Good cannon bore size? Need some input

Here are some more to look at. The silvery ones are made from monel and the breach is a little over 2" diameter. The brass coloured one is silicone bronze tubing with an ID of roughly 1" and an OD of 2"

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the black one is made from steel tubing with a wall thickness of about 1/2" and a bore of roughly 1". The diameter is built up with polyprope rope and bondo over that. There is a 5" diameter disc welded to the breach and 4" ones in the middle and at the muzzle. Breach plug/powder chamber is threaded into the barrel with roughly 1 1/2" of thread. The trunions are a tight fit into thick tube sockets welded to the barrel which allows the barrel to be turned in a small lathe during the rope winding and the contouring of the outside surface

cheers mooncoon
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Using a golf ball as a projectile doesn't make much sense, the fight path is completely erratic, the shooter could be considered a golfeneer rather than a cannoneer...;)
I have a removable sight on my 1' bore cannon, and with it, we can hit a man target with every shot at 100 yard.
(The sight is removed before each shot)
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If I could figure out how to post pics I have read the stickys and can't do it.
I run a 50mm gun shooting a handmade hollow base slug approxamatly 1.6 lbs with 650-900 gr of powder depending on distance. I am not very good at it having just started (3 yrs). Some of the fellows we shoot with can put 5 of 5 on a 24 inch square at 200 yds. Yes I know that there are safty concerns but in our circle if someone brings a new gun it gets inspected by all and if even one has a concern it don't shoot.
Also anyone drinking or loading stupidcharges is out.
 
Got some work done on my cannon, started turning it on the manual lathe and got the back end and the bore done, then my instructor took a big interest and over to the CNC it went, programmed the taper and a radius near the business end, the design was just off the top of my head.
I made the trunnions way too far back, I just did a through hole and wanted to keep it well away from the chamber, but I will figure a good way to mount it in a carriage.

The bore only went in about 6 inches, due to that was about all we could do with the drills we had, and the boring bar was chattering enough as it was.
The overall length is about 12", and the bore is 1.025", hopefully that's a good amount for windage.

the mold was really fun to make too, but tried it out tonight and the funnel was too narrow, it cooled and plugged it up, even with the mold heated. Also, doing the casting over a wood fire in the dark with a flashlight in your mouth is less than ideal. ;)
Pics coming as soon as its done!
 
Here is mine 1".25 bore Made a mold using 1.25 bearing at local machine shop used a 1.25 half round in a lathe bit hollowed out both sides of the mold aluminum finnished in a 50ton press on the bearing.
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Soda can size will also work with tennis balls!! A Coke can filled with plaster or concrete makes for a very dangerous (but long range!) projectile while a mortar shooting tennis balls will cause no great damage to roofs...
 
I have a breech loadrer that shoots a 1 pound down rigger ball. As far as the bore goes I lined a 4' od 1.75 id seamless tube with microhoned cylinder tubing. The cylinder tubing is 1.5" id exactly. The breech threads are 4 tpi and look very serious as well as strong. I mwill post pics once I figure out how.
 
In 1963 a friend and I went down to Gettysburg, PA for the Centennial - there were all sorts of cannons (mostly original) but the one I enjoyed most was a mortar which fired standard sized coffee cans filled with cement. What fun to lob a big can down range!
 
Goldenlakepete said:
In 1963 a friend and I went down to Gettysburg, PA for the Centennial - there were all sorts of cannons (mostly original) but the one I enjoyed most was a mortar which fired standard sized coffee cans filled with cement. What fun to lob a big can down range!
Click to expand...

I saw a home made mortar in Squim, Washington a number of years ago. It shot a wooden cylinder (about 10" diameter) with 2 or 3 reinforcing straps around it so the wood did not split and several feet of rope on the end like a tail so you could watch the projectile in flight better. They would shoot it up at about 80 degrees with a light charge so the wooden slug went 2 or 3 hundred feet in the air.

cheers mooncoon
 
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