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Does anyone have and shoot cannons. I'm talking about 2inch or bigger, not the little coffee table poppers. I picked up an old Coston 2 1/2" bore line gun, shoots tennis balls full of sand and Coors Silver Bullet cans full of conrete. 1000grs of cannon black, gets me out to 1500 yards. Loads of fun.

Sounds like a blast!

I don't personally own one.....yet...but a friend of mine has a Mountain Howitzer and we shoot it on occasion. When I was volunteering at the Boone Home in Defiance, Missouri, an outfit from somewhere in Illinois would bring their big boomers over for Pioneer Days. I never fired them but sure watched them a bunch. Yes, they are a hoot!!!!

http://www.buckstix.com/howitzer.htm

http://www.buckstix.com/CoehornMortarHunt.htm

Ask and ye shall receive!

Yep, Dan, that's it!!! His has the carriage, sort of. It isn't correct and he's slowly building a new one. The plans are quite involved if I remember correctly. I have an internet acquaintence in South Africa who built a Coehorn mortar but I don't recall what size....obviously all I've seen is pictures of it. Still looked really cool to own and shoot!

Whutsup y'all. Been busy fighting floods, tornadoes etc. In our group we have 4 cannons presently. One 2 1/2 incher, one 2"er, and 2 1"ers. We have a bout a dozen mortars two of which are bowling ball shooters. It's amazing how little powder it takes to fire off these things. The 2 and 2 1/2 guns are of the mountain calvary variety and the 2 1" guns are brass deck guns. We enjoy this competition more than the buffler shoots. Everybody needs one.

Doo Dah

PM me if you need some advice. I went through the National park Service ML cannon school back in the 80's. Since then I served on everything from a 3lb. Grasshopper (British battalion gun, Rev War) to a 12 lb. Napolean gun. I have the tube for a 1795 U.S. pattern 3lb. howitzer, need to get off my butt and build a carriage for it. Watched a guy lose a hand on a Napolean gun a few years ago- they'll bite back if you're not careful.

There is nothing in the world of black powder to give a guy a hard-on like firing a ML cannon!

That sounds like a neat course, I'd love to sit through something like that. I have talked to a couple of Old Merchant Mariners that had used the Coston Line gun, but they had no memory of the charge weights or projectile weight. I know for a fact that what I'm shooting is a lot lighter than the saboted ring bolt pictured on a museum site. The Coors cans weigh 1.6lbs and are a perfect match to the bore as are the lighter tennis balls.

Accuracy with the balls is amazing, not so much with the concrete wadcutters, the aluminum has a tendency to score in the bore and put out a little wing that makes for some interesting trajectories. I got the material to turn out a round ball mould, but I'm not sure I need to use up the lead supply that quickly. Tennis balls and Coors cans are free..

Here's the one for you SOFMatchstaff.

http://www.wimp.com/cannonfiring/

Anybody who would post a link to hunting cats with a Coehorn mortar is one sick dude!

I like that!

From the website:

I finally settled in at 350 yards with about a 15 second hang time for the Mortar ball. The "hang-time" is the time delay from when the Mortar is fired until the ball reaches the target. This 15 second hang time proved to work quite well on the Feral Cat hunt because by the time the sound reached the location of the Cat, ( or Cats ) about 1-1/2 seconds after firing, the cat would "perk-up" and look in the direction of the sound, and then see the distant white smoke of the Mortar. Shortly after, he would sit and gaze whimsically at the approaching cannon ball, fixated in place, as the ball of the Mortar would silently race closer and closer. I like using dark colored Mortar balls because the Cats can easily see them silhouetted against the bright sky.





(and a free bump for T_LEE to see this... )

John

We had to go through the course in order to be allowed to discharge artillery on Federal Park property. I don't know if they even do it anymore.

Be a little wary of lead balls in a ML cannon. Remember, lead is way heavier than iron, the original ball material. We reduced charges when firing lead balls. Pouring zinc balls is another alternative.

The guy who lost his hand on the Napolean gun tried ramming a fresh charge without swabbing the bore first. They were in the "heat of battle" at a re-ennactment and he did an incredibly stupid thing. Just goes to show that sometimes historical accuracy must take a second place to safety. (I doubt that Federal gunners took the time to swab bores between shots when pouring double canister into closing lines of Confederate infantry during Longstreet's assault on the 3rd day of Gettysburg. I often wondered how many gunners got hurt in moments like that.)

I copy that about the lead, but I feel safe using any weight below what that service projectile was. I was surprised a bit that the Sabot and rod took up the complete length of the tube. My gun is a Ordnance marked barrel, and in very good mechanical condition. I bore scoped the thing with a medical tool that has been places that only RobP could talk about with any degree of humor, and it showed no problems in the tube at all.

I guess that Park Service course was more of a safety briefing than a actual table of charges and ranges, still, I bet the Demonstration props were interesting.

I should try to get a photo on here, not sure how to do that just yet, I know theres some in that camera I bought.