The Gun Counter

The price of material might be prohibitive, but I was thinking of a 12 ounce can I.D. diameter cannon made with seamless steel tubing. Perhaps a tube inside a tube like a Dahlgren gun? Probably have to hone for a fit.

The term your looking for is "DOM" or Drawn over Mandrel

One of the things I keep an eye out for in scrap yards is decent lengths of heavy wall(1 inch plus) DOM tube. a buddy of mine scored a nice chunk of one with a 1" bore awhile ago.

Personally, I think if you want something beyond the cutesy toy stage, Dixie gun works 2/3rd scale tube is probably the best bang for your buck, but you then have to finish the casting, and then build a carriage.

In high school a buddy turned a popcan mortar from a 5" piece of steel round stock. His dad was a gunsmith, had a lathe, figured it was a good exercise in learning to use a boring set up. Big fun lighting that off, expensive fun, but lots of fun.

Ah, Yup. The small one is home made. It has a 4 ft barrel with a bore of 1.75". Then there are three more successively larger tubes inside each other. I was told they froze one and heated the other then smashed them together inside each other. Then there was a lot of threading and welding that took place. Its a smoothbore so it's kinda like throwing knuckeballs but it is a lot of fun to shoot. We use 500 grs of blk powder per shot and we cast our own balls so it not too bad. Life's a blast!

Anyone wanting a working cannon always strikes me as a fine thing.
Once I sign the papers on Camp Snoopy, (multiple acres well outside any city limits) I'm doing a full-size Napoleon 12 pdr., from scratch if need be.
The fact that the property in question sits inside and amongst several hundred mature oak trees bodes well for the woodshop to be able to turn out a proper carriage and caisson.

And then I'll be ordering iron shotputs in bulk.

A fractional-scale one with a bore diameter in common soupcan size might be a good warm-up.

If that gets boring after awhile, I know a couple of local guys with experience fabricating both .308 and .45-70 Gatling Guns I want to have a chat with.

The Tank Project will have to wait until my plan for Powerball Millionairehood comes to fruition. But I figure a single field piece should be within the realm of doability.
And it will give me a excuse for a stable and a few horses, which are currently just about free for the asking, and mainly a question of space, feed, and vet bills hereabouts.

I've been racking my brain about a medium length story which involves a history prof getting involved in re-enacting at Civil War events.
He acquires a light field piece, horses, and get's a crew trained up to operate it.
[spoiler]The local police get into a situation that has goblins barricaded and the gun crew rolls up and proceeds to blow holes until the door collapses. The goblins decide they don't want any more solid shot and surrender.[/spoiler]
IIRC the story was in the old "Saturday Evening Post magazine."
My Google Fu is disgustingly weak these days.

Huh. I was just thinking of building a reusable Faustpatronen tube for launching 2-liter bottles via a small FFg charge. That's just fancy there.

Let's see discarding sabot projectiles, canister, shrapnel projectiles, HEAT, HESH, paint, incendiary, flash bangs, smoke, illumination, and etc.

Does it have to be muzzleloading, as long as it uses blackpowder? I'm thinking a single shot cannon using paper powder bags with swing-open breech, using large magnum rifle primers for ignition, is doable for someone(me) with access to a serious machine shop.........

Aesop wrote:Anyone wanting a working cannon always strikes me as a fine thing.
Once I sign the papers on Camp Snoopy, (multiple acres well outside any city limits) I'm doing a full-size Napoleon 12 pdr., from scratch if need be.
The fact that the property in question sits inside and amongst several hundred mature oak trees bodes well for the woodshop to be able to turn out a proper carriage and caisson.

And then I'll be ordering iron shotputs in bulk.

A fractional-scale one with a bore diameter in common soupcan size might be a good warm-up.

If that gets boring after awhile, I know a couple of local guys with experience fabricating both .308 and .45-70 Gatling Guns I want to have a chat with.

The Tank Project will have to wait until my plan for Powerball Millionairehood comes to fruition. But I figure a single field piece should be within the realm of doability.
And it will give me a excuse for a stable and a few horses, which are currently just about free for the asking, and mainly a question of space, feed, and vet bills hereabouts.

Holy crap, a 12 pounder!. Guys next to us shoot a 5 and a 6 pounder every year and those things really go BOOM. They use a 1/2 lb of single F per shot with the bigger one so that's kinda like a money shot huh? They own a brake joint so they have lotsa lead.