A Bowling Ball Cannon! God This Looks Like Fun

[3 stinky dogs]

I did find a pretty neat one here made from a gas cylinder!

http://www.frankb.us/cannon/

That's my page. I don't have any mpegs. The bowling ball is a sloppy fit in a gas cylinder, there was at least a quater inch of clearance, but if you use enough powder it doesn't matter.

and as it falls, you hear the wind in the finger holes making a screaming sound from Hades

We were launching close to straight up (maybe 75 degrees elevation). With a light powder charge it whistles going up, then it gets quiet as it slows near the top of it's trajectory, then it starts whistling again on the way down. With a bigger charge the whistle turns into a fearce sounding shreak and the ball dissappears into the sky. I don't remember the exact amounts of powder we used. I think it was about 1 cup of Elephant brand cannon grade.

Gosh I would sceard of shooting an airplane down or somthing.But I do want to hang with you guys for a weekend!

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

I watched a bowling ball mortar demonstration at Pine Creek ( WA ) a few years back and on the last shot the ball split into two or three parts, each taking their own trajectory... lots of people scrambled for cover!

 

[musketman]

I watched a bowling ball mortar demonstration at Pine Creek ( WA ) a few years back and on the last shot the ball split into two or three parts, each taking their own trajectory... lots of people scrambled for cover!

Now I wonder if that would be covered under the ball's warrantee... :haha:

 

[Gary]

I met a U.S. Park Police Lt. who told me he served as a reenactor during college. One day they loaded more than the required 2 ounces of powder and gave it a full load. The ball sailed out of sight. :redface: When the rangers found out, they were ******. The cannoneers formed a skirmish line and marched off to find the ball. They found it very far away and luckily no one or nothing beneath it. Beers, mortars and youth don't mix.

 

[rebelyell]

Gentlemen,

I am not in any way shape or form an expert. Nor do I want to be a wet blanket... I would proceed with extreme caution. If you are dealing with welded seems and breeches you probably don't want to patch anything. You only need to blow the breech out of a "gun" one time to meet God. I don't risk my crew around anyone shooting from homade tubes.
(Heck, Hern makes a good lined tube that is pretty inexpensive).

 

[mazo kid]

A few years ago an instructor of a Machine shop class made a bowling ball mortar. I don't recall the dimensions, but it was definitely a heavy walled mortar. He put an eyebolt in one of the finger holes of the bowling balls and tied a bright ribbon to the eyebolt. I asked him if that was to watch the ball when it was shot and he replied that it was to find the ball when it returned to earth. He used a 12 ga. shotgun shell filled with 1fg black powser; it would launch the bowling ball just about out of sight nearly straight up and the ball would bury itself in the ground when it landed. Lots of fun!! Emery

 

[charcloth]

Hey Mule Brain,

I have two friends who each own bowling bal mortars. One is just a "Pipe" like the one you refrenced, the other is actualy a full scale seige mortar. They are both fun but the latter is freakin awesome!

Charcloth

 

[coehornboy]

Here is a BB Mortar... made from hydraulic tubing. The breech plug goes in the barrel at least 4 inches, and is curved on the bottom, which adds another 6 inches or so of steel. It has a powder chamber built in. If you look close, you can see the big piece of gear that was cut and welded to the bottom of the breech and allows for the tube to be raised or lowered...we have lowered the tube to "horizontal," and shot bowling balls on alkalai flats until they hit the targer berms at 200 yards...then they get airborn. We have also been inventive w/ little parachutes attached to the bowling balls with eyebolts, and even with cannister shot consisting of a few dozen golfballs!!

Here's a photo of it firing...

:shocked2: :v

 

[John Taylor]

I made a few BB mortars several years back, still have one. With 3 ounces of powder you can put a ball out of sight.

I have the bore very close to ball diameter and found that some balls will swell up in the sun and won't fit untill they cool off.

 

As you can see John does some great work, he's done work for me in the past, one item he's done is my "Swiss Candlestick" handgonne. He turn the breech / socket piece and breeched the barrel.

You can find the address to his website in his profile.

CP

 

[GunneyG]

Here is a short video (5 meg) of a bowling ball mortar. Turn up the sound to hear it whistle.