PDA

View Full Version : Cannonballs



Blackwater
10-03-2005, 08:28 PM
Didn't want to hijack the thread below about casting big balls, but you cannoneers reminded me of a question that I've been wondering for some time, and that some of you guys here may be able to shed some light on. It isn't really about moulds and maintenance, but you DO have to have something to shoot the bullets those moulds cast, right? Anyway, with the good grace of a good set of gentlemen here (I hope!):

Has anyone ever tried to rifle a cannon? I know a couple of guys with black powder cannons, and there's a fierce competition yearly between them. The recriminations go on from one shoot to the next year's shoot, which of course is just as it should be, right? [smilie=l:

I've got some old books about KY rifles and how they were rifled, and with some pics of rifling setups. They're essentially a rounded log, turned to diameter, with a hand filed/gouged/routed groove that's (at least in one case) cut a segment at a time by drawing lines a certain distance forward and a certain distance off parallel. A guide stud is basically run along inside this groove as it's driven backward (again, in at least one setup) through the length of the barrel, eventually forming a decent groove. They only did one groove at a time with this setup, since with the improvised machinery they had back in the mountains, there was only so much "power" to run that cutter through, and one groove at the time probably produced more accurate results for this type of "equipment," if you can even really call it that these days.

Could not a cannon be similarly rifled, with scrap from here and there, mostly??? What would make a good cutter for cast steel cannon barrels? If this thread costs someone money, all I can say is "GOOD!" Y'all dang sho' are costing ME some, and one good turn deserves anther, ya' know? :wink:

Surely someone has done this, haven't they???

Willbird
10-03-2005, 08:38 PM
Harry Pope experimented with a piece of sandpaper on his rifling head, I belive it was a 22lr bbl, His experiment determined that for a limited number of rounds the bbl was as accurate as a regular rifled one.

I have always wanted to try lap-rifling a shot gun bbl, I would use a cast iron lap with rifling milled into it, and I would simply lap some rifling in the factory tube. you would still need to devise a way to rotate the lap in a helical motion as it moved down the inside of the barrel. However it should be a very accurate method.

Someday.

Bill

Blackwater
10-03-2005, 09:09 PM
Willbird, I have a notion that, given the time to get the pieces together, this wouldn't be quite as hard to do as it at first appears. Yeah, some caution would be in order, and a deft touch for some of the work, and a mind that thinks in three dimensions (which probably leaves me out - I think I could get to 2 1/2, but 3'd be a tall order). As Pope was aleged to have said, it's not the tools so much as the workman and his attention to the details.

This is something I've thought of for a long time. I've got a buddy who made his own muzzleloader, even to making the barrel from a circular rod, filing and pounding it round, and rifling it himself. I DID, however, ask him about the process, and he said "Don't ask. If you ever want to do one yourself, I'll tell you, but I just don't want to talk about it." Seems he didn't quite enjoy the experience. He's building mostly BR guns now, though, and has left gunsmithing to go back and help farm the family farm with his brother. Good guy, and VERY talented, but he's got so much on his plate I don't see him doing any more of that for quite a while.

Thanks for the tip, though. I've got a feeling the crazy rascals with the cannons are, sooner or later, going to rifle one of theirs just so they can win and pull a fast one on the other team. They've done worse.

waksupi
10-03-2005, 11:52 PM
People are making rifled cannons. Our club has one, made by a club member. The bore is around three inch. He also made a projectile mold, that has rifling cast in, to match the bore, The nose has a cavity that can be filled with a considerable amount of BP, and plugged with a .22 rimfire, and a glob of grease to ignite the charge.
The Columbia Mountain Artillery battery up here, also has a rifled ordinance gun that they built.

Frank46
10-04-2005, 01:43 AM
Dixon's in pennsylvania used to hold a blackpowder fair every year. A buddy and me used to go whenever we could. One gentleman was rifling a BP barrel as part of the fair. He used a cylindrical piece of hard wood with the twist of the rifling cut into it. Used cigarette papers as shims for the rifling cutter. Each stroke only produced very fine powder like metal shavings. There are a few books out there concerning rifling barrels. My guess is that to do cannon bbl you'd need a large setup to do so. But it would be possible. Frank