Muzzle loaded black powder naturally since breach loaded isn't legal, will be a smooth bore made from this.




7/16 thick side wall steel hydrolic line. It's 51" long after cutting the bends out of it, bore is close to 1 1/16". Once my coworker/friend gets his lathe put back together we will machine a plug for one end, pin it in place and weld it at the rear as well. Can't wait to build this thing and machine some projectiles. Are their any laws I should be aware of concerning projectiles fired from a muzzle loaded Cannon? Like no tungsten or something?

I figure we can make a mold to cast lead balls, but machined projectiles will have to be made like a foster slug or pellet to stay stable in flight with no spin.

Well, good luck with your project.

And, would you please post the funeral home where you have made arrangements, so we know where to send flowers?

A friend's wife commissioned a machine shop to make a BP mortar for an anniversary present (how's that for a great wife).  The shop bought a surplus gun barrel from Ft Hood and produced a smooth bore BP mortar which was sized for patched golf balls.  It was truly great fun to shoot and day-glow golf balls fired straight up were out of sight in less than a second.  At 50 yards, firing a golf ball at 3/4" exterior plywood made a round hole in the ply that looked like it was cut with a hole saw.  The BP was a bit expensive at around six shots per can but I've always wished that I had one just like it.

You think me a fool? I'm not going to just throw a large unmeasured volume of powder in it shove something in the barrel and stand next to it.

Rifle it!

Well, good luck with your project.
It's one of those things I always wanted to do. Hope yours works out OK.

OldArmy,

My only 2 suggestions would be to thread the bore of the pipe & make
a breech plug that threads in to the bore of the pipe - those threads
will never break & will be much stronger than the pin & weld method -
and the breech plug is easily removable.

Also, when putting the touch hole in, thread the touch hole 1/4-20 or 1/4-28 - this
gives you many future options - repairability, using a conventional primer
to set the charge off, stuck ball removal with CO2, etc etc.

There is a 1 to 3 rule for bp cannons ,at the breech . That mean if the bore is one inch then the outside of the breech needs to be three inches in dia.

What you NEED to do is get over to Grey Beard Outdoors and intoduce yourself to the BP Cannon board . Ask questions because people show up all the time wanting to know what we think of their creations ....... not much usually. To meet the one to three rule you'll need to band the tube .
The same thing Parrott did with his guns.

I'd answer questions for you ,BUT I CAN NOT recomend GBO enough.

Gary, RocklockI over there

Threaded Breech  Plug.I had a 3/4 in. bore Napolean style howitzer back in the 70's It was made in Spain. I think CVA sold a      similar one.The breech plug was pressed in and pinned.A machinist  cannon bug cut me a threaded   breach plug for it. He said he didn't want to be around when the old plug     blew out!

Rocklock has given great advice.
I went there with questions when I wanted to build a black powder cannon.
They patiently straightened out my misguided thinking on metallurgy for cannons.

Measured with a caliper the side wall is actually .799" yes I'm going to need up the back half.

ETA: Joined greybeard outdoors and posted in the BP cannon forum, same screen name.

I just ordered a soda can mortar. I wanted to build me a cannon but it will take a while to find all the right material.I will use it for noise making more
than any thing else. I do have my bp making down to where I am making good powder about a pound at the time.

Well, the serious one go smaller, and a joke was also born.


The smaller one, which I'm not taking nearly as serious.
Look! It has a free floated barrel!

So let me say I did NOT make this thing properly, but I wont be firing a full charge in it nor will it be shot years down the road where black powder could have caused corrosion somewhere around the breach. The plug is twice as long as needed, shoved in half way, and welded the fuck out of it with a TIG and MIG, as well as drilled and pinned (then pins welded in place) So I really don't think it's a serious issue unless someones going to fire it, not clean the hell out of it, then leave it for 10 years and then try firing a max charge in it sort of thing, but I stamped SIGNAL ONLY on the barrel, though I personally will fire something out of it.

In the mean time I'll be PROPERLY assembling the other one with a propper shrink fit breach plug using a forge to heat the barrel and liquid nitrogen to freeze/shrink the plug, then that will be pinned and welded as well, this ensures gas's from firing can't get between the plug and barrel and cause corrosion that down the road can cause a failure...which you know, can kill the person/people firing it. Also as you can see, I went with cannon fuse for the ignition. With the serious one I'll use a nipple and cap and rig up a hammer.

First firing will be 3/4 charge with all others being 1/2, I'll be using a LONG piece of fuse (like 12") driving out into my buddies pasture, loading, lighting the fuse, hopping in his truck and heading a good ways off...like mostly over the crest of the hill, that the cannons at the bottom of.

What a fun thread! Makes me wish that I owned acreage where such a toy could be enjoyed.

Hey!!!

Just found this searching for some ideas for the golf ball cannon I'm machining.

I'm following the design of an old Krupp Gun.



Any updates???

Like this one !
This and 23 just like it were made by two freinds of mine in Broomfield Colo. .

Their Corp. is Seacoast Artillery.  They make the finest miniature cannons . They have a website .

This one shoots Firecrackers using 8grs of BP set off with a # 11 precussion cap . Its a breech loader too
They made a bigger Krupp model too .

I can not stress GBO and the BP CANNON BOARD ,that IS THE PLACE TO LEARN and not KILL yourself !

Attached File


Attached File


Not good photos ,but you get the idea  .

Gary
Eta There is another fellow on GBO name Dominic Carpenter ,he biulds very nice small cannons ,mostly I bought a golf ball Parrot gun from him in 08.

I tried to take some Mo Better pics and with the breech open .

Attached File


Attached File

Guess what I'm going to be firing off today! No projectile mind you... I guess I should dig around and find that cannon fuse again...I guess I'll take a cell phone video and post it? Maybe by next summer I'll have built the next cannon properly for firing projectiles. Got to many other projects going on right now though and not enough $ for any of them.

Updates?

It was underwhelming with 200gr of pyrodex I think I need a heavier projectile or a lot more wadding. I used a lot of wadding, then added 7 .45 caliber bullets, a ball bearing and a stainless nut for a grape shot like load with a piece of wadding on top, all loaded vertically. Sounded weak, dents in 18ga trunk lid were, meh. I'll post a picture tomorrow. I don't want to get to crazy with it being that it's not been built for anything serious.

Apparently going to have to wait until I build the other correctly, not worth someone getting hurt or dead.

Note it does look like there's a small tear from what I have seen .45acp from my 1911 do to 18ga steel... these were moving at lethal speeds but not supersonic or anything. Funny enough probably around 800ish fps, purely a guess but .45acp doesn't normally penetrate a loose free hanging piece of 18ga in 1 shot, 2 normally tare it lol

Pyrodex and other BP subs do not do well in cannons. The kind of pressure you need to develop to get it to go bang can not be achieved without a tight fitting projectile, and is not safe in any but the very best designed and built cannons (and most home projects don't even come close).

Black powder is what you need for cannons. Balls for muzzle loading cannons are not intended to be tight fitting, windage (clearance) is a part of the design. BP subs do not work well under those conditions.

And most guns (like mine) rarely fire projectiles, salutes are 87% of the shots fired. People want to see the fireball and feel the noise. In places where a live round would be totally out of the question.
Only real black powder will give you a good loud salute with no projectile and minimal containment.

The other stuff just fizzles.

I had wondered if this was part of the problem but had no idea, thanks for posting.

If you can't find BP locally, you can order it online. Powderinc.com will ship as little as 5 pounds (5, 10, 25, or 50). Since hazmat is a fixed charge per container, the more you order the less it adds to the price per pound. A 5 pound order of GOEX Fg is going to be the highest price at $29.10 per pound ($145.50 shipped).

That's still not bad (Pyrodex is going for $25-$30 around here), and these days 5 pounds is a lot of shooting for me. More or bigger guns will eat it faster.

For a 25 pound order (full box) the price drops to $18.40 per pound. They will ship up to 50 pounds in an order, but the price will not go any lower since it would have to come in two boxes.

When they have it, KIK brand is a good powder at a cheaper price. But it's often sold out in some grades (right now they have Fg). It's the only lower priced powder I will buy.

Regular Schuetzen (G-grade, not their A-grade reenactment powder) is a little more than GOEX, Swiss is the most expensive but many target shooters will use nothing else.

Skirmish and Schuetzen A-grade powder are cheap, but these are only recommended for reenacting with blank loads.

Fg would be the grade you want. For bores 1.5" and over switch to cannon grade recommended. 2" and over, cannon grade only. You can use cannon in a 1" bore if that's what you have, but you'll get better performance from Fg.

FFg should be used in bores .50 to .75, if you use it in a 1" bore reduce your charge by 10%. Not recommended over 1".

Mortars are a whole 'nuther animal. Best left to a separate discussion.