Cannon ball accidently hits house

[Jeff L]

I always thought it would be fun to own a cannon. I guess you have to be real careful what's down range. Any of you out there own and shoot cannons?

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20090904_ap_pawarbuffchargedwhencannonballhitshous e.html

-Jeff L

[Kirk]

Whem I was in college, a few decades ago, we had a student-run Rifle & Pistol Club (gasp, horrors) and were even allowed - with school permission - to keep firearms & ammo in our rooms. One fellow brought a small cannon to the range. I believe the bore was something like 1.875". It fired an 8 oz lead ball. We fired it at the 200 yd backstop (hillside with abouit a 30 degree slope) & saw mud fly (soon after a rain). We went over to see if we could dig out a ball only to discove two "skid" marks. The balls had richoceted & skipped over the hill top (another 75 yds or so.) There were houses a mile or so in that direction so we ceased fire.

The Civil War re-enactor may have been ignorant or negligent but in any event it is unfortunant. One of the NRA rules is "make sure of your backstop."

[John Sukey]

Years ago I had a 12pdr Mountain Howitzer replica. Full size, but a reduced bore to use cement filled beer cans. Finaly sold it when I stopped doing reenacting. It's up in Flagstaff (AZ) with another group.

Not for the horror story.
A University of Arizona fraternity had a smaller cannon which was fired at football games whenever the team scored a touchdown.

Unfortunately the gun was handed down from year to year without proper training of the person acting as gunner. At one game the gun exploded, severely injuring a couple of people. They tried to blame it on the company that made the gun until it was discovered just how the last shot was loaded.

Now in firing blanks the proper procedure is simply to encase the charge in a cloth bag or aluminum foil. That is all that is needed to get a good bang.

What actualy happened was the person loading it shoved newspaper down after the charge as a wad, AND THEN compounded the error by loading ANOTHER WAD OF WET NEWSPAPER ON TOP OF THAT:eek::eek:

He just as well might have welded the muzzle SHUT! The wad expanded blocked the bore, and the back end of the gun let go.

Ya can't fix STUPID

[limazulu]

Our club has cannon shoots twice a year. They compete using cement filled beer/soda cans at bullseye targets. The mortars compete against closest to the center of a sand pile. It's run by an outside group. The same group during the forth of July festivities would fire their cannons at the appropiate times when the symphony played ah ??? I forget (the one with the cannons firing) :icon_scratch:

[Johnny P]

Many years ago my son and I went to the Louisiana state muzzleloading championships. Part of the shoot was with cannon, and the winning team had a cannon made from a tank barrel to look like an ordnance rifle. The rounds were drink cans filled with concrete and wrapped on each end with duct tape to take the rifling. The target was an NRA target with the 8" bull, and was fired at from 100 yards. The first shot from the cannon clipped the black. The second shot clipped the first shot, but was fully in the black. The third shot was just above the first two shots. This was my first time to see cannon competition, and I was amazed to say the least.

[JB White]

Our club has cannon shoots twice a year. They compete using cement filled beer/soda cans at bullseye targets. The mortars compete against closest to the center of a sand pile. It's run by an outside group. The same group during the forth of July festivities would fire their cannons at the appropiate times when the symphony played ah ??? I forget (the one with the cannons firing) :icon_scratch:



1812 Overture :icon_salut:

[limazulu]

1812 Overture :icon_salut:

That's the one, Thanks. :hello: I couldn't believe they could time it that well. I had to see it for myself. They did. You could see them expending some effort to reload in time for the next barrage but they went off exactly where they were supposed to.

[PhillipM]

That's the one, Thanks. :hello: I couldn't believe they could time it that well. I had to see it for myself. They did. You could see them expending some effort to reload in time for the next barrage but they went off exactly where they were supposed to.

1812 overture is a musical history of Napoleon's Russian campaign.

From Wiki:

The music can be interpreted as a fairly literal depiction of the campaign: in June 1812, the previously undefeated French Allied Army of over half a million battle-hardened soldiers and almost 1200 state-of-the-art guns (cannons, artillery pieces) crossed the Niemen river into Lithuania on its way to Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch of All the Russians, aware that the Russian Imperial Army could field a force only a fraction of this size, inexperienced and poorly equipped, called on the people to pray for deliverance and peace. The Russian people responded en masse, gathering in churches all across Russia and offering their heartfelt prayers for divine intervention (the opening hymn). Next we hear the ominous notes of approaching conflict and preparation for battle with a hint of desperation but great enthusiasm, followed by the distant strains of La Marseillaise (the French National Anthem) as the French approach. Skirmishes follow, and the battle goes back and forth, but the French continue to advance and La Marseillaise becomes more prominent and victorious - almost invincible. The Tzar desperately appeals to the spirit of the Russian people in an eloquent plea to come forward and defend the Rodina (Motherland). As the people in their villages consider his impassioned plea, we hear traditional Russian folk music. La Marseillaise returns in force with great sounds of battle as the French approach Moscow. The Russian people now begin to stream out of their villages and towns toward Moscow to the increasing strains of folk music and, as they gather together, there is even a hint of celebration. Now La Marseillaise is heard in counterpoint to the folk music as the great armies clash on the plains west of Moscow, and Moscow burns. Just at the moment that Moscow is occupied and all seems hopeless, the hymn which opens the piece is heard again as God intervenes, bringing an unprecedented deep freeze with which the French cannot contend (one can hear the winter winds blowing in the music). The French attempt to retreat, but their guns, stuck in the freezing ground, are captured by the Russians and turned against them. Finally, the guns are fired in celebration and church bells all across the land peal in grateful honor of their deliverance from their "treacherous and cruel enemies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_overture

[John Sukey]

Russia's greatest general is WINTER. Napoleon found that out the hard way as did the germans many years later.;)