Tradition's mini-cannons? Worthwhile or not?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I though maybe I'd gather some discussion from you guys on mini-cannons, but it appears that you feller's don't mess around with anything less than 1"  bore! :eek:

Over at cannon-mania I've been eye-balling the Tradition's Old Ironsides .69 caliber.  From what I can see it looks like a good buy.

Have any of you seen, fired, or owned one of these?  What do you think?

Also, I noticed many references to cannon fuses.  Does anyone use the old method of priming the torch-hole and lighting it with a slow-match?

[Double D]

Black Jack,

I've fired a few of those little guns.  I realy didn't enjoy them.  But I will tell you this, They fueled my fire for the bigger stuff.  They are a good way to start.

Yep fired with primed touch hole.  Doesn't work that well with the Mortars.  Hard to get powder down the hole.  Thus the paper straw fuse.  

Never did like  having the open flame/ember around powder.  I had about 10 feet of the slowmatch fuse that a guy gave me. Looked like cotten rope, but wasn't.

I want to try friction fuse in the mortar.

[Jeff B.]

Sometimes the bigger cannons are too much of a "good thing". They're heavy and not very mobile and you must have a remote location due to noise constraints and/or range limitations.

The smaller mini-cannons are something I'd like to try as well. The Old Ironsides piece looks like a pretty good deal IMHO. You can have lots of fun without having to go to a lot of effort to do so especially if you live in a moderately built up urban area.

The small cannon can still be noisey but not (usually) prohibatively so depending on the local noise ordnances in your area.

Also, there's a toy cannon e-mail list you can join if you are interested. Ray Brandes (spelling ?) has a toy cannon enthusiast web site with the mail list info on it. Here's the link to his site http://www.ray-vin.com/ .

[Cat Whisperer]

BJJ -
  Small cannon are a quiet reasonable approach to generating the required amount of excitement.

  When the 24oz soda bottle full of concrete - still going upwards - cleared the mountain behind the range I KNEW that having an 'iron of that range was a bit much.

  It's the golf ball cannon (with ranges of a mile or more) that really scare me.  I'd like to be able to see everything between me an where the bullet is going to stop.

  Now as to value - that's where comparison and experience come in.  Can't help there (with the small ones).

  Hopefully we'll hear from some others.

[Double D]

I'm not sure I would want a full size gun.  They always look like a lot owork to me.  the Small mortars, now that different.  The beer can mortars can still be manhandled by one person.  The 1/6 and 1/2 scale gun are still one person manageable also.

One word of warning about the little guns, watch them close the have substantial recoil.

Any cannon is fun big or little.

[Cat Whisperer]

DD -
  Agree with you on the fun bit.  But as I said to a couple before we started shooting (they had 9mm's and a 30-30, I brought the .375H&H) after today everything that you are shooting now will just be a pop-gun.  

So it was.  

There is an addiction to bigbore.  

I don't know if it's the shock wave passing through you, or the six foot circle around the mortar slowly releasing the smoke right after the shot or the 10 -12 seconds whatching in silence (at the range EVERYONE stops shooting) the 7 and a half pounds of concrete go arching through the air and come crashing down just beyond the 100 yard targets ripping off a branch from a tree with a resounding snap and thud.  

Maybe it's the smell of sulpher on one's hands despite 3, 4 or 5 washings.

Ahhhh such pleasure.

Fire in the hole!!!!