Baseballs in a cannon

[Trakehner]

Hmmmm, having a 6 pd mountain howitzer coming with a 3" bore. I was looking at a baseball and it's not quite 3" in diameter. I was thinking, it's light, will hold together and they're dirt cheap.

Anyone used baseballs as cannon balls for their guns?

 

[Kenneth Arie]

Be Carefull!

We were by ourselves paracticing crew drills on a ball field. We found one and fired at the solid backstop from not quite center field. it blew through the backstop and ended embeded in a radiator after it went though the grill!!! Frozen fuit will do the same, hard frozed, several days. But there again be carefull!!!

 

[Trakehner]

I'm guessing since the baseball was so light, the ball had a huch higher than normal velocity. Sure sounds dramatic.

Thanks.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I know tennis balls have been used a bunch

 

[Treestalker]

Before using any projectile loads please seek out gun crew training from the Loyal Train Chapter of the U.S. Field Artillery Assn. at Fort Sill, Ok. Blank charges can take off your hand, and solid projectile loads can travel 1700 yards from a smoothbore cannon, and bounce up to that much further. :shocked2: The Mountain Howitzer is a nice smaller crew served weapon, but that shortness increases the danger for the #1 and #2 positions adjacent to the muzzle. We have embedded grains of cannon size powder in pine boards at 15 ft. from the muzzle. Please don't fire more often than three minutes between shots, and worm then swab between shots with a damp sponge. Please wear wool coats and leather welding gloves at the front of the gun.If you cannot find a local artillery school, please obtain a copy of Matt Switlik's 'The More Compleat Cannoneer' and study it before you fire your piece. The big guns are the absolute most fun in muzzleloading, but they are a world all their own. I hate to preach, but every cannon accident reflects on us all, and endangers others besides ourselves. The buck stops at the gun owner/commander. Glad you're into artillery ,be safe, live long , and cherish the high ground! Treestalker.

 

[Trakehner]

Grew up careful around big bore stuff. Grandfather had a parrot rifle he'd shoot out over Lake Michigan when I was a kid...now that was impressive to all of us. I had an explosive license and when I was in the Army, got to shoot off some big fireworks shows....lots of mortars. Nothing like a squib liftoff charge to make everyone hit the ground.

Thanks for the suggestions...paranoia is not a bad thing when shooting full-sized (heck, any size) stuff.

 

[hawkeye2]

A baseball is designed to absorb the energy of impact and release it. Unless it punches through the target or is destroyed by the impact you might see some interesting and dangerous rebounds. At those velocities a marshmallow will leave a mark. :grin:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

That would violate the local slow pitch rules.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

when I was in college there was a cave in a quarry outside of Reading PA. After some amatuer spelunking one day, we were playing with some junk that had been dumped next to the quarry. We discovered that the pieces of pipe embedded in broken concrete were the exact right size for a cherry bomb followed by a size "D" flash light battery. A most interesting muffled "fump" noise occurred and we tried to see the batteries splash in the water of the quarry. But no splash. We fired a few more until flashing lights on a police car in a strip shopping center got our attention. The batteries carried a third to a half mile and came down in the parking lot. We drove slowly away and read the next days paper with great interest about mysterious batteries falling from the sky. My lesson about back stops, distance and hobby artillery came about quite by accident and before I had a cannon. But was a scary eye opening lesson none the less.

 

[kaintuck]

sure...allow 1/2 mile travel.....at least~ :shocked2:
slow heavy projectiles do strange things.... :shocked2:
marc

 

[JeffG]

A baseball might obdurate in the bore. Be sure of enough windage around it so it doesn't plug the bore during firing and cause an obstructive failure.

 

[54ball]

 

[coloradoclyde]

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Now thats funny!

 

[coloradoclyde]

I know tennis balls have been used a bunch

Tennis balls only travel about 200 yrds. with a very light charge if you increase the charge too much they flatten out like a pancake traveling about 100-150 yards and then they slice or nose dive for the ground violently.
Best to use a light charge.

Even a tennis ball develops enough kinetic energy to kill! So don't try anything stupid.

 

[Trakehner]

Brought the mountain howitzer out with my bucket of Dick's Sporting Goods cannon balls...well, cheapo' baseballs.

Did a light load (2.5 ounces) and the fun began. They worked great! :thumbsup: They went straight (a surprise), no recoil of course with the the light projectile and powder charge...but suitable smoke/flame and even some neat smoke rings. Sure wish they took some decent photos...just 3 phone videos and not good ones at that.

So, instead of cans with cement in them, the baseballs were great, cheap and even found one I could shoot again...slightly singed. Had 400 yards of field with very dense woods behind.

Hmmmm, wonder how a can of pork & beans would work...kind've biodegradeable cannister.

 

[satx78247]

A suggestion: I have a friend/cannoneer out in Deep East Texas, who freezes birdseed into "cannonballs" & fires those projectiles "downrange" (He has LOTS of room.) & this feeds the local birds, as well as keeps him from having to look for his "spent ammo".

yours, satx

 

[J.D.]

I once attended the artillery school hosted by the Forces of Wolf and Montcalm. Sunday afternoon was live fire, but the owner of particular piece I trained on didn't get the word on live fire until the evening before, so he made a trip to the local Waly World to buy canned vegetables for projos. One can of peas fired at steel 55 gallon drums must have grazed the top of the drum, 'cause a green mist appeared over that drum immediately after the piece was discharged. Cool Beans. :grin:

An...acquaintance, built a ML cannon with an 1 1/2 inch bore. Just right for golf balls. He loaded the piece with about a half of a film canister of 1F powder and a used golf ball. He lined up that gun on a rather large oak tree about 150 yards down range, and touched 'er off. That ball traveled straight for that tree, and whacked it pretty hard before rebounding right back in our direction. I don't think I have ever seen so many white boys steppin' and fetchin' to avoid that golf ball.

I just stayed behind my tree. :rotf:

 

[kaintuck]

My steel 2" balls over 3oz of powder didn't bounce, they penetrated, THEN proceeded to ricochet off of trees thru the woods :youcrazy:
Years ago.....but we still laugh about the deer stand that got preferrated
Sold her to a fellow in Texas, I bet he's still havin fun....

Marc n tomtom

 

[MC One Shot]

when I was in college there was a cave in a quarry outside of Reading PA. After some amatuer spelunking one day, we were playing with some junk that had been dumped next to the quarry. We discovered that the pieces of pipe embedded in broken concrete were the exact right size for a cherry bomb followed by a size "D" flash light battery. A most interesting muffled "fump" noise occurred and we tried to see the batteries splash in the water of the quarry. But no splash. We fired a few more until flashing lights on a police car in a strip shopping center got our attention. The batteries carried a third to a half mile and came down in the parking lot. We drove slowly away and read the next days paper with great interest about mysterious batteries falling from the sky. My lesson about back stops, distance and hobby artillery came about quite by accident and before I had a cannon. But was a scary eye opening lesson none the less.

LMAO.....Had some what a similar exp when I was young. But boy was it fun...

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Off topic, but there was a semi pro baseball team in northern Virginia called the Prince William Cannons.

Odd that we do not speak of potato guns and such, but golf ball guns and baseball guns are ok. In my younger less wise days, in addition to d cell batteries, i also shot apple cores, pencil erasers, and some other miscellaneous stuff as projectiles.

the neatest alternative cannon fodder, I have actually seen, was at the High Plains rondy in 1994. As a kids game,, every afternoon, they loaded a couple pounds of penny candy in a cannon and fired that into an open commons area for the kids tto scramble after. Toddlers got a head start over the others.

Now, I had daydreamed of a load of loose fresh cow manure for the car of a neighbor that had offended me in some forgotten way. I envisioned a few larges platter marks, followed by an odorous brown mist decending upon the vehicle. (I found out that my step son had done something almost worse. He found liver thawing out in the kitchen for dinner and decided that the roof over that neighbor's patio would be a more fitting place than the family stomaches. Needless to say after a few days in the hot June sun, their patio was not a pleasant place.)