posted April 02, 2000 04:21 PM            

Ok here's the successes.

The sabot rounds that i made... i made five of each, buckshot, and flechette.
The flechette rounds worked .. i must say AWESOME!

I fired them again at a stand of trees, and cut several down. I got pretty much the same results out of these as i did with the last attempt. Also i was looking for some new targets, and fired one round at an old wheel barrow. Now granted the thing was a bit rusty, but it was completely obliterated. The biggest piece that was left of it was the hard rubber wheel, and axle. The rest of it was turned almost to a confetti like substance It was perforated beyond recognition.

I was fully impressed with these rounds.

The 00 buck rounds were also pretty good. The 9 oz load's did seem to mushroom a bit during firing, so that pattern was a bit wider spread than i would have liked, but they still preformed adequately. I fired one round at a 55 gallon drum that was full of water, and here's what happened. Upon impact, water shot out of the drum about 25 - 30 feet in the air, the barrel got knocked back about 10 feet, and was left in shreds with the majority of the pellets making a hole almost the entire width of the barrel. It nearly cut it in two. This was at 15 yards from the muzzle of the cannon. Pretty good spread, but there were a lot of pellets that didnt even hit the barrel (deformed pellets).

All in all... i was happy enough with the two types of shells.

Now for the rockets.

The rockets didnt fare so well. Understand these were just test rockets, no explosives. They seemed to be underpowered. The first rocket i fired, i didnt elevate the barrel nearly enough. It launched about 20 feet drom the barrel, and skipped off the ground. The plus side is... that the fins seemed to work well enough to keep it going straight. My second attempt i aimed up a LOT. It launched about 300 yards, and sank nose first in the soft ground. I fired a second shot with it aimed in the same place, and the round burried itself less than three feet away from the first round. Pretty good repeatability i think But obviously... i need to do some more experimenting with the rockets. I think part of the problem was their burn time... they seemed to have about 1.5 - 2 seconds of burn time and they were done. I think part of the problem was the nozzle's were too big. I'll try a few other designs making smaller nozzels, and longer motors. But for now... they work pretty good as artilery

The cannon seems to have held up pretty well. The lugs seem fully intact, but the springs in the action (recoil springs explained in last post) are noticably flatter. These may be considered a wear part i guess. The barrel seems fine, not much wear to it. But there was quite a bit of plastic buildup from the sabots. Wonder if i can get a 400 cal bore cleaning rod from K-Mart?

The other problems i noticed was the huge amount of recoil from the gun when shot as a cannon. The rockets didnt seem too harsh. After firing those ten shots... the small utility trailer i had it mounted on, almost got its floor boards ripped out. They were cracked, and broken, but still held.

I think this week, i'll take the barrel back to work, and put some porting in it to lighten the recoil. I may also try to figure out a way of putting some shock absorbers into the tripod. Thats a drawback though... there is no way to fire this thing without it being bolted down.

I dont even think that sand bagging the legs of the tripod would stop it from flipping over.

Well... thats how it went so far.
Anyone got any idea's or comments... feel free to post them.

Ohh and by the way... i am looking into making a mold for a 4 inch lead ball to shoot as well. I think my best bet .. will to first look at the molds for fishing. There might be some downrigger weights that are that size... if not, i'll just have to make a mold... but i'll let ya know how it goes.

A lot more experimenting with the rockets is needed though.

BaDSeeD

posted May 09, 2000 09:24 PM            

As to putting it on wheels. This is not meant to be strictly a cannon. This is a cannon in some aspects, and a rocket launcher in other aspects. This is also intended to be a man portable piece. Putting it on wheels would change that intended use.

BaDSeeD