And I mean the full size variety. I've bought myself 2 British ordnance pattern guns to restore, a Victorian era rifled mountain gun which is a 7 pounder and also a 3/4 ton monster which is a board of ordnance Blomefield pattern Naval 6 pounder cast 1797 which is for a bow position chase gun on a Royal Navy sloop circa Trafalgar or War of 1812. I've always wanted to do this and these guns are in good enough condition to fire, I just have to build the carriages. The Navy gun is extraordinarily rare in the US and should probably be in a museum but I love the movie Master and Commander and could not pass it up. The other gun is an Afghanistan bring back and weighs just over 200 lbs.

Anyways, I need a good place to get advice on the carriages, and treating the iron on the big gun. I haven't found anywhere through google searches.

My fiancee did black powder artillery for reenactments all through high school; she may have some guidance for you.

You don't ease in do you..

try "the muzzle loading forum" 

bit more geared toward that sort of thing

This perks my interest.

Following this, I want to find some good info on building your own. After watching a homemade bowling ball cannon in action I'm wanting to try a golf ball or soda can size version!

I've heard the home made guns can be very dangerous!

I would say buy the barrel/cannon.  It will most likely be the cheapest part.  You can find them for around a grand.  A premade carriage for that hunk of steel runs 8K+.  You can build your own but unless you have mad wood working skills that can get pricey.


Note, I do not know a ton about the topic, but have been watching some one try to get a carriage built on the cheap to finish his cannon for a couple three years.

I'd love to have something like OP got, but I'm afraid I won't be anytime soon for sure!

I'm thinking more of a "shop built" style out of steel tubing. We've got a machine shop, welders, and various sizes of pipe and tubing. If I had a way to know what can or can't handle the pressure I could probably have a barrel and simple carriage done in a weekend, and possibly not even have to buy any material!






Looking at this all the time makes me think, and that's not even quite all of it! 

The North South Skirmish Association (N-SSA) has an artillery forum on the bulletin board of their website where you might get some help. It is outside their time period but they actually shoot cannons and mortars in competition so it is likely someone there could point you in the right direction.

I've been looking at N-SSA forums, cool stuff!  I believe I'm a good enough woodworker to do a proper carriage for both guns. I'll likely be keeping the 7lb gun and restoring and auctioning the Naval gun as it is so big and cumbersome.

I check out this forum once in awhile:

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/88-blackpowder-mortar-cannon-sponsored-seacoast-artillery.html#/forums/88?page=1

People post some neat stuff they've built and restored.