Aiming cannons

Hmm, what granulation of powder did you use? Not that I've played with anything less than a .36 black powder rifle, but FFFFg or priming powder seems to be in order here.

steamer wrote:

On 31 Mar 2008 04:51:23 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, steamer quickly quoth:

That's a nice chunk of brass in the sighting mechanism. Wouldn't you be better off making a screw-fed elevation wedge which came in from the front? I want shots of that baby firing, too, please.

Ah, now I know why they used to call them "hand cannons".

On the nano mortar, how did you close off the back end? Can you use a faster-burning powder to achieve more velocity?

Not a bad box. You did better than many I've seen.

-- Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life. --Jesse Lee Bennett

Or... as a challenge... use a boring tool to make a larger powder chamber. Them whip up a ramrod of the correct length that will set the projectile right above that chamber.

For my druthers, let's see a sliding breech, using 209 primers to set off the charge.

--Possibly; will post videos next week. Here's a link to me firing it last year:

--Machined out of a solid chunk so it was never open.

--Made a pile of jigs in the process; hopefully the next one will go a bit faster; possibly less mistakes too.

--Hmmm interesting idea! Will noodle that one for a bit...

--For the mini-mortar and the hand cannon I'm using FFFFg Pyrodex; for the big brute I use Pyrodex "RS" FFG, which is the coarsest powder available in these parts. A friend gave me a few pounds of genuine black powder, which has grains maybe twice as large as the "RS" grade.

From my misty memory, I remember Pyrodex really likes a primer to set it off.

Look for black powder, not a replica.

steamer wrote:

Think of the case capacity of a .22 short. Not that much. It is not packed to the max with powder (smokeless) but remember the .22 rimfire were black powder in the 1800s.

Try Folger's Mounta> Louis Ohland wrote:

On 31 Mar 2008 16:21:45 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, steamer quickly quoth:

Alright! Noisy sumbiches, ain't they? I love it!

OK, what I saw was a counterbored recess for the center, I guess.

Yes, the fewer the mistakes the better. Jigs are good.

-- Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life. --Jesse Lee Bennett

Indeed. It likes a HOT primer/cap.

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner