Cannon for Father's Day

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    kstone803

    kstone803

    Official Meat Getter
    Feb 25, 2009
    3,928
    Ltown in the SMC
    So I've been looking at getting a cannon for the last year or so and my lovely wife and kids bought me this for Father's day.

    https://www.peacefulvalleyarms.com/product/field-carriage-golf-ball-bore-cannon/

    Anybody own one and actually shoot golf balls from it? I figured golf balls may bounce more than a real cannon ball so does anyone make/know where to buy "real" cannon balls? Also is there anywhere to buy or make cannisters of grape shot? Maybe single 0 buckshot? It'll be here in a few weeks so I have time to stock up on powder and fuses. I can't wait!
     
    K

    ken792

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 2, 2011
    4,489
    Fairfax, VA
    One of the uses of round shot was skipping across the ground and hitting multiple targets, so it's going to bounce regardless if you're shooting at a low angle across hard ground.

    You can buy molds that will let you cast lead into golf ball sized shot for these cannons.

    For grapeshot, you can probably make wooden sabots and then pack buckshot into foil, fabric, or paper.
     
    Rambler

    Rambler

    Doing the best with the worst.
    Oct 22, 2011
    2,215
    That is very cool. So at 700 grains charge shooting a golf ball, that is 10 shots to the pound. The reason for using golf balls is that they are cheap compared to lead.

    I was thinking about your Civil War style canister shot. A 12 pound cannon has a bore of about 4.62 inches. From an image of a CW 12 pounder canister shot broken open (wikipedia page for canister shot), it looks like the balls inside are about a little less than 1/4 the size of the can diameter or roughly 1 1/8 inches. The can itself appears to be about twice as tall as the bore diameter, and 36 balls, which appear to be iron, are shown.

    A golf ball is 1.68 inches and 1.62 ounces.
    Measure the bore of your cannon; it has to be somewhat bigger than 1.68". I would guess it is approximately 1.75 inches. That means the ratio of the golf ball howitzer bore to a 12 pounder bore is around 1:2.64 (1.75/4.62=2.64)
    Mind you, this is all approximate. So, an individual canister shot to scale for golf ball bore would be about 1.125/2.64=0.426 inches.

    Looking at buckshot: 0=0.32" (9 per ounce); 00=0.33" 8 per ounce); 000=.36" (6.2 per ounce)

    For reference, a lead ball the size of a golf ball is just over 1 pound. An iron ball that size is about 11.3 ounces.

    The 000 buck diameter is within reason for scale. However, notice that the issue you start to get into is the weight of the projectile.

    A golf ball is 1.62 ounces. So using the lead balls per ounce, the golf ball weight equivalent becomes approximately 0= (14.5 per golf ball); 00=0.33" 12 per golf ball); 000=.36" (10 per golf ball)

    Also, you would still need to account for the weight of the can to hold the shot. So, in other words, to make a to scale canister or grape shot for your cannon, it will be much heavier than a golf ball.

    You should definitely contact the manufacturer for additional charge data. I suspect they are going to state not to use anything but 1 golf ball and the powder measure provided. But you never know.

    My uncle was a CW cannon expert and I watched him do everything from making (casting) barrels from scratch to firing coffee cans filled with cement into the water. The one thing I learned from his experiments was that even when you think you know what you are doing, things can go wrong. If you decide to experiment, proceed with extreme caution.
     
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