Black Powder Cannon

[trabikoenig]

Some History:

Last year my father passed away and one of the things he left to me was a black powder cannon that he made in the 70's. He had found out that an anti-aircraft artillery barrel had been cut up at the local scrap yard and headed over to get a piece of it. They sold it to him for the price of scrap at $7.00. He then hired a machine shop to put a breech block on it and drill some holes for the fuse. According to the shop, it was some of the hardest steel they had every worked on. They charged my father another $15.00. He built a frame for the cannon and had a lot of fun with it. He was in the National Gaurd and would take it with him to summer camps. They would use it for a wake-up call in the morning and it soon became popular among units. The cannon was always called Phred and at one point someone found some general stars and glued them onto the side of the frame. They typed up some papers and it became a two-star general. My father always fired it on the 4th of July and was often invited to fire it at funerals of servicemen. There are lots of fun stories of this cannon with my family and the military and I have been honored that my father left this to me.

My Question:

When I was younger my father purchased a bunch of black powder from a local shop. He got more than he probably should have legally and he got it cheap. He chose to store the powder in a container that was more manageable and discarded all the original containers. My father would load anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of powder (I know, that seems like a lot to me), used a wadded up paper towel as a wad and would light the fuse. Before he passed, I had asked him what powder he used and he couldn't remember. I have recently used up all his powder and am looking for a replacement powder. My father-in-law had some FFG powder on hand and I tried this last night. It was very disappointing. Using FFG and a considerably smaller charge I had more of a fizzle and no boom. Usually, the paper towel fully disintegrates, but this time there was a lot left over and I could hear extra powder burning in the towel when I approached. It seemed as though the pressure built up slowly and pushed the wad out too soon. So that says faster burning powder, but in the back of my mind, I can't imagine using FFFG for a cannon. I know FG or cannon black powder is a better fit for a large bore cannon. Is FFG already too fast? I am considering getting some FG powder and giving that a try. Because of the things I have heard my father do, I know that this cannon can handle a very large charge, but I also don't want to push the risk of blowing it or myself up. I am looking for any advice or understanding so that I can give a proper cannon tribute to my father and the 4th of July!

Thanks for reading my long post and any suggestions!

[blaster]

sounds like a really cool cannon. what size is the bore? do you remember how big the old powder granules were? see if you can find the same size. shooting just wads, I doubt you could blow up a barrel made for smokeless powder with an overcharge of black powder.

[AR-300]

You cannot make BP cannons fire with reduced loads.
They just go fwup.
FFG will work fine, increase load until it goes BOOM

[bangbangping]

shooting just wads, I doubt you could blow up a barrel made for smokeless powder with an overcharge of black powder.

Yup. You're getting fizzle from not enough powder and/or wad too loose. Dump in some more powder, and try newspaper packed in tight. F or FF should work fine.

[Spike]

Can you post a couple pictures of the cannon? I'd love to see it.

[dellet]

Same as any other load question. It depends.

Generally cannons are loaded with Fg. Bore size will give a reasonable guess at a charge weight because you need to have the powder create a compressed plug in the cylinder for lack of better words. So you're looking more for a volume measurement that will completely fill the back of the chamber. This was the same even for all cartridges of the day. 45-70-350 would be .45 caliber, 70 grains powder, 350 grain bullet.

We ran a 1 pound smooth bore for a time affectionately known as the quarter pounder. 2 inch bore, 4oz Fg, one pound ball.

Shooting blanks works better with something that compresses well and can be used wet for wadding. Less chance of wadding starting a fire. I've known of guys using grass clippings or leaves. Organic cannoneers.

Yes, there is competitive artillery events
http://www.n-ssa.org/teamartillery/

http://www.acwsa.org/ACWSA_Misc_Files/A ... _Rules.pdf

Knowing bore size would help.

Rebel most likely has a source for noise loads.

[rebel]

Dudes around here like triple F as the say it makes a bigger boom. More than likely it's just easier to get tight and compress as it's finer.
FF will be easier to find probably. Not sure of your location but if you are western, heed dellets fire warning. If east, especially southeast where it's fairly wet right now, consider cutting out an oversize circular pasteboard card to pack it.

[bangbangping]

On the fire hazard thing...
I made a cannon once that was beer can diameter. Which came in very handy. We'd cut the top off of a can, split the sides, then fill it with deer corn. Quick and easy, provided enough weight to help with the boom, no fire hazard, and nothing heavy coming down. Upon firing the can would open up and helicopter down, and then it would rain corn over a wide area.

[trabikoenig]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I tried firing the cannon again last night using FFG. I loaded it more to what my father was doing and got the boom I was looking for. On the barrel, it shows that it was a 40mm barrel and that comes out to about 1.5 inches.

Thanks for the advice on using a wet wad to avoid fires, this has been a concern of mine.

Although the barrel is rifled I mainly use it for the boom factor. I would like to find a ball mold and make some 1.5 inch balls to send out of it some day.

I will see if I can round up some pictures and maybe a video of it being fired and post them on here.

[dellet]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I tried firing the cannon again last night using FFG. I loaded it more to what my father was doing and got the boom I was looking for. On the barrel, it shows that it was a 40mm barrel and that comes out to about 1.5 inches.

Thanks for the advice on using a wet wad to avoid fires, this has been a concern of mine.

Although the barrel is rifled I mainly use it for the boom factor. I would like to find a ball mold and make some 1.5 inch balls to send out of it some day.

I will see if I can round up some pictures and maybe a video of it being fired and post them on here.

Might be a little tight, but if I remember right a golf ball is 42mm. There is a whole community of golfball cannon shooters and products.