"Capt. Mooron" wrote in message ...
Sounds Good.... I was looking at Bronze stock to mill on the lathe .... and
the ole' Man said he would show me how to do the rifling. That's why I want
even shot loads. I'm researching to locate 1" ball bearings.

Mooron, trust me - if you try to fire hardened steel ball bearings in
a rifled *bronze* cannon, you're looking at a world of hurt.

Actually, if it's a muzzle loader, you won't get them to go down the
bore, cos there's no way in hell you'll get the rifling to engrave on
the balls, so you'll be safe. But it won't fire anything. If you do
this with a breechloader, it'll most likely rupture. It's not a good
idea.

The bronze guns were smoothbores, and the shot were 'rattle fit' with
wadding over the powder charge, and more wadding around or in front of
the projectile to keep it in place. Using steel ball bearings in a
smoothbore is simple, practical and fun. That's how I built my first
pistol when I was 12. My father was a fitter/welder who ran his own
auto repair business - plenty ball bearings.

If you really want a rifled bronze cannon firing ball bearings, patch
each one so the patch takes the rifling, not the ball. I still think
it's not a good idea, tho. Pressures go up and bronze is soft. I
sleeved my cast iron cannon with Sched 80 s/steel pressure tube and
it's a smoothbore.

My advice, FWIW, is to load 12 gauge solid shotgun slugs, about .75",
or look for 10G solid slugs if you want a bigger bore. Saves a lotta
hassle and the density of lead will give you better range.
Alternatively, make a mould and cast slugs to suit.

I've got 30 years of experience in this stuff, both building &
shooting, and still have all my fingers, plus eyesight. Apologies if
I'm telling you what you already know, but on this subject there are
few second chances.

PDW


Grape shot loads could be placed with wadding and lead weights. I'm looking
at a 24" long cannon mounted on a wheeled cart and bungeed to the bowsprit
like we did with my friend's cannon which had a 3/4" barrel.

I launched the rubber stopper from this cannon once.... which I forgot to
remove during the excitement.... it launched visibly and we tracked it to
about 3" from a friend's head on a salute shot once. It wouldn't have killed
him since we loaded very light but man was he nervous around me after that
round! Ha ha ha

CM

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
om...
| "Capt. Mooron" wrote in message
...
| I'm planning a deck cannon but I have to see what the most common size
of
| ball bearings are available.
|
| Nah, golf balls. Cheap, reasonably dense, good range and the ammo
| looks innocent. Been there, done that. I have 3 1806 Naval 6 pounder
| cannon and 3 1812 Napoleon field cannon scaled down for this. Friend
| of mine did the castings before he swapped over to importing castings
| from India. Built one up to play with, the others are garden ornaments
| at the moment.
|
| Ball bearings are OK for grape shot, but 45 cal lead balls for
| muzzle-loading pistols are better. Depends on whether you're trying
| for a hull shot or an antipersonnel shot, between solid shot and
| grape.
|
| I'll send you a jpeg of the castings next time I'm up the farm, where
| the ordnance is stored.
|
| Peter Wiley