I am looking for information about making moulds for small cannon. I have a lathe and mill and have had several requests for moulds of 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches in diameter.

I have seen one hollow-base wadcutter design in 2-1/2" that took 1st place in national competion many years ago.

Any hints on design? Shrinkage ratio hints?

Thanks,
Tim K (Cat Whisperer)

trk,
Shrinkage for wheelweight is about 0.0024". Add 0.001" for pure lead.

Not having a lot of experience with cannons, other that short barreled revolvers, I can't offer any other advice, but I'd be curious to learn how your project turns out.

mountaingun -

Thanks for the point of reference on shrinkage! My first moulds will probably be cut from round bar stock - simply because of the ease of making them.

I've collected about half the parts for the radius cutter now, so this is probably a 3 to 6 month project before the first one gets done.

Tim K

Do-it molds makes a cannon ball sinker mould that is just over 1.5". After casting I put them in the lathe and turn a band around the middle so that it will fit down the bore.

At a Casper, WY shoot last year one of the guys was shooting what looked like a large air rifle pellet out of his rifled bore. All the smooth bore guys were shooting round balls.

Here's a link to do-it:
http://www.do-itmolds.com/products/sinkermolds.php?UID=20030830185116204.32.206.220&category=cannon_ball_sinker

You might have to cut and paste the address.

The 12 ounce ball is just over 1.5 and the 16 ounce one is around 1.75 if I remember correctly.

When I open the mould I can see that the ball shrinks some during cooling so they're not perfectly round.

Regards,
Cannonier Northern Colorado

At a Casper, WY shoot last year one of the guys was shooting what looked like a large air rifle pellet out of his rifled bore. All the smooth bore guys were shooting round balls.

I believe that was Dick Skiis (sp) from from up in this area. He has some design problems with that particular projectile I have been trying to help him with. Mainly, too hard of a projectile, diameter size too small, probably over length, and his gas check understanding was lacking. He will probably have it at an invitational up here this next month, and we'll see if it is shooting better. I believe it can be made into a real serious tack driver, if there is such a thing in that bore size, plus we have some nefarious ways of making grape shot group amazingly well.

I know a bunch of guys shooting BP cannon in the N-SSA. [n-ssa.org] A neet idea some use in a rifled gun is a plain conical flat base with a cup sorta like a gas check bolted backwards on base.Cup was about .080 or so thick steel about .5 deep.They used 3 5/16 cap screws to attach to a 3.00 x8"-9"long die cast or Al. projectile
I had a round ball mould for a smooth bore 2" by a buddy on cnc lathe.A concentric ring and groove on mould face provide lockup.I use a De stako clamp open and close mould.
I have one of cups around here somewhere.Heck I still have a rb mould in 2.0 and 2.25 too.

shooter 575

waksupi -
Cool idea to have it like the air-rifle pellets - because the thickness of the lead is relatively uniform and thin. This sidesteps a lot of the shrinkage issues! Mould would take more work to make, but if it's accurate it's worth it.

shooter575 -
I really like the concentric ring/groove idea for alignment - easy to do on a manual setup and it eliminates the need for through bolts or alignment pins. The De Stako clamp is good too.

I must say the gas check idea is bass ackwards as far as placing them backwards go, and
I'm sure this is a lot of Dick's,and others, problems. I believe there is some mis-interpretation of Civil War era papers that modern shooters are following. As a person involved in Indian artifact restoration and reproduction, we find many things that were assunmed that were incorrect, and were poorly researched at the original source, resulting in a mis-understanding until living archeaology changed what was accepted for nearly a hundred years.
Anyone who plays with cast bullets much will see this works absolutely against the concept of a perfect bullet base, as any weakness in the cup will cause irregularities, and inaccuracy. The cups must be made to fit the base as do the cast bullets we generally shoot. Placing the checks in a downwards position pretty much guarantees poor accuracy. If cannoneers wre using this methiod in combat, I believe the use was to facilitate loading in a heavily fouled condition.
The reversed cup may scrape some fouling from the barrel in loading, and slightly increase burn efficiency, but absolute accuracy was not the goal at Bloody Run or Shiloh. Rate of fire was.
I'm pretty tired tonight, after a month of 12-14 hour days seven days a week for the past month, but would be most interested in exchanging further ideas on this subject. I do believe I hear bed calling me.

Ric,
What I described as a gas check backwards functions more as a skirt on a minne. Expanding to engauge rifleing.This was not a civil war method though. Most CW rifled ML cannon used lugs cast to engauge.Some had a lead driving band cast onto rear of shell to expand.Most rounds were cast to be .100 undersized for easy and fast reloading.No wad or patch was used.By decreasing windage accuracy can be inproved a bit.

Shooter575