Model Cannons & Big Bangs

[rcmodel]

I built the this thing from scratch, including the barrel, working in the evenings in the Ft. Carson CO post rec. center shop in 1968.
The barrel was bored & turned from brass bar stock, and the trunnions silver-solderd in place.

It beat setting in the post NCO Club getting drunk with the other NCO's every night I guess!
Or maybe not??

It fires a .45 cal. lead ball, and is actually quite devastating on target!
Better suited for making noise though, as the recoil with a full charge and ball is a little rough on the carrage!

The other smaller one:
I actually built this one first as a "see if I could do it" sort of thing.
I roughly modeled it after the cannon that set in front of the 5th Infantry Division headquarters building at Ft. Carson CO then.
It has a 9/32” bore and fired #2 buckshot.
The wheels and part of the carriage were destroyed by Army hired moving van gorillas in 1970!



Naval cannon from a kit & a Cast Iron Dummy:
Steel barrel - .45 cal.



Big Bangs:Big-Bang carbide cannons I have picked up over the years.
The kids loved them when they were little.
The neighbors?
Not so much!



rc

 

[4v50 Gary]

Neat models. Spending your nights in the shop was definitely a good use of time.

 

[BCRider]

More nice work from your hands. They are all nice but the big wheeled field piece really tickles my own fancy.

I can only surmise that your RC models are likely the sort of things that would make those of us that build our own nod in appreciation. I've found that skill at any hobby crosses over into other hobbys and activities more often than not.

 

[DoubleDeuce 1]

I think I have a couple of those old carbide cannon jobs in a box in the garage. A friend also gave me a box filled with old-ish model cannons, brass and cast iron stuff. That is in the garage too.

When we were kids, we'd shoot those carbide jobs a lot. Everybody hated them, except us kids.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

One 4th of July, we went to a picnic along the Susq river at a picnic grounds and I took my carbide cannon. Every kid there wanted to shoot it and we had a blast. I think it was pitched when my parent';s house was ruined in Hurricane Agnes back in 1972.

In college we built a larger carbide cannon from a piece of steam pipe. We fired tennis balls out of it quite nicely. My dad was Po'd when he discovered we used up the last of the carbide for his lamps. Haven't seen carbide for sale for decades. I did pick up a carbide lamp somewhere.

 

[BADUNAME30]

Very nice craftsmanship rc.

I know what ya mean 'bout BIG BOOMS and unhappy neighbors.
I rescued this home made one while doin a gun show 'bout 25 years ago.
If i recall it was a 'loose' .36.
So, what is the bore exactly, i don't know.It's got some rust in there so it probably wouldn't hurt to rebore it to say .40 er .45.

I have used it a lot jist for BOOMS.
I'd pack the entire Bbl full with Goex and touch er off




The builder put a lot of work into making the elevation function.

 

[splattergun]

Back in high school a buddy of mine cast a 14" brass scale replica of a Napolean field gun in metals shop. He put a steel pipe sleeve in it, bringing it to about .45 cal, and a marble fit in it OK. His grade on the project was reduced due to the sleeve. He was not allowed to drill a touch hole. So what? He had a drill press in his garage. He had some shotgun shells, too.

4 empty 12 ga shells and a marble later, he fired that 'gun' at a cardboard box. He never found all of the breech, just a couple pieces. He had failed to put a cap on the breech end of the steel pipe. Never did find where the marble went, either. It certainly didn't hit the target.

 

[RTR_RTR]

Haven't seen carbide for sale for decades

Still readily available online

 

[kBob]

German Gun Club I belonged too in the '70s had a weekly cannon shoot for scale cannon shooters who showed up with .50 to .69 caliber muzzle loaders. The actually fired at targets. A german friend, another GI , and I used to joke about making a .22 LR french 75 saucy-cans (1895) breech loader and cleaning house. Appearently between the wars a german unit using such guns was staioned in the area. The GI had found in a local shop a number od silver medalions given as awards by the unit showing German uniformed troops using a saucy-cans.

As a teen I had a buddy that built scale model tanks and aircraft and painted them up realiastically. He decided to make a german rail road gun. He sweated some pipes together and ended up with a smooth bore of .75 caliber then cast a shell based on a boat tailed .30-06 bullet he had. He afixed this to a toy train flat car and did some detail. I have no idea how many hours he put into this thing......then he drilled a touch hole stuffed it with the powder from fire crackers and the humungous lead boat-tail spitzer, stuck a fire cracker fuze in the vent lit it and ran for cover. Good thing that last. The bullet was gone. So was the back quarter of the gun.

While at the Citadel there was a brief fascination among the cadets with tennis ball cannons of taped up beer cans and using lighter fluid for fuel. Some bright boy discoverd that soaking the ball in lighter fluid before loading resulted in an incendiary round. For Parents day one company in my barracks ( dear old 4th battalion) made a chicken wire and napkin new clear sub model about ten feet long. (Do I really need to go further?) Yes it became the target of flaming tennis balls fired from another company area, thankfully after the Patents had left. It burned mightily. Between the flaming submarine and the incident of flamming tennis balls falling into 3rd battalion later that evening there was a special inspection to find beercans, duct tape, and ligher fluid, and tennis balls in the possesion of non tennis team members.

-kBob

 

[BADUNAME30]

" taped up beer cans and lighter fluid "..
I will never forget the day my friends little brother and his little buddies..13-14 y/o,Stole beer from thier house, drank it and then proceeded to make a 'taped up beer can cannon'.
To cut to the chase.....
I will NEVER forget the look on that boy's face when he came walkin past my house, walkin' the remaining 3 blocks to his house white as flour, in total shock holding his blood spewin hand up that was minus 2 fingers that their taped up beer can cannon blew off.
Man, did he ever get a "severe beating " for that one.

 

[unknwn]

"...did he ever get a "severe beating "..."
Jeez, you'd think someone went a lil' overboard with the punishment phase of that learnin' experience.
Amputation via explosion is a VERY harsh way to convince a young one (anyone!) that stupid moves are just that, "stupid" , but to experience a "severe beating" besides?
Gosh, I think I'd have run away from the gulag for that sort of mistreatment.

 

[BADUNAME30]

"...did he ever get a "severe beating "..."

That statement was in jest unknwn.
Go read the "Are roll caps coming back ? " thread.

( Mmm, at least i think it was that thread )

 

[Hoof Hearted]

WOW!
Really nice work on the home mades.........

Not to hijack but does anyone here know anything about this one I recently picked up?

 

[BADUNAME30]

Don't know nothin about it Hoof but i sure like it.
What caliber is it ?

What are those rounds in the blue boxes ?
I have some in .45LC but have no clue what they are.

 

[mgkdrgn]

Well, if someone would like a -real- cannon ....

http://www.gunsamerica.com/967513014/2_inch_Napoleon_with_carriage.htm

 

[Hoof Hearted]

It is 38 caliber.

Those are hand turned brass 12 ga hulls that allow the use of actual 12 gauge wads (the normal 12 ga brass shells like Magtech need 13+ ga wadding.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I have about a dozen small cannons, half are toy models. The other half run from little 44 cals up to a 1.25 inch bore 30 inch tube. There are some toy models out there with drilled bored and touch holes made of pot metal. For gosh sakes be careful.


Years ago, I belonged to Tidewater muzzle loaders out side Annapolis, MD. There was a fellow there with a small naval cannon like the CVA Old Ironsides scale cannon. They were firing it from the top of the loading bench, which was a bit rickety. Well they fire a few and then load it up again. As they gentleman was lighting the fuse, he pushed away against the loading bench and the cannon started rolling back wards. It tumbled to the ground, landing upside down and pointing toward the parking lot. It went off within a fraction of a second, putting a lead ball through the passenger window of the van parked there. It took a few days before I stopped laughing at the three stooges nature of the incident. I realize now it could have just as easily landed pointing at one of us humans.

They may be scale, and though they may be "toys" they could still be deadly.