Is this guy you neighbor.............?

Monty

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One of my good friends works at a machine shop and back in the late seventies he built a stainless steel cannon with a rifled bore. He used steel beer cans filled with concrete as fodder. The steel rims of the beer cans would catch the rifling and make for a very accurate missile. We use to take it down to the river on the sandbars and shoot it upstream into the water and watch it hit and ricochet about half a mile down the river. It should be noted the river is over half a mile wide and we had a clear field of fire for about 3 miles in 2 directions. He finally sold it at a gun show when it got too expensive to shoot and they started making aluminum beer cans that had no rims. Lead and blackpowder just got too expensive too. But it was fun and no one ever complained. Several people ran down to the river to watch when they heard the first boom. Monty
 

savant365

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I have an uncle that used to build home made cannons also. He was testing one with a friend one day and the new neighbor from down the road came flying in his driveway a few minutes after they shot it off. The new neighbor thought my uncles propane tank had exploded. I still laugh every time he talks about it.

HH Charlie
 

spartacus53

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Guys that shoot anything out of a cannon must have a few chromosomes missing. :laughing9: I am pretty sure that this type of behavior is unlawful in all 50 states
 

diggummup

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When my brother in law shoots his off on the fourth of July he packs it with powder only. He overpacked it once and every car alarm for 3 blocks square went off! Our ears were ringing for a minute or two. Talk about a "blockbuster", a 1/4 stick aint got nothin on a black powder cannon that's overloaded! :laughing7:
 

spartacus53

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Rando said:
spartacus53 said:
Guys that shoot anything out of a cannon must have a few chromosomes missing. :laughing9: I am pretty sure that this type of behavior is unlawful in all 50 states
So, those interested in History are mentally retarded? Please don't judge those of us that are interested in military history with one person's accident.
I have fired quite a few cannon and I am probably more "intelligent" than people possessing doctorates.
And it's legal where you can fire any other "muzzle loader"
Please check your facts and insults before hurling them.

Hurling insults?? I never called anyone retarded, even the mentally handicapped would have more common sense than that. This has nothing to do with history buffs either, his actions were illegal. You should read the article again, then maybe you would understand my comments. There is a big difference between intelligence and common sense. You can be the brightest man on earth and yet lack common sense. He may be a history buff, but he did hit a house 400 yards away with a deadly instrument. That maybe Ok for people to fire off cannons in your neighborhood, but I perfer being out of the line of fire.
God forbid someone was killed, I guess his defense is I did nothing wrong as I was testing a cannon an historical cannon. So I case the police in this case made a mistake in pressing charges, I hope those officers lose their job. :laughing9:
 

ivan salis

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nra rule #1 --know your target and be sure you have a safe background area before firing

the man firing it had no common sense --you need a "safe area" with lots and lots of room as a "safety buffer" to fire a cannon projectile * like he was doing --clearly he did not --thank god no one was maimed or killed by his foolish actions.
 

Twisted Fork

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Boys will be boys........There was a time in America when you could shoot off your 30.06 in your back yard; I remember the good old days. I knew a kid in grade school who had a 74 caliber cannon his dad gave him. We used to pack it with a mix of shotgun powder, rifle powder and just about anything else we could get our hands on emptying out cartridges. Then we would pack it with rocks and glass and nails and washers and such. I remember one day when we packed just a little extra powder in it and aimed it at the dog house from from 20 feet away. The cannon did summer salts across the yard and the full sized dog house went up in a cloud of splinters. Of course we were just boys then.
 

truckinbutch

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ICC Common Fireworks were illegal in WV when I was growing up so we had to reconcile ourselves to
calcium carbide , high octane gasoline , black powder , various smokeless powders , dynamite ,and other ordinance that was readily available if you knew where to buy or steal it .
Accessable legal fireworks would probably have contributed to those of us that survived our trial and error methods having better hearing and a more even number of fingers .
Good training benefits everyone :laughing9:
 

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