M1875 Hotchkiss 1.65" breech loading mountain howitzer blueprint questions.

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Tyockell18

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Hello everyone,

First of all I am wondering if anyone knows of where to get blueprints for a The M1875 mountain howitzer, or other similar old timers that take cartridges.

What are the legalities of making a breech loading cannon from scratch?. They are much to expensive to buy.

I have spent some time making blueprints of my own ideas on paper but would like to see some actual blueprints to figure out a few mechanical hiccups.

This is all theoretical at present, I have not created anything.

If this is a possible legal endeavour, it will give me a serious project for down the road.

Due to the difficulties of giving it rifling I would likey end up leaving it a smooth bore and using round balls with handmade brass cases with BP ect.

The barrel would be made using high grade seemless pipe and reinforced and bored out accordingly ect. Not looking to do anything dangerous here, safety is my prime concern as well as a proper pull cord firing mechanism.
 
If you do a search back 36 months your likely to come up with the legal definitions for cannons. One post said that a muzzle loader is viewed as a singalling device and therefore unregulated. As far as a breach loader I don't know. Like to eventually make one of these myself some day, no real reason other then it is cool. Post some pics of your design.
 
At one point, I speculated about building a Hotchkiss cannon; the problem was that while I found a few photos of them, most were of a larger pedestal mounted gun on a large boat. Also relatively few photos of the mountain howitzer size. Perhaps fortunately, some measure of practicality has come to pass

cheers mooncoon
 
FYI guys at the couple cannon shoots I've been to were adamant that rifling = illegal.

I have nothing to back that up beyond hearsay, just highlighting that possibility for you if you do try this; and change your mind about the smoothbore.

Good luck in your potential project - if the breachloading idea fails, boy there are some really neat home-built muzzleloading cannons out there...
 
Muzzleloading, touch hole fired, gives deemed antique status.
Modern breechloading, smooth or rifled, gives non-restricted firearm status.
For example, a 1 1/2" bore breechloading punt gun is non-restricted, antique if pre-1898, non-restricted if modern.

One option for a small rifled cannon would be to obtain a piece of demilled cannon barrel.
 
tiriaq said:
Muzzleloading, touch hole fired, gives deemed antique status.
Modern breechloading, smooth or rifled, gives non-restricted firearm status.
For example, a 1 1/2" bore breechloading punt gun is non-restricted, antique if pre-1898, non-restricted if modern.

One option for a small rifled cannon would be to obtain a piece of demilled cannon barrel.
Click to expand...


+1 on that
I had a project of building one too but gave-up because of regulations....
I didn't want to:stirthepot2: with the feds.....
Anything that is touch hole fired is no problem even if it fires a 200lbs ball at 5 km.:cool:
 
To further muddy the waters.... it can be breach loading, as long as it still uses a touch hole or flintlock. I have no proof, but got a tech to answer that a couple years ago - so if you made a breech loading cannon and simply had a casing without the primer and a tiny fuse hole in its base that fed through the breech, you're ok as an antique in some way or another.

Make it percussion cap fired and you're now a modern firearm, and I suspect without knowing for sure that the controlled goods directorate would come into the show because of ?barrel size?... that may be an american law that I'm thinking of...
 
NorthCoastBigBore said:
FYI guys at the couple cannon shoots I've been to were adamant that rifling = illegal.

I have nothing to back that up beyond hearsay, just highlighting that possibility for you if you do try this; and change your mind about the smoothbore.

Good luck in your potential project - if the breachloading idea fails, boy there are some really neat home-built muzzleloading cannons out there...
Click to expand...

I would like to see the regs that they use for proof. I 'm guessing it is their opinion , not law.
 
Ok thanks for the information guys, I'm pretty much only interested in a Cartridge cannon. Surplus cannon barrel could be a good option, the steel grade and rifling are both present, "provided rifling isnt an issue". Does not make much sense to me in any regards, but neither do the rest of our gun laws.

Non restricted status would still be ok. I'm still working on the plans, I will likely upload them when I feel they are satisfactory.
 
Cannon as long as it uses a fuse they class it as a match lock doesn't matter if its rifled or not
 
Tyockell18 said:
Hello everyone,

First of all I am wondering if anyone knows of where to get blueprints for a The M1875 mountain howitzer, or other similar old timers that take cartridges.

What are the legalities of making a breech loading cannon from scratch?. They are much to expensive to buy.

I have spent some time making blueprints of my own ideas on paper but would like to see some actual blueprints to figure out a few mechanical hiccups.

This is all theoretical at present, I have not created anything.

If this is a possible legal endeavour, it will give me a serious project for down the road.

Due to the difficulties of giving it rifling I would likey end up leaving it a smooth bore and using round balls with handmade brass cases with BP ect.

The barrel would be made using high grade seemless pipe and reinforced and bored out accordingly ect. Not looking to do anything dangerous here, safety is my prime concern as well as a proper pull cord firing mechanism.
Click to expand...

you can use "google patents" and come up with all forms of breech loading cannon designs. Including the hotchkiss. Its quite complex. If your looking for fully dimensioned drawings you are SOL, the only breech loading blueprints I know of are the whitworth, and thats an old civil war cannon.

If your willing to give up on a self contained cartridge, there is the "Long Cecil" which uses a deBang obituator and a screw breech. The details of its construction are all over the net, as well as a diagram on how it was bored and rifled. Much simpler construction.

And another thing that could work would be a rifled 12 gauge barrel used as a liner, and use ready made brass 12 gauge shells, your shells are smaller, but cheaper and possibly more practical.

Good luck on your projects
 
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Did you see the Pawn Stars episode with the Hotchkiss? If not, don't watch it or your project will become an obsession.
 
rgbai said:
check out this one it's a deck gun not quite what your looking for but really nice work.

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=21444&highlight=deck+gun
Click to expand...

That one boggles the mind; spectacular is the only word I can think of. I am not sure how the recoil system works. Looks like the barrel might slide inside the ring that the trunions are mounted on. I can see what I presume to be a hydraulic ram for recoil absorption, mounted under the barrel

cheers mooncoon
 
H Wally said:
To further muddy the waters.... it can be breach loading, as long as it still uses a touch hole or flintlock. I have no proof, but got a tech to answer that a couple years ago........
Click to expand...

Yep, I got the same answer when I inquired.......

He used the term "gray" area when I mentioned percussion fired - but also said that cannon regs were managed by Parks Canada?!? Meh, I've never found anything to re-enforce that comment.
 
Weapontech said:
He used the term "gray" area when I mentioned percussion fired - but also said that cannon regs were managed by Parks Canada?!? Meh, I've never found anything to re-enforce that comment.
Click to expand...

I believe Parks Canada has a set of safety rules or guidelines for shooting blanks out of cannons. In eastern Canada there are several forts with cannons that are fired for the tourists.

cheers mooncoon
 
just a bit off topic but im looking for any breach mechanism parts for a ww2 jap type 90 75mm mountian gun. i have the gun but no breach(still in new guinea somewhere) when i work out how to post pics ill show some.
 
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