Author Topic: cannon and mortar ammo (Read 2302 times)

WLB · « **on:** February 05, 2003, 04:00:51 PM »

Has anyone made a small cannon or mortar that fires golf balls. Seems like a better use for them than whacking them with a club.
Bill

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #1 on:** February 08, 2003, 02:14:53 AM »

Bill -

Here's an AutoCAD rendering of one that I produce.

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1536372" width=550 height=412>

I'll post pictures SOMETIME in the future. There are MANY designs out there - some beautiful ones made of brass. Mine are 4140 for the barrel and tremendously overbuilt.

Golfball calibers are fun in that it takes such little powder to get that ball out there 100 yards - too much and you'll NEVER see that golf ball again!

WLB · « **Reply #2 on:** February 08, 2003, 02:40:52 AM »

Good looking mortar, Cat. Whereabouts are you located in the Virginia mountains? I may be dragging a vintage race car to Summit Point Raceway in late May. I think that is about 20 miles north of Winchester. Do you make the bore diameter so just the golf ball fits or is it patched like a round ball muzzle loader
Bill.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2003, 05:02:01 AM »

Bill -
I'm in Pulaski, VA. About 50 miles South of Roanoke. Around here we shoot at either a public 100 yard range or someone's farm in order to reach out over 300 or 400 meters (or further with some mortars).

Another one that I produce is Pepsi Can caliber (did you know that Pepsi and Coke are the same caliber?) As below:

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1288408

Tim

Double D · « **Reply #4 on:** February 08, 2003, 02:55:08 PM »

Tim,

Are you able to reset that autocad drawing from 640 to 550 pixels so I can see it?

Did you say that you had some zinc balls cast? Where at, who by and and how much?

DD

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #5 on:** February 08, 2003, 04:02:23 PM »

DD -
Done (resetting) sorry - sometimes I forget with my monitor set to high resolution for CAD drafting.

I had some 4.5" cannon balls cast locally. A couple of hunded for the mould and then $16 each for casting. (sand casting) Some problems though - requiring a lot of hand grinding to round them out correctly.

When casting them (much larger than cast bullets in lead) they tend to shrink a lot - it isn't even. I've since learned that most folks put a core inside to make a thinner wall section and hence better control over shape when cooling.

Personally, when I get my shop wired, I'll scrounge some CRS in round stock and turn the spheres on the lathe. Summer maybe. I've just given two weeks notice at the best job I've ever had. Joining up with a enterprizing former student of mine (for 1/3 MORE than I was making) to work on belt-fed designs. Since he's got a couple of Mazak's we'll do some mortars and cannon as well.

Double D · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2003, 01:55:07 AM »

Mazak-CAD-CAM. 2 big hunks of aluminum spherical mould about golf ball and beer can diameter?

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2003, 02:02:06 AM »

And a third caliber in that range would be for the 16-20-24oz pop bottle caliber. Sounds like a new thread coming up.

Jeff B. · « **Reply #8 on:** February 15, 2003, 12:50:33 AM »

Tim,

Are you making these soda can mortars for resale? If so, how much?

Thanks,
Jeff

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #9 on:** February 15, 2003, 02:31:49 AM »

Jeff B. Your question puts me in a dillema. As co-moderator, one of my responsibilities is to enforce the guidelines of the board which limits advertizing to those that pay for it. Let's just say that I have a number of the soda-can and golf-ball caliber mortars nearing production stage and at that sometime in the future - most likely this summer you will see an advertizement in the range of 700 or 800 depending on options and configuration. Haven't done all the market research yet so it's a wild guess.