size

I'll see your golf ball . . .



And raise you a pool ball . . .

For a .750 bore, textbook windage would be .731, so you are a little undersized. But not that much, and you would probably have to cast your own to get closer.

OTOH casting might be another thing you can do with the kids.

Hi Terry C nice mortars ! I havn't  been to gbo in a while , have you ?

TerryC's cannons are best cannons!

I pop in from time to time, been there pretty regular for the past couple of weeks since I've been getting my new cannon together.

Posted a thread in here a little while ago. Should be lose to the top.

I haven't forgotten.

Now that I have this out of my way I can start something new . . .