Cannon powder?

[Sydwaiz]

Hello. Can someone tell me the size of cannon powder compared to the others (1fg, 2fg, 3fg, etc)? I'm trying to find the right powder for my cannon (bowling ball). We use 2fg with great results. Pyrodex sucks. I've heard cannon powder is really chunky and burns a lot slower not giving enough "lift". Would 3f be better as long as I don't use too much? We average .25lb per shot of 2f and have actually gone alot higher (load wise)! Don't worry, we are way far away when it fires!
Thanks.

 

[Iggy]

IIRC cannon powder is 1fg.. I wouldn't reccomend using anything else with a bowling ball.. the increase in pressure using 2fg or other would be significant.. The difference in pressure would be much higher with 2fg and thus a better chance of your gun becoming shrapnel..1fg is slower burning, thus spreading the pressure spike all the way down the barrel, rather than a blast at the breech..

I know a guy that uses a 20 guage shotgun shell as a powder measure
His mortar has a firing chamber at the breech and that gun willsend a bowling ball about a 150 yards down range.

The civil war 12 pound field guns only used a 1/4 pound service charge.

That will put an iron ball through a pickup at 300 yards or bury itself 6 feet deep in a sand dune at 800 yards.

IMHO you are flirting with disaster using 2f and 3f in any gun with that large a projectile..

Good luck and be safe!!

 

[Cap n Ball]

Re. being safe with cannons

I've been doing Civil War re-ennacting for the last six years or so with and artillery outfit. We own an authentic 1834 Columbia six pounder. Most blank loads are around 4 oz of 1F wrapped up fairly tight in heavy aluminum foil shaped like a big muffin. When we first got the piece it was as original and we thought to fire it just once to see how it did before we had the tube sleeved. We used two orange juice cans filled with concrete joined end to end with a thick wrap of duct tape that also held a 'drive band' of plastic clay which filled the grooves in the barrel. We aimed it out over a nearby lake and loaded it using a bit more powder than we usually do. The gun recoiled about a foot and the flame scorched the grass almost all the way to the lake. We were very dismayed to see instead of a splash an eruption of smoke and debris on the other side of the lake beyond the treeline, a good five hundred yards away. We jumped for the truck to go see what happened. The farmer was really pissed...very pissed. What we had done was create a giant shotgun. The concrete in the cans dispersed into rocks of various sizes making a pattern about fifteen feet by twenty. We had riddled the roof of his barn and killed an old cow from shock. It cost us $1000.00 dollars to hush it up and not have the sherrif down on us. We also have the distinction of being the only outfit that has a Holstein 'kill' stencil on our limber.

 

[mec]

That's not very funny. ( So why am I rolling around on the floor wishing I was there) HAH! A barn and a nervous cow all in one shot.
Cannons are good!

 

[Poodleshooter]

So... case shot DOES work?

 

[Iggy]

1/3 scale Sea Service 12 pounder loaded with plastic 35mm film can containing 40 caliber lead rifle balls is a great prairie dog gun!!

 

[Burt Blade]

Look out! Cap n Ball _can_ hit the broad side of a barn!

 

[Jim Watson]

According to GOEX, cannon powder is Cannon granulation, coarser than Fg.

 

[Sydwaiz]

Here's a little video of a night shot for you guys. Enjoy.
Nightshot video Oh yeah, if our ball only goes 150yds, we get laughed at!

 

[Watchman]

HEY !

I've been seriously contemplating building a bowling ball cannon.

Any body got any good tips or links ?

 

[Ed]

12 Pounder field guns fired 2 1/2 pounds of powder. We used to fire 1 lb charges of powder with peat moss to make more smoke. With 2 1/2 pounds and a solid shot you could hit targets a mile away.