[moooose102]

i have had a thought in the back of my head for a long time. but now that i am a little older, i think a little now ususally before i move. anyway, i have always wanted a miniature cannon. my brother is a machinist, so he could do the machine work, although he could not do the rifleing (he would have to do this as "government worrk" during his regular job):evil:. anyway, would a working, shootable, smoothbore 50 caliber mini cannon of home manufacture be legal? i certainly dont want to explain this to a atf agent, and / or a court of law someday:what:. if so, what would be the best material? brass, bronze, steel, stainless steel? i am thinking it would probably be in about that order (worst to best). having it rifled would even be cooler, but i would have no idea of where to have that done.

[madcratebuilder]

I made one from brass years ago. 18" long with a tapered barrel, 4" at the breech and 3" at the muzzle. A 1" bore, I used to shoot blanks, powder with paper towels as wadding, two dry and then several wet ones, packed tight. It could embed the paper into wood about a quarter inch. Was stolen in the late 70's.

As far a legal??? They sell them on gunbroker all the time. I would go with a larger bore than 50cal.

[BlackNet]

Dixie has kits you can buy

http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1695 is the barrel

http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1647 hardware kit. They say cannon form is required but that should be easy to do. I suspect this is more about freight shipment than nazi regulations.

According to Federal Regulations, a cannon that is “not capable of firing fixed ammunition and manufactured on or before 1898, and replicas thereof, are antiques and not subject to the provisions of either the Gun Control Act of 1968 or the National Firearms Act of 1934”.

[Macmac]

I looked at both links to Dixie, and the gun link appears to be in some error, as i don't understand the 70 pounds weight.

I have a similar sized gun in cast bronze, and it weighs apx 42 pounds. Mine is about 1 inch longer in fact. Is bronze that much lighter than iron?

http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product...oducts_id=1695 This price is about right.

Then the mounting kits in brass is just wrong... The price is way out of line, and just having brass assorted bolts is plain nuts! Not to mention nothing like historically correct so far as the hexagon acorn nut are concerned.

I would be very leary of seeing any gun held down with brass, IF it was going to be fired!

More than half the hardware seems to be missing as that isn't anything like enough parts in the first place.

The U bolts I think are for rope as are the rings which probably are mounted to the carriage with a pair of u bolts

'IF' the smaller u bolts are for the topstraps, 2 are missing..

Then I assume the 2 small brass hold downs should have another pair and there is just no way thes will hold a gun down in recoil...

This has to be a decorator set of hardware, it is in my opinion anyway.

last the nuts/u bolts are not drilled or threaded.. Not that this is hard to do but why would anyone want to do that when the stuff is just not the right stuff in the first place?

The best thing I can say about that installation kit is it might be handy to use as a rough template for something a heck of a lot better than that set is, or it is for a decerator gun that sits pointed at your front door in the living room and never gooes boom ever..

The reason I am ranting about this, is because Dixie has no disclaimer, and this stuff will get you dead if you install a gun with that stuff.

In 25 years of French and Indian War re-enactment I have never once seen any brass top straps, or brass hardware that holds a gun this size on a carriage.. All the hardware is always steel, usually painted black.

The only brass parts should be worms, and or funnels, maybe bucket bands on a wooden bucket, and linings in a cat'ridge box, so this is then more or less spark proof.. But no gun rigging that holds recoil should ever be soft brass.

..............
rant over.

I don't know, but once CVA made a 0.440" bore replica of the cannon found on Old Ironsides. I had one once and gave it away as a home warming gift.

I made a deck section to mount it on, and bought tiny block and tackle gear from a nautical modeling house in Mass.. I can not recall their name.

It was easy to shoot this little gun, but there was no possible way to aim it.

Ho Ho Ho.. N' a bottle of Rum... uh, yeah.. Of course I didn't know you couldn't aim it. So once I decided it was all set to fire I loaded it with the tiny tools I made to to do so. This little gun had every tool there was too!...

I set it down on a picnic table and 'aimed' it at a old dog house no longer in use.. Pretty much this was 2 pieces of full plywood like an 'A' frame covered in a bit of canvass.

BOOM..... smack.... and a odd glass like crumbling sound occured next...

Uh oh... :( That .440 ball sailed right over that great big target totally! Yes Sir, I missed the entire dog house, a full 4'x8' target, and just a few feet high.

What that ball hit, was the driverside window on my wife's Datsun SPL 311 sports car! Blew that window straight to hell it did! :D

I was so proud of myself.. :neener:

[madcratebuilder]

What that ball hit, was the driverside window on my wife's Datsun SPL 311 sports car! Blew that window straight to hell it did!

I was so proud of myself..

So who runs faster, you or your wife holding a club?

[4v50 Gary]

Moose, don't worry about the merry lads of the ATF. Muzzleloading artillery isn't exactly an area of their concern. It's the breech-loading stuff that is considered destructive devices. What to use? Steel of course. Get 4140 if you can.

As for rifling, you can do it yourself. Buy the plans and make a rifling bench. It'll talke about a day or two of very boring work but it can be done at home. Dixie sells plans for a rifling bench.

[Macmac]

So who runs faster, you or your wife holding a club?

At that time I was a full blown foreign car tech, and a lousey cannonier :o

The wife is now 'The X wife' and I got me a new bride, who is most amicable.

My current Bride is only upset by my forgetting tomahawks are left soaking in the 'pot' :D

[4v50 Gary]

Macmac - don't start doing any quillwork. New Bride will not be happy you stop to pick up road kill. I heard of two people who did and a state trooper saw them, pulled over to investigate. Before the trooper could say a word, the fellow explained that he was recovering the road-kill porcupine to do quill work. The trooped stopped right there, turned around without saying anything, got into his car and drove off.