Blackpowder, Bowling Balls And Sewer Pipe! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Mind_Storm · 10-12-2003, 01:12 PM

http://www.docsmachine.com/nonPB/mortar

Blackpowder, Bowling Balls And Sewer Pipe!

One Fine September Morning...

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.

Sion · 10-18-2003, 10:33 PM

cooooooooooooooooooooool

Moobie · 10-22-2003, 07:33 AM

There was a guy, back when I was young in Nebraska, that had a cannon. I real live cannon. Don't remember the specifics, but he'd take coffee cans, the big ones, and sometimes the big tomato sauce cans, and fill them full of cement and shoot them out of the cannon across a lake into the far bank. So very rad. He also used to sit on top of the cannon while it went off. This guy was crazy. Then one time something went wrong and the can never made it out. Blew that thing sky high. We found parts of that thing half a mile away in a field. Luckily he wasn't sitting on it when that happened.

omega2K4 · 10-22-2003, 08:43 AM

I got a digital version of the Anarchist's Cookbook, and it has all sorts of neat "how-tos" for explosives, and general mayhem. If anyone wants it, PM me and I'll e-mail it to you.

kel · 10-22-2003, 09:23 AM

The original anarchists cook book was written as propaganda. Don't take anything in it seriously. And don't try the recipes... many of them are wrong or incomplete.

http://www.righto.com/anarchist-cookbook-faq.html

omega2K4 · 10-22-2003, 04:56 PM

All the recipes I've used work, and work very well they do.

Aesik · 10-28-2003, 04:57 PM

Need one of those clear balls with the fluroescent lights in them!

propaganda · 10-28-2003, 06:14 PM

WHOA! screw the trebuchet for awhile i think i have a new mission.

that thing is freaken amazing i would love to see that in action

muckluck · 10-28-2003, 06:27 PM

Im in, Off to find a 150 lb. pipe and some bowling balls.

*edit* Anyone that read the post before i edited this probaby noticed my really bad english.

Coolidge · 10-28-2003, 09:52 PM

Anyone who does this: TAKE PICTURES!!!

I'm to scared to try something THAT incriminating

31Friction · 10-29-2003, 05:10 PM

Bowlcut · 10-29-2003, 07:18 PM

well see....thats what you call clorene in the gene pool

those materials, few beers, in a good redneck.....and well....you are taking out someone

Azharen · 10-31-2003, 05:33 PM

Holy Freaking crap. I would love to fire that just once.

-Azh

SirGoreaxe · 11-16-2003, 10:55 PM

Wow, and I thought it would be cool to build a potato canon.
Daddy can I have one, pleeeezzz.

GakFace · 11-16-2003, 11:05 PM

man the free beers you could win.

"I bet you my tab tonite, that I can pass a bowling ball farther than you can pass a football."

merkerguitars · 11-17-2003, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Coolidge
Anyone who does this: TAKE PICTURES!!!

I'm to scared to try something THAT incriminating

Or better yet a video. That would be so freaking cool to see.

monkeysugar · 12-01-2003, 08:49 AM

LOL This reminds me of a Patrick McManus story I read several years ago. Does anyone here read his stuff?

geodaro · 12-01-2003, 09:13 AM

awsome pictures. I'd love to see that in person.

Distraction · 12-02-2003, 03:49 PM

Damn, puts my potato gun to shame that's for sure.

biznatch · 12-13-2003, 06:40 PM

This is so cool...my ballistic knowledge sums up to spitball fights , some years ago...wish I were watchin that scene...

mvassek · 12-14-2003, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by merkerguitars
Or better yet a video. That would be so freaking cool to see.

Nothing beats McManus the best part is his best friend is always the one getting hurt with the stupid stuff Pat comes up with, and who could forget Rancid Crabtree the laziest person I have ever heard about and the way Pat idolized him as an outdoorsman extraordinare.

Jerpitcher · 01-08-2004, 08:23 AM

Haha, that would be something to see, a homemade mortar that shot bowling balls a few hundred yards....i bet it'd be hell on a hay bail!

10-12-2003, 01:12 PM	#1 (permalink)
Mind_Storm Tilted Location: The Finger Lakes of New York	Blackpowder, Bowling Balls And Sewer Pipe! http://www.docsmachine.com/nonPB/mortar Blackpowder, Bowling Balls And Sewer Pipe! One Fine September Morning... 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.

10-18-2003, 10:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
Sion Dumb all over...a little ugly on the side Location: In the room where the giant fire puffer works, and the torture never stops.	cooooooooooooooooooooool __________________ He's the best, of course, of all the worst. Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

10-22-2003, 07:33 AM	#3 (permalink)
Moobie Insane Location: baked beans	There was a guy, back when I was young in Nebraska, that had a cannon. I real live cannon. Don't remember the specifics, but he'd take coffee cans, the big ones, and sometimes the big tomato sauce cans, and fill them full of cement and shoot them out of the cannon across a lake into the far bank. So very rad. He also used to sit on top of the cannon while it went off. This guy was crazy. Then one time something went wrong and the can never made it out. Blew that thing sky high. We found parts of that thing half a mile away in a field. Luckily he wasn't sitting on it when that happened. __________________ Obscenity is the crutch of inarticulate motherfuckers. We like money. Give us your money you stupid consumer whore.

10-22-2003, 08:43 AM	#4 (permalink)
omega2K4 Natalie Portman is sexy. Location: The Outer Rim	I got a digital version of the Anarchist's Cookbook, and it has all sorts of neat "how-tos" for explosives, and general mayhem. If anyone wants it, PM me and I'll e-mail it to you. __________________ "While the State exists there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State." - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin "Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form."- Karl Marx

10-22-2003, 09:23 AM	#5 (permalink)
kel WARNING: FLAMMABLE Location: Ask Acetylene	The original anarchists cook book was written as propaganda. Don't take anything in it seriously. And don't try the recipes... many of them are wrong or incomplete. http://www.righto.com/anarchist-cookbook-faq.html __________________ "It better be funny"

10-22-2003, 04:56 PM	#6 (permalink)
omega2K4 Natalie Portman is sexy. Location: The Outer Rim	All the recipes I've used work, and work very well they do. __________________ "While the State exists there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State." - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin "Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form."- Karl Marx

10-28-2003, 04:57 PM	#7 (permalink)
Aesik Tilted	Need one of those clear balls with the fluroescent lights in them!

10-28-2003, 06:14 PM	#8 (permalink)
propaganda Psycho	WHOA! screw the trebuchet for awhile i think i have a new mission. that thing is freaken amazing i would love to see that in action

10-28-2003, 06:27 PM	#9 (permalink)
muckluck Psycho	Im in, Off to find a 150 lb. pipe and some bowling balls. edit Anyone that read the post before i edited this probaby noticed my really bad english. __________________ Last edited by muckluck; 10-28-2003 at 06:50 PM..

10-28-2003, 09:52 PM	#10 (permalink)
Coolidge Tilted	Anyone who does this: TAKE PICTURES!!! I'm to scared to try something THAT incriminating

10-29-2003, 05:10 PM	#11 (permalink)
31Friction Addict Location: STL, MO	__________________ "Saints need sinners." Alan Watts

10-29-2003, 07:18 PM	#12 (permalink)
Bowlcut Tilted Location: Nashville, TN USA	well see....thats what you call clorene in the gene pool those materials, few beers, in a good redneck.....and well....you are taking out someone __________________ Remember, my opinion is as irrelevant as yours.....

10-31-2003, 05:33 PM	#13 (permalink)
Azharen Insane Location: Queens, NY	Holy Freaking crap. I would love to fire that just once. -Azh __________________ To the True Warrior, Death is merely an Ally...

11-16-2003, 10:55 PM	#14 (permalink)
SirGoreaxe Tilted Location: Bremerton, WA	Wow, and I thought it would be cool to build a potato canon. Daddy can I have one, pleeeezzz. __________________ (;þ "You can't change what has happened, but you can make the best of it, and make better decisions from the past." (Unless there is a quick edit button.)

11-16-2003, 11:05 PM	#15 (permalink)
GakFace Go Ninja, Go Ninja Go!! Location: IN, USA	man the free beers you could win. "I bet you my tab tonite, that I can pass a bowling ball farther than you can pass a football." __________________ RoboBlaster: Welcome to the club! Not that I'm in the club. And there really isn'a a club in the first place. But if there was a club and if I was in it, I would definitely welcome you to it.

12-01-2003, 08:49 AM	#17 (permalink)
monkeysugar I'll be on the veranda, since you're on the cross. Location: Rand McNally's friendliest small town in America. They must have strayed from the dodgy parts...	LOL This reminds me of a Patrick McManus story I read several years ago. Does anyone here read his stuff? __________________ I've got the love of my life and a job that I enjoy most of the time. Life is good.

12-01-2003, 09:13 AM	#18 (permalink)
geodaro Psycho	awsome pictures. I'd love to see that in person.

12-02-2003, 03:49 PM	#19 (permalink)
Distraction Tilted Location: Florida	Damn, puts my potato gun to shame that's for sure.

12-13-2003, 06:40 PM	#20 (permalink)
biznatch Junkie Location: France	This is so cool...my ballistic knowledge sums up to spitball fights , some years ago...wish I were watchin that scene... __________________ Check it out: The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread

01-08-2004, 08:23 AM	#22 (permalink)
Jerpitcher Crazy Location: Arizona	Haha, that would be something to see, a homemade mortar that shot bowling balls a few hundred yards....i bet it'd be hell on a hay bail!