On the 8 ga reloading bandwagon

[charlie cleveland]

bet you rattled a few window panes with that cannon....I have a picture of an 8 gauge shell box marked blanks I believe it is marked 400 grains forget the drams...it says for the Winchester cannon....charlie

[Bill Murphy]

In a Winchester cannon, the F doesn't make any difference. You fill the shell with all it will hold with whatever black you have. Factory blanks are 8 drams, a bit light in my opinion.

[edgarspencer]

May be light, but 220 grains is all the 10ga. hull will hold.
Commercially loaded 8ga. blanks are 300gr. of 1f.

The National Civil War Artillery Assoc. website (www.ncwaa.com/Powder.htm) is very explicit in not using anything finer than 2f (ffg)

They state that a proper blank load is 1312.f grs per inch of bore, so assuming an 8 ga. at 3/4", their suggested load is 985 grains. A 3 1/4" 8ga. hull only holds 300 grains, so they obviously must be referring to muzzle loaded cannons. (unless the illusive 9 3/4" 8ga hull is out there somewhere)
I can say that a 300gr. 8ga is a LOT louder than a 220gr. 10ga.

[charlie cleveland]

wish I lived closer to you we would rattle a lot of window paines and send some golf balls to the moon...charlie

[edgarspencer]

Charlie, I think we'd be trouble with a capitol T.

[Bill Murphy]

OK, here's my Winchester cannon story from my younger days. Restricted to 2 7/8" shells, I was not satisfied. I loaded a shell full, uncrimped, and chambered it in the cannon. I selected a flat spot on a woodpile in my driveway and put another four or six drams of powder ahead of the uncrimped shell with about 9 or 10 drams in it. I sealed the bore with an eight gauge filler wad and touched her off. The noise was all I could have wished for, and the cannon did a back flip off the woodpile and landed on the asphalt driveway, undamaged. I don't think I will try that trick again, but may experiment with a few bore size projectiles. They have to be somewhat water soluable so that my neighbor won't find them in his orchard.

[edgarspencer]

For the life of me, I can not find the mortar that my dad had. I suspect he may have "put it away".
From the lawn, in front of the house, to the road is approximately 1200'. From the other side of the road, to the pond at the edge of that field, is another 1200-1500 feet.
The mortar was commercially manufactured, in the foundry which belonged to my grandfather. as I recall it weighed about 35-40 lbs. The bore was, not accidentally, a slight bit larger than a golf ball, such that a snug fit was attained with some sort of patch.
After some adjustment, we were able to lob, one after another, golf balls into that pond.
The mortar never got me into any trouble, but I do recall the Hartford Golf Club being somewhat annoyed when we regularly went out at night and cleaned up the practice driving range.

[edgarspencer]

Here's my 8ga. Strong Firearms Co. cannon. It was made approximately 1890.
The barrel was all a friend had, and he generously gave it to me. In order to make all the bits and pieces, I borrowed the 4ga. Brown from another good friend, to use as a guide. It is an incredibly beautiful piece of workmanship, with the most unique breech. Brown was the predecessor of Strong.
Both cannons were made in New Haven CT, a few hundred yards from the Winchester plant

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by edgarspencer

For the life of me, I can not find the mortar that my dad had. I suspect he may have "put it away".
From the lawn, in front of the house, to the road is approximately 1200'. From the other side of the road, to the pond at the edge of that field, is another 1200-1500 feet.
The mortar was commercially manufactured, in the foundry which belonged to my grandfather. as I recall it woeighed about 35-40 lbs. The bore was, not accidentally, a slight bit larger than a golf ball, such that a snug fit was attained with some sort of patch.
After some adjustment, we were able to lob, one after another, golf balls into that pond.
The mortar never got me into any trouble, but I do recall the Hartford Golf Club being somewhat annoyed when we regularly went out at night and cleaned up the practice driving range.

When I was into reenacting and belonged to a black powder shooting club - we had a member who had a mortar. the bore was bigger than a golf ball, maybe tennis ball size. if you were close when he set it off it sucked the air out of you

two events come to mind- once at the annual rendezvous he fired it too early in the morning. the town cops from a village about 6 -7 miles away as the crow flies came out and asked him not to do it again, people in town called the cops wondering where the explosion was

and once we stopped for dinner (in garb) at a rural country club for dinner on the way home from an event. a waitress overheard him say something about his "cannon" and she said she didn't believe he had one. he told her to get the manager's permission and he would show her. she got it and he loaded and fired a slightly lighter than normal load - the restaurant emptied out because every car in the lot had its alarm set off

[charlie cleveland]

them sure is some good stories....I had to laugh about them car alarms going off....charlie