Gun Safety - Applies to cannons also!

[Artful]

http://www.fox9.com/news/97725987-story


NEW RICHMOND, Wis. (KMSP) - A 65-year-old Wisconsin man is facing charges after firing bowling balls and bowling pins from a cannon. One of the balls went through a neighbor’s barn, and the owner found her 10-month-old horse dead.

Lisa Kroll felt her house shake on the 4th of July, but she thought it was one of her neighbors lighting off fireworks. It turns out, they were shooting bowling balls out of a homemade cannon and several of them landed on her property.

Kroll says when she went to feed her horses the next day, she noticed a bowling ball had gone through the roof of her barn. She also found one of her horses dead with a head wound that she believes was caused by the flying objects, and six more balls and three bowling pins in a field by her house.

"At least it was a horse not a human, but it was a very nice horse that got killed, very unfortunate," Kroll said.

It turns out, the brother of one of Kroll's neighbors brought a homemade cannon to the house to celebrate the 4th of July. He admitted to police he shot a total of 10 bowling balls and 10 bowling pins out of the cannon, and he was sorry they made it to Kroll's property nearly half a mile away.

"Been prosecuting 34 years, this is the first case we've had where someone was shooting bowling balls out of a cannon,” St. Croix County Attorney Eric Johnson said.

Ricky Thorne, of Spring Valley, Wis., is being charged with recklessly endangering safety and negligent handling of a weapon.

Kroll said she's troubled by the fact that she had guests sleeping in camper trailers outside her barn. She said the horse was worth $10,000 and the damage to her barn was estimated at $4,000.


IDIOTS

The 1st Law:
The Gun Is Always Loaded

The 2nd Law:
Never Point The Gun At Something You Are Not Prepared To Destroy

The 3rd Law:
Always Be Sure Of Your Target
And What Is Behind It That Will Stop Your Projectile
If You Miss Or Go Thru The Target

The 4th Law:
Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Wanting to Fire

[farmerjim]

That is a large cannon to shoot a bowling ball a half mile.

[Artful]

TWO MILES with a bowling ball cannon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2DlLHFU3dA

Look closely at this one - you will notice it's just a cut off
Compressed gas Bottle.
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/AllanDoug/BowlingBallCannon.jpg (http://s962.photobucket.com/user/AllanDoug/media/BowlingBallCannon.jpg.html)

http://www.wired.com/2011/12/mythbusters-cannonball-map/
As mythbusters found out
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2011/12/mythbusters-cannonball-map.jpg

[KAF]

I certainly hope the man is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and all his firearms taken from him, and never allowed another. He is just to stupid to own a firearm. People like him make all of us gun owners look bad.
When shooting we should make sure of what is down range, hopefully a backstop. Amazing how many dum a$$es there are out there.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That is a large cannon to shoot a bowling ball a half mile.

Not necessarily, for low velocity and high trajectory can be astonishingly efficient. The French have a very descriptive phrase, tension of the trajectory. Imagine a string stretched from point A to point B. When it is loose, a few ounces of tension will make a great change to the shape of the curve. But as it comes flatter, the strain necessary to flatten the curve will increase out of all proportion. Finally if you try to pull the curve totally flat it will break, just like your high velocity rifle will.

An excellent example, surprising even to nineteenth century artillerymen, came during the fragile peace before the Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter. The defenders (or whatever you call them) set up a ten-inch Columbiad cannon of the Rodman system as a mortar. It followed the usual practice of having a rigid elevation of about 45 degrees, the intention to adjust the rangeby varying the charge.

There being no direct line of sight, only a practice shot with a ‘blind’ shell could verify its alignment. As the Unionwas anxious to avoid being seen as commencing hostilities, it was thought that2lb. of powder, instead of the 18lb. which was used to achieve the gun’s normal performance, couldn't possibly send the shell far enough to be mistaken for a shot fired in earnest.

In fact the shell carried so well towards the city that the garrison had to do some fast talking. The charge was only about two hundred times the charge that would have sent a .45-70 bullet around a mile and a half, and we might conjecture from the reaction of the inhabitants that the shell didn't travel much under half that distance.

Yes, the behavior of the bowling-ball men was idiotically irresponsible, and very likely to reflect badly on those with the perfectly reasonable ambition to experiment with such devices. One shot, as at Charleston, would be bad enough, but it seems like they went on firing without knowing where the missiles were going, or knew but didn't care. Some might say the lady in the case should have tried to informally negotiate damages, and report the matter only if refused. Well rude noises to them. A person has a responsibility to protect her horses, and even leaving revealed religion out of it, you get people in stables at night as well as horses.

[Tackleberry41]

They have some pretty light bowling balls at the alley, way light than an iron cannon ball. Doubt it would take much to get one of the light ones to go a half mile. Even a 22lr as piddly as it is can go further than that. And the article said 'nearly' a half mile, it is the news so could be considerably less distance.

But most would agree it was pretty wreckless to fire a CANNON with no back stop and zero idea of what might be in the impact area, or even know how far that impact area is. How many of us would just go stand on our porch and start firing randomly into the distance? Its almost assured alcohol was involved, doubt home made cannon and alcohol go together very well. And what if it hadn't been the barn but the camper parked next to it killing someone? A case like this you almost wish the cannon had blown up in use, only injuring the builder.

[JeffinNZ]

Aside from the obvious death of the horse and danger it is just a little bit funny. Not justifying it but just imagine the scene.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

They have some pretty light bowling balls at the alley, way light than an iron cannon ball. Doubt it would take much to get one of the light ones to go a half mile. Even a 22lr as piddly as it is can go further than that. And the article said 'nearly' a half mile, it is the news so could be considerably less distance.

But most would agree it was pretty wreckless to fire a CANNON with no back stop and zero idea of what might be in the impact area, or even know how far that impact area is. How many of us would just go stand on our porch and start firing randomly into the distance? Its almost assured alcohol was involved, doubt home made cannon and alcohol go together very well. And what if it hadn't been the barn but the camper parked next to it killing someone? A case like this you almost wish the cannon had blown up in use, only injuring the builder.


Yes, how many non-riflemen (or even plenty who are) can judge 600 yards just by looking at it. Journalistic truth is defined as anything you can't be sued for, and libel is an untrue statement which affects the libeled's ability to enjoy his normal lifestyle. These canoneers would have to get out without a stain on their characters, which seems improbable, for anything between a hundred yards and a mile to do that.

Most bowling-ball guns are actually high-angled mortars, which means that any backstop short of a substantial hill isn't going to be any good.

[Thin Man]

A friend I used to work with was an Army veteran who was trained to serve in a mortar crew. Long after military separation his interest in mortars returned. He acquired a scuba tank and cut off the flat (bottom) end, sealed the valve port at the top and installed a fuse port. Ignition was cannon fuse, propellant was black powder, and bowling balls were the projectiles. He fabricated a cradle to hold the tank steady, also an aiming device. His charge weights were from 2 to 6 ounces of black powder. Sounds amazing that a 2 ounce charge would move a bowling ball, but it will. He worked with the sights and powder charges until he was getting acceptable accuracy, not sure if he meant minute of angle or minute of castle! Through out all his experimentation he claimed he found most of his bowling balls, makes one wonder where the others wound up.

Thin Man