Build your own black powder cannon?

Discussion of all things technological and/or gadgety
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Frankingun
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by Frankingun »

Somewhere around the flotsam of my life, I have a copy of Guns and Ammo from a few years ago that had an article about a muzzleloading cannon. They took a plain cannon barrel and welded up a carrier for it that looked like something the modern day military would use. IIRC they used old tennis balls filled with reclaimed birdshot, they sealed the hole with a hot glue gun. Right before stuffing it down the bore, they coated it in vegetable oil. I guess a good time was had by all.

I also need to learn how to weld.
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Steamforger
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by Steamforger »

I'm a Parrott man, myself. My grandmother had a 30# shell as a door stop for quite a while.
MarkD
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by MarkD »

In my Civil War reenacting days I helped out on a cannon crew once. It was illuminating. They had a piece of paper on a frame maybe 25 yards downrange, the shock wave and gasses just shredded it (think confetti). No projectile, a blank. The warning was that you do NOT want to be in front of the muzzle. Even more impressive than our demo of tearing an aluminum soda can in half with a blank cartridge.

It was interesting, but looked like a whole lot more WORK than infantry, muscling the cannon around.
Aesop
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by Aesop »

That's still true today, but the payoff is making the earth-shattering "Kaboom!"
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slowpoke
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by slowpoke »

The idea of HESH or HEAT from black powder cannon is quit intriguing.
I wondef what knd of velocity one could get with fin stabilised discarding sabot on a larger gun?
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Jericho941
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by Jericho941 »

IIRC, getting sabots that'll hit the broad side of a barn from the inside is something that takes a lot of time spent on a computer and rigorous field testing, which is why they never caught on during WW2 and have really only become a "thing" in the current generation of tanks.
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HTRN
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by HTRN »

slowpoke wrote:The idea of HESH or HEAT from black powder cannon is quit intriguing.
It also means alot of dealing with BATFE(Explosive rounds require a tax stamp, for each round, and require explosives licenses and storage requirements).
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toad
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by toad »

the Germans experimented with a papermache sabot for black powder guns IIRC just prior to the 1860's.
toad
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by toad »

I assumed that making explosive rounds would be for conditions so extreme that the BATF would be the least of worries. Or else one was so far out in the boonies and on such a large piece of land you could set of a .25 Kiloton blast and no one would notice?
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HTRN
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Re: Build your own black powder cannon?

Post by HTRN »

If it's that bad, then you're not going to have the resources to make explosives.
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