Pair of Naval bronze swivel cannon - big bore drills arrived....

[Chocktaw Brave]

IIRC it was a 35mm bore, the gentleman he made it for was a big man, I saw him fire it with about 300  Grains of powder(I think) I would imagine he weighed about 350 pounds, it would almost tip him over.
I was asked if I wanted to shoot it, no way!

[davec2]

Had an opportunity to work on these cannons again.  A friend has a much larger lathe and I started to drill the bore on the first gun this afternoon.

[Otto]

What a fantastic project. Kinda makes all my projects look pretty piddly! Good on you for finishing up an old dream. A legacy item for sure.

[Chocktaw Brave]

Looking good! Love to see a video of the test firing!

[flatsguide]

Dave, are you going to bore the the barrel the same diameter of the twist drill to a depth of on turn of the drill twist before you actually use the twist drill?
Cheers R

[Jim Filipski]

I have something to post here, but I see the "Image uploading source" is down for maintenance
Will try again tomorrow

[Jim Filipski]

This is my little lady..... Ginger!
Made her from a Brad Spear casting around 2000!

[davec2]

Jim,

Outstanding little gun !!!  What is the bore diameter ?

[Chocktaw Brave]

I come up with 1.325 inches.
Great looking little cannon! I would love to have one, a friend of mine has a match plate for one, but there are no foundries anywhere around here to have one made.
One of these days if I ever travel outside, I’ll see if he’ll let me borrow it long enough to make a couple, and ship them up here.
That is if the constitution doesn’t get changed before then!

[Jim Filipski]

Brad Spear, used to sell his rough navel bronze castings ( But he did bore the barrel...That would be beyond me).
It sure was a lot of work to bring it to shape with only hand tools and carbide paper! I had to drill the touch hole and get the yoke mount made by an old blacksmith whom I knew. I did fire a few plaster of Paris balls out of it ...at 30 yards the plaster balls punched through 3/4 " ply wood and kept going! I though they would just shatter but they didn't!
Also fired a hand full of .72 cal musket balls at a sheet of 4x8 3/4 " plywood at 50 yards ....very nasty!
Bore is 1.5"
A pure lead  bore size ball weighs 1/2 lb

[borderdogs]

Neat guns guys! But I think now days I might find a less expensive target than 3/4" plywood. To think that swivel guns were even used on the tops of frigates and the like they must have been effective!
Rob

[Chocktaw Brave]

I was going by the formula, a 2 bore rifle is 1.326 dia and 2 balls make a pound. I would think your 1.5” ball in pure lead would weigh more than a 1/2 lb.
Still, that’s a lotta lead and a lot of muzzle energy.

If I could afford it I’d like to have a large wheeled cannon, like a six pounder!

[hanshi]

Very informative cannon discussion.  Those cannons are all great looking.  Unfortunately that's well beyond my skills.

[Jim Filipski]

A funny thing about Ginger.
I used to fire her ever hour on the hour ( blanks): stating at 12 pm on the 4th of July and continued until 8 pm! I'm in the suburbs of Scranton, PA.
Police showed up once! They said I could not fire a gun in city limits.... I told them it was not a gun.... I asked them if they had a law for Ordnance? They said they would check and get back to me! Fired that ordnance for 10 years without a problem!

[Daryl]

Chocktaw,

What is the bore diameter on that hand cannon ?

Wasn't that "piece" called a "Hand Gonne".

[Angus]

Dave,

Did you turn the muzzle rib profile on the steady rest wheels?

Eric

[Craig Wilcox]

Dave C., I am envious of your cannons!  Served on a cannon crew in NSSA meets, early 60's, we had a barrel made from a length of 3" naval gun - rifled, mounted on a naval gun carriage.  Shot beer cans filled with cement at 500 and 1,000 yard ranges.  It was pretty accurate.

So, I have to enjoy yours through your pictures and writings - please keep them coming.  Right now, I don't even have a range to shoot all my ML's!