Blackpowder, bowling balls and sewer pipe! (Fire in the hole!!!)

One Fine September Morning... ^

[mhking]

Ah, serendipity. Being in the right place at the right time.
As it happened, this fine and sunny September Sunday morning found me and a few others at the local gun range, sighting in- or trying to- some rifles. Some were cooperating, some weren't. A normal outing to the range, really...

Until this fellow pulls up and starts unloading a big 'ol hunk o' pipe.

I thought he was going to bury it as a new target stand or something.... 'til I saw the Bowling Balls. I then immediately knew it must be what some call a "punt" mortar! I'd seen similar handmade ones on the 'net and in magazines... naturally, we all completely forgot about our own rifles for the moment.

The Gun Range is a nice place- raised, covered shooting line, plenty of tables, well-kept grounds. The first line of targets is at 100 yards, with small berms and pipe target stands at 200, 300 and 400 yards as well, plus a trail/road to drive up to 'em if you need to. And at 500 yards, right at the base of the stand of trees off in the distance, is a full-size steel cutout of a moose, painted day-glo orange. Above, the guy with the mortar is pouring in some three ounces of Fg (coarse) Pyrodex black powder...

This thing is huge! Probably weighing some 150 pounds, half-inch-nominal wall pipe with a massive two-inch-thick breechblock welded on one end. The touchhole or fuse passage leads to a small "chamber" in the center that holds the powder in a single spot, rather than letting it cover the whole 8.5" bore.

Crude, yes, but it works. The owner is reluctant to do any additional welding on the pipe, for fear of making a weak or brittle spot, so he just stacks up whatever's handy to hold it, oh, 'bout there or so. This thing's so cool I want to make the guy some adjustable legs like the old 4.2" Chemical Mortar had....

Three ounces of Pyrodex, an old garage-sale-special bowling ball, an old chair and some sewer pipe... Fire in the hole!

He's not running, but he ain't dawdling either! Let's see, the fuse burns at about one minute per foot, there's about six inches there... dum da dum... carry the three...

HOLY FREAKING BATTLESHIP MISSOURI! By the time the shutter snapped, the ball was, in relation to this picture on your screen, about six monitors up and climbing. It was whistling. I lost track of it since I was trying to get the picture, but the guys say it cleared the treeline by probably another hundred yards.

Let's do that AGAIN! Rod out the fuse hole, make sure there aren't any errant embers, pull the mortar up out of the divot it created, weigh out another charge of powder, another bowling ball... This time I was watching downrange with the camera pointing at the cannon... Holy Creeping God, ladies and gentlemen! That ball was screaming out of there! I'd wager it landed over 600 yards downrange.

I should have brought out my Radar Chrony. I'd guess that ball wasn't moving over 700 fps, possibly as low as 400 fps, but jeez, think of the mass! That ball's what, eight to ten pounds?!? What's the Hatcher's Index of a projectile weighing fifty-thousand grains moving at 400 fps? "Body armor" against this thing is eight feet of dirt over a concrete bunker!

Think Grandpas' old thirty-thirty is a kicker? How about a hundred-plus-pound gun that pushes itself into the dirt six to eight inches each time it goes off? This is not a shoulder arm.

After all four balls were expended, we helped load it back in the guy's car. I noted that there were some divots from earlier shoots... he said he gathers up old balls whenever he can find 'em, then when he has a few, on a nice day he'll come out and blow 'wm downrange. Says it always draws a crowd. I said "so there's already a few balls out there in the swamp, eh?"
"Oh, more than a few, yeah."

He says he also has a short cannon that takes small tomato-sauce cans and another mortar that takes soda cans. The soda cans, it seems, don't hold together well- the force of firing blows the can off the concrete fill, which then blows up in the air.

Besides, he says, NOTHING beats seeing that bowling ball howl downrange as far as the eye can see.

I agree. :) The pictures don't do this justice; this is something every Tinker or gadget freak should see in person at least once in their life.

[Mulder]

Give me the specs on the bowling ball and I will crunch the numbers. I will do a time & motion study that will include adjustable legs

I wonder what that bowling ball would do to a UN vehicle driven by turd-worlders who are trying to disarm the American people?

[Mulder]

Thanks for the great reporting!

That looks like a lot of fun.

[Squantos]

I want to take out a million dollar life insurance policy on ya Eaker before ya light that sucker ......figure I'll just have to make one premium payment........:o)

Stay Safe

[Ronin]

Yee GADS!!!!

What fun!!! what fun!!!

Wish I could have been there to see it.

[Oberon]

YOU find the range that will let us shoot it!!!!!

The thing to do is take it to the beach, in winter. Pick a nice tall dune to get on top of, and pretend you're an artillery gunner at Fort McHenry.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I may have to try this at the beach, launch one into the sea :o)

[StriperSniper]

Nice 'Bowling Boomer'!

[umgud]

How about 16 ounces of H110. That'd make a real pile driver.

[ExSoldier]

I once made a claymore out of a Folgers coffee can, some black powder and some modeling clay. An old buddy of mine, fmr SF guy gave me the pointers and I'll be damned but it worked! Nice stuff to know about in these uncertain times. But THIS cannon contraption....it occurs to me that this is something that could be used to project fou gasse (remember "FOO GAS from the movie The Green Berets?") a sort of ground mounted napalm. Whoa. Use the right mixture of thickener, with the right charge and be dang sure to have a way to remote command detonate (not fuse...something electrical) and this would scare the "blue" right off those baby blue helmets....

[Travis McGee]

This looks like SERIES fun!

[Khurkris]

please keep me pinged on a further developments....this is cool...very very cool...

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Pyrodex is not black powder, it is a black powder substitute. We rock lockers (flintlock users) use nothing but the old tried and true black powder, and leave the cap gun boys and inliner types to mess with the phony BP crap such as Pyrodex, Clean Shot, Clear Shot, 777, &c.

[Travis McGee]

If you want a real nice fireball, Hollywood special effects style, use your gunpowder, then a box of steel wool, then a jug of gasoline. The steel wool moving fast heats up like a jillion little filaments, and ignites the mist of gasoline in a hellacious orange fireball.

[StriperSniper]

H110

???

I'm more of a HT100 friction drag material for fishing reels kinda guy. ;-)

[SLB]

I have told a few of you of the mortar a friend and I build while in Jr High. We used a piece of steel pipe and a pipe plug. We launched a golf ball using a cherry bomb for powder. Stupid I know, but wow did it ever work. We had to use lots of wading to keep from destroying the golf ball, but when they did fly they really traveled. I won't say anything about a large plate glass window that was broken out of a certain building.

The same friend and I did lots of trap shooting when seniors in high school. I loaded a round with pink kleenex once and then slipped it into his gun. The expression on his face was grand. Again, I am surprised it did not ignite, but I used a couple of cardboard over powder wads and hoped for the best. I had to hand him a loaded gun as the weight of the shell would have tipped him off.

[Noumenon]

Holy Guacamole! I like this guy's style. If he were in m yneck of the woods, I'd be happy to invite him to our annual 4th of July Independence Day Machine Gun Shoot.

[SLB]

I have a short Vietnam War story. For about 1/2 my one-year tour I was in a composite FA battery. We had a common chassis that would accommodate either an 8 in howitzer or a 175mm gun. The M107 175mm gun was notorious for being inaccurate. However, one of the best tricks we had for defense was soaking a powder charge in diesel and then firing it. Talk about fire and brimstone! The maximum zone 3 charge was about 5 feet long and when soaked with diesel, whew did it ever give off the fireworks. The little man would be creeping into the wire at night and we would give him one heck of a surprise.

[Noumenon]

I wonder what that bowling ball would do to a UN vehicle driven by turd-worlders who are trying to disarm the American people?

I'd call it a STRIKE!

I could also call it 'bowling for Michael Moore,' but...

[Noumenon]

Heh heh heh

[boris]

"Probably weighing some 150 pounds, half-inch-nominal wall pipe"

I rather think the thickness a bit inadequate.

One of these days I would not be surprised if it burst.

Now, I don't know the material or the strength...still...