Let's see your cannon! :evil:

[Shiftless]

Many of us have collections of heavy iron. Bench vises, anvils, lots of interesting things way too heavy to lift. Some GJ members probably own cannons or at least have photos of their favorite cannons collected in their travels. Now you have a thread in which to post those pics and hopefully add some interesting details about those wonderful relics. Go ahead and grab your camera or search your hard drive to find a few for the rest of us to enjoy.
I will start with a well known cannon perched above Memorial Stadium at Cal Berkeley on game days and fired when the home team scores.

 

[bczygan]

I could use one....I live in Detroit.

Or some of these:
http://www.online-paralegal-programs.com/10-crazy-weapons-that-are-still-legal-in-the-us/

Bill

 

[drivesitfar]

Shift: Great idea for a thread.!!!!!

All: Not sure I can get a picture of this cannon, but we had an annual golf tournament at end of October that would fire off a cannon at 8 am on Saturday and Sunday in a residential neighborhood. Neighbors never complained and I bet its been going on now for close to 50 years. You could hear it five miles away even on a foggy day.

 

[jakemac]

Mine is buried up in the attic, so I can't get a picture. It's a replica of a small 17th century 1/2 pounder. I also have a matching mortar launcher from the same era. I sure do miss burning blackpowder.

 

[Shiftless]

Mine is buried up in the attic, so I can't get a picture. It's a replica of a small 17th century 1/2 pounder. I also have a matching mortar launcher from the same era. I sure do miss burning blackpowder.

ME TOO!
Thinking back I'm still amazed I lived through my teen years where I made my own black powder several ounces at a time. Home made fireworks, smoke bombs, rockets, and a firecracker powered muzzle loading pistol made from galvanized water pipe.

 

[drivesitfar]

All: No cannons in my personal past other than the one in the golf tournament, but loved the smell of firecrackers and fireworks. My wife just started a book about WWII and The Austrians had a cannon or maybe it was a big gun they called HER MAJESTY that was a high velocity anti air gun called an 88 that could fire 21.5 pound shells 9 miles. Not on my laptop to post a picture but maybe one of you gentleman can.

 

[Shiftless]

Here is one of the cannons on display at the battlefield in Manassas VA. where the battle of Bull Run took place during the beginning of the Civil War. I was there a couple of years ago but I don't know who these kids are.

 

[DocsMachine]

This is not Photoshopped.

Proof:

It's just a simple welded-pipe bowling ball mortar a local guy has been fooling around with for many years, and it's always fun to see shot.

Doc.

 

[Radio Ron w4ron]

Like others, I love cannons. Would love to have a real one of my own.
I take every chance I get to visit old forts to see what kind of cannons
they have on display.
I have several small cannon models, below are some photos of a
couple of them I could get to tonight.
One is a model of a civil war cannon behind ir on the wall is a framed
photo I took of a real one are Fort Macon on the NC coast. The model
was given to me for my birthday by ny best friend Mark.
The second cannon is a presentation piece mounted on a board with
a plaque telling who it was presented to and why, in 1940.


cheers

 

[Shiftless]

Ron:
Thanks for the interesting post. I restored an old Zenith AM FM Short Wave radio when I was in high school. Long gone now.

 

[drivesitfar]

All: this one is for sale for less than a grand in my area. has some pretty cool engravings and probably not very light either.

 

[chipss36]

how about some Yorktown Va? a vacation a few years ago.

and a cannonball in the side of a church in Norfolk Va.

 

[David99]

Here's a couple from Fort Matanzas in St. Augustine
http://www.nps.gov/foma/index.htm

 

[RRmech]

Back in high school, I made a small cannon in metal shop.
Everyone thought it was.....cute.
Later, we took that cannon into the local woods to 'test' it out, with a 'live' firing exhibition.
We aimed it at a wooden sign, and set it off............................................

WHAM!!!

We used black powder, and when the smoke cleared, there was a hole in the sign that you could put your arm through.
The test firing did not go unnoticed by security from a nearby private golf course.
They came high-balling in golf carts, so we took off.....pronto!!

Steve

 

[PghJKB]

Anyone seem this one?

https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibi...ection=3-B&id=17&view=19650020-001d.html#zoom

It should zoom in/out but zoom is not working on my browser.

Also, there is a tremendous back story...

JKB

 

[tym]

Does this count?

 

[Shiftless]

Thanks guys for reviving this old thread of mine.

Here is another entry...it came from Cuba and is now on display overlooking the Pacific at Hearst Castle in San Simeon CA.

 

[driftpin]

Amelia Island FL
https://www.floridastateparks.org/fortclinch

These are at a Florida Atlantic Ocean fort. There are a bunch of them, pointing seaward. I estimate them at 12 ft long.

At HistoryMiami museum http://www.historymiami.org/ there is a display with a long cannon reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean around Haiti, by a friend of mine, his friends and his father. His father lived in Haiti for nearly 20 years, he dredged Port-au-Prince harbor with a drag line he brought-from Miami in the 1960's, when 'Papa Doc' Duvalier was in-power. He reclaimed other artifacts from the ocean around Haiti. Among other things, my friend's father was a scuba diver in the James Bond movie, Thunderball. He had other parts in productions requiring scuba experience, for movies and TV.

Pic #2: I believe this gun is a WW II item in Arcadia FL. It may-be a Vietnam-era gun as there is also a Bell Iroquois rotary aircraft in the city square.

 

[ttpete]

Amelia Island FL
https://www.floridastateparks.org/fortclinch

These are at a Florida Atlantic Ocean fort. There are a bunch of them, pointing seaward. I estimate them at 12 ft long.

At HistoryMiami museum http://www.historymiami.org/ there is a display with a long cannon reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean around Haiti, by a friend of mine, his friends and his father. His father lived in Haiti for nearly 20 years, he dredged Port-au-Prince harbor with a drag line he brought-from Miami in the 1960's, when 'Papa Doc' Duvalier was in-power. He reclaimed other artifacts from the ocean around Haiti. Among other things, my friend's father was a scuba diver in the James Bond movie, Thunderball. He had other parts in productions requiring scuba experience, for movies and TV.

Pic #2: I believe this gun is a WW II item in Arcadia FL. It may-be a Vietnam-era gun as there is also a Bell Iroquois rotary aircraft in the city square.

#1: Those look like Dahlgren or Rodman guns of the Civil War.

#2: That's a 5"/38 US Naval gun, probably WWII vintage. Dual-purpose, either anti-aircraft or surface.

 

[Bottlecapdigger]

Great idea for a thread! I also like cannons, I built one from a ruff casting I bought at a garage sale for 2 dollars. There's a local foundry in the area and figured it came from there years ago. Guys on the night shift must have poured some off. Anyway I bored it out 50 cal and made the base mount with cast wheels some brass and cherry wood. I truly enjoyed this project because it combined metal work and woodworking in one project. I love firing it every so often too. Black powder, LOUD! flame and smoke. Love it! Bcd

 

[tube_guy]

I love playing around with black powder cannon. Here's a picture of a little one my son and I play around with. It's an old Kennesaw Cannon Company field cannon from back when they were made with a real steel chassis. The newest models use an injection molded frame.

My son also plays around with a Big Bang Cannon, like the one pictured, which is really pretty neat. Not nearly as loud as the black powder cannon, but still louder than the firecrackers I remember from back when I was a kid. When he was little, he used to get really excited about firing it off.

I don't have any pictures, but I've also turned a pretty loud thundermug on the lathe. It's like a reloadable M-80 that also happens to be perfectly legal.

 

[redragoon]

The black powder cannon kits always look like they would be fun to build.

I've personally enjoyed seeing the coastal defense cannons at Fort Sumter.

 

[Farmer J.]

I snapped a couple of pics to share my favourite cannons, at the entrance to Porthleven harbour in Cornwall.
They are over 200 years old and weigh around 3 tons each. They were salvaged and transported from the wreck of the Anson by hanging them under a fishing boat at low tide then waiting for the tide to come in and raise them before transporting to the harbour, under the boat. At the next low tide they could be lifted with the harbour crane.
They have to be tethered down by chains to the quayside, when large waves wash over in storms they get moved around by the force of the sea!
Here's a link to the story of the wreck:

https://www.submerged.co.uk/anson/

Here's a short film of lifting them:

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-hms-anson-cannon-salvaged-at-porthleven-1961-online

 

[drivesitfar]

Farmer: cool pics. sorry I don't belong to facebook or maybe there is another reason i couldn't see the video, but it sounds like it was a job getting that cannon to it's new resting spot. the waves move it around? wow!!

 

[Farmer J.]

i couldn't see the video,

That's odd. Maybe it doesn't work outside of Britian. It's a British Film Institute video, just a news clipping from 1961 of the crane lifting the cannons out of the harbour.

Porthleven gets some big storms occasionally, the waves funnel in to the bay and break over the walls of the outer harbour. Those great surges of sea water can move anything, eventually, but a couple of cannons on wheels is easy prey for them! After a storm it's always a relief for the harbourmaster to see they haven't been washed over the quayside..
Glad you liked the pictures from my morning walk. J.

 

[drivesitfar]

Farmer: thanks for sharing and looks like a great spot to live and take morning walks.

in the article it said the cannon was in front of a museum so guessing that one is different than the one you posted a picture of sitting on the edge of the dock/waterfront?

pretty said story that over 100 guys on that ship lost their lives when it went aground so close to shore.

 

[BFBOB]

I don't have a cannon, but somewhere there's a picture of me in the bore of a cannon. It's a Civil War 13" mortar that is (or at least was) in Denver City Park. Unbelievably huge chunk of iron. As I recall, the muzzle must be 5' across - 2' thick walls plus the 13" bore.
Of course, that was many decades (and pounds and feet) ago!

 

[BFBOB]

That's odd. Maybe it doesn't work outside of Britian. It's a British Film Institute video,
.

Right - it even says so on the title page - whether that's by happenstance or design is left as an exercise for the viewer.

 

[Farmer J.]

Farmer: thanks for sharing and looks like a great spot to live and take morning walks.

in the article it said the cannon was in front of a museum so guessing that one is different than the one you posted a picture of sitting on the edge of the dock/waterfront?

pretty said story that over 100 guys on that ship lost their lives when it went aground so close to shore.

Yes, it's a great spot for a walk, but only in fine weather! Unfortunately I don't live there all the time, my farm is spread out over 300 miles..
The cannon in front of the museum is a different one, but from the same wreck. There are about 40 more still on the seabed it's now a protected historic site so they lay undisturbed but sometimes visible as the sand shifts.
1807 was a bad winter for storms and shipwrecks just there, several ships were lost in a few months and my Great Great Great Great Grandfather was one of those who dug the graves and laid the casualties to rest on the cliff tops where the memorial is now.
There's no accurate figure for how many souls were lost, some of the sailors had been press ganged and when they got to shore they just discreetly wandered away in hiding so as not to be sent back to sea again!

 

[Farmer J.]

Right - it even says so on the title page - whether that's by happenstance or design is left as an exercise for the viewer.

O dear, I didn't notice that! If you come and visit I will be able to show it to you!

 

[Farmer J.]

I don't have a cannon, but somewhere there's a picture of me in the bore of a cannon. It's a Civil War 13" mortar that is (or at least was) in Denver City Park. Unbelievably huge chunk of iron. As I recall, the muzzle must be 5' across - 2' thick walls plus the 13" bore.
Of course, that was many decades (and pounds and feet) ago!

That would be a good picture, and one i would enjoy seeing. As they say here: "Everything's BIG in America"!

 

[shelteredV]

Farmer- the link works fine on this side of the pond, thanks for sharing!

 

[driftpin]

I love playing around with black powder cannon. Here's a picture of a little one my son and I play around with. It's an old Kennesaw Cannon Company field cannon from back when they were made with a real steel chassis. The newest models use an injection molded frame.

My son also plays around with a Big Bang Cannon, like the one pictured, which is really pretty neat. Not nearly as loud as the black powder cannon, but still louder than the firecrackers I remember from back when I was a kid. When he was little, he used to get really excited about firing it off.

I don't have any pictures, but I've also turned a pretty loud thundermug on the lathe. It's like a reloadable M-80 that also happens to be perfectly legal.

The carbide cannons are a lot of fun to fire, and they are LOUD! for the size of the cannon. We had a couple growing-up, and I've kept an eye-out for a used vintage one, but people want ridiculous $ for them, in my search.

 

[Boneyard51]

I thought I was the only guy in the world that had a “ thing” for cannons! Glad to see there are some other folks out there like me.
When I was a boy (1962 or so) my family went on vacation to Chatanuga Tenn. We went to Look out Mountain, where they had a civil war battles. I asked my Dad to buy me a cannon at the gift shop. My Dad said it was too expensive at $3.00. We left the park and half way down the mountain my Dad turned the 53 Ford station wagon around and went back and bought me that cannon! I played with it for years and it sat in my Dad house until recently, when it came to me.
My wife and I were at Look Out Mountain and bought another little cannon. The larger cannon I is the one my Dad bought me.
I have tons of pictures of me next to cannons all over the USA!









Bones

 

[PugetDude]

Years ago we built a cannon out of 8=5/8" ID heavy wall seamless tubing, 20" long
3" thick base plate, with a cup machined into it to take 4 ounces of black powder.
Fuse hole drilled through the plate and into the cup.
It would launch a 16# bowling ball out of sight. Longest hang time was 21 seconds, launch to landing.
The detonation of the powder caused the 8-1/2" bowling ball to expand, filled the bore and created enough back pressure to launch the ball.
It was basically a mortar, you had to ensure it was pointed a couple of degrees away from you when you set it off to ensure the ball didn't land in your lap.
Learned that you can uncover a person's root personality in that 21 seconds. I saw guys that were Type A macho men running around in a circle like they had one foot nailed to the ground, whimpering, freaked out about where it was going to land. I'd tell them to sit on the cannon, it was statistically the safest place around- it wasn't going back in the same hole!

Neatest part was the sound of the ball whistling (air moving across the three finger holes) as it came back down- sometimes sounded like a dog howling. Soft ground it would embed itself about 16"-20" deep.

Bowling balls were $1 at Goodwill. Black powder was pretty cheap. Pyrodex didn't work at all, just pushed the ball about 10' in the air.

Good times.

 

[Bottlecapdigger]

Years ago we built a cannon out of 8=5/8" ID heavy wall seamless tubing, 20" long
3" thick base plate, with a cup machined into it to take 4 ounces of black powder.
Fuse hole drilled through the plate and into the cup.
It would launch a 16# bowling ball out of sight. Longest hang time was 21 seconds, launch to landing.
The detonation of the powder caused the 8-1/2" bowling ball to expand, filled the bore and created enough back pressure to launch the ball.
It was basically a mortar, you had to ensure it was pointed a couple of degrees away from you when you set it off to ensure the ball didn't land in your lap.
Learned that you can uncover a person's root personality in that 21 seconds. I saw guys that were Type A macho men running around in a circle like they had one foot nailed to the ground, whimpering, freaked out about where it was going to land. I'd tell them to sit on the cannon, it was statistically the safest place around- it wasn't going back in the same hole!

Neatest part was the sound of the ball whistling (air moving across the three finger holes) as it came back down- sometimes sounded like a dog howling. Soft ground it would embed itself about 16"-20" deep.

Bowling balls were $1 at Goodwill. Black powder was pretty cheap. Pyrodex didn't work at all, just pushed the ball about 10' in the air.

Good times.[wow! They would be arresting us and put us in jail if we did something like that up here. That would be cool to see, and hear though. /QUOTE]

 

[Farmer J.]

Years ago we built a cannon out of 8=5/8" ID heavy wall seamless tubing, 20" long
3" thick base plate, with a cup machined into it to take 4 ounces of black powder.
Fuse hole drilled through the plate and into the cup.
It would launch a 16# bowling ball out of sight. Longest hang time was 21 seconds, launch to landing.
The detonation of the powder caused the 8-1/2" bowling ball to expand, filled the bore and created enough back pressure to launch the ball.
It was basically a mortar, you had to ensure it was pointed a couple of degrees away from you when you set it off to ensure the ball didn't land in your lap.
Learned that you can uncover a person's root personality in that 21 seconds. I saw guys that were Type A macho men running around in a circle like they had one foot nailed to the ground, whimpering, freaked out about where it was going to land. I'd tell them to sit on the cannon, it was statistically the safest place around- it wasn't going back in the same hole!

Neatest part was the sound of the ball whistling (air moving across the three finger holes) as it came back down- sometimes sounded like a dog howling. Soft ground it would embed itself about 16"-20" deep.

Bowling balls were $1 at Goodwill. Black powder was pretty cheap. Pyrodex didn't work at all, just pushed the ball about 10' in the air.

Good times.

Ha ha, sounds like you had great fun with it! Can you come and play on Sunday afternoon?

 

[Outlawmws]

Cannons are cool!

I have a couple of display models. The nickle plate one has Asian, possibly Chinese markings on it. Both on top of the base and under the base stamped into the casting. the hole in the end is only 1/4" deep or so.

 

[Farmer J.]

I thought I was the only guy in the world that had a “ thing” for cannons! Glad to see there are some other folks out there like me.
When I was a boy (1962 or so) my family went on vacation to Chatanuga Tenn. We went to Look out Mountain, where they had a civil war battles. I asked my Dad to buy me a cannon at the gift shop. My Dad said it was too expensive at $3.00. We left the park and half way down the mountain my Dad turned the 53 Ford station wagon around and went back and bought me that cannon! I played with it for years and it sat in my Dad house until recently, when it came to me.
My wife and I were at Look Out Mountain and bought another little cannon. The larger cannon I is the one my Dad bought me.
I have tons of pictures of me next to cannons all over the USA!









Bones

What a great story Bones, and thanks for sharing it with us. I love the idea that the childhood experience and your Dad's kindness sparked off a lifelong interest to travel and see other cannons around the Country. That focus must have brought you to a lot of fun travel experiences, as they say, 'It's not the destination, it's the journey'.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

As a kid my older brother made a small cannon out of pipe, welded one end up, welded angle iron braces to it, drilled a fuse hole. He would shoot 1 inch ball bearings.
This guy would come to our lake throwing beer bottles around so Dad ran him off.
Next day that same guy was there fishing, drinking beer.
So brother and I go out to the woodpile behind house, we load the little cannon, pack cinder blocks around it. My brother spent a long time aiming it, the guy downhill at lake never knew we were there and it was I'm guessing 200 yards away.
We light fuse, hold our ears.
"BOOM!!!"
It was a Rembrandt, bearing landed off end of guys bobber. I had no clue that short fat guy could run so fast!
To this day I still have his tackle box he left behind. [emoji38]

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