Medieval Golfball Handgonne Battle Axe

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25cschaefer

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I built this for fun. I made the barrel from scrap in a night machine class last semester and bought the maddock axe for $20 from the local hardware store. The chamber holds about 60grs of powder and will launch a golfball 200-300yds. I filled the chamber to the top with powder and then compressed it down with a 1/4 12ga wad wrapped in tape until it was flush and popped a golfball in with a strip of electrical tape around the circumference (to add a little tension). I had to use a primed touchhole and a torch because nobody sells fuse in town and it was raining and windy. This thing is so much fun, I need to find an open minded golf course.

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Click on the bottom picture and it is suppose to take you to photobucket to watch a very short video of me shooting it by hand for the first time.
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25schaefer - I remember that project. All I made were tools in night machine. I'll bring you some fuse the next time we meet. Beer Can Mortar Part Deux?
 
You are a strange but interesting person. Thank you for posting.

How far does it shoot (on average?)
 
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Thanks guys

Gary, the wife just got a job up in MT so we will be moving will should probably be gone by the middle of next month. I'll be out of town 'til the tenth so I don't think it'll work this go 'round unless you came down today for a fun day at Prator, I was telling Dan about your mortar and since we figured out the secrets of compression, he is excited.
 
25cschaefer said:
I was telling Dan about your mortar and since we figured out the secrets of compression, he is excited.
Click to expand...

I'm interested in the mysterious secrets of compression of which you speak.

Seriously, I see you're using Pyrodex in this handgonne. I was always told that Pyrodex works poorly in cannons/mortars. Have you solved this problem?

Thanks,

-John
 
I didn't realize that they had propane torches back in medieval times ! ! ! ! :D

That is simply way too cool.

For dry days what about using a match cord to touch it off instead of a fuse? It would be a little more instant that way. And more historically accurate as well. A source for a suitable cord that burns in the desired manner is dethermalizer fuse that you can buy from FAI Model Supply.

http://domino-35.prominic.net/A55C2D/fai.nsf/nav?OpenForm&section=9556CDB4D208599E86257A260008706A

I'd suggest the 14 foot pack of the UK fuse. It's a little smaller than the 1/4 inch diameter domestic Sig fuse. To use it you want to blow on the end to blow away the ash and fire up the glow then you'd quickly touch it to the priming powder.

The fuse burns at the rate of around 1/4 inch per minute. If you install it into a tin with a small diameter metal tube sticking out it'll auto snuff itself when the fuse burns into the tube and can't get any air. That's how we snuff the fuse in our models so they don't fall clear and start any grass fires. You can typically find the right size of brass tubing at model airplane or model railroad shops. It should be a snug fit and you'll want to use a tapered awl to slightly flare the ends to make inserting and pushing the fuse through the tube easier.

A question about the chamber. So you have the rear portion sized down to pretty much a 12Ga diameter and then a bigger forward portion to hold the ball?

Instead of a strip of tape around the ball I'd suggest a strip of old bed sheet. It'll fall away and with a bit of care be recovered to use again.

Is that 200 to 300 yards with no bounce? Or the total run? And how much elevation angle to you typically use?

And can a mattock howitzer be far in the future? :D
 
Okay, I have some 'splaining to do.
Yes I was using Pyrodex and at first I just dumped the chamber full and dropped a ball in, the balls I have used so far have been about .010" smaller than bore (I heard golf balls vary in size up to .050"). When I touched it off, it just sizzled and made a bunch of smoke, the ball rolled out of the bore about 10ft.

We tried a 12ga wad, just snug, and it went about 12ft. A wrapped wad, that was tight and held the charge down, it went about 40ft.

So, with a tightwad and a strip of tape on the ball, the ball was snug and could be pushed in with some force from my thumb, we got full ignition.

We had the gonne on the rail road ties, resting on the spade portion, so it had that little bit of elevation. It shot over a 10ft berm 60yds away and we lost sight of it before it started to fall.

Laying it level on the ties, it hit ten feet in front of the berm, skipped up and hit the berm, and went orbital.

In the video, about level at hip height, the ball struck the berm at 60yds 8ft from the ground. Testing on a flat plane is in order to measure the actual distance fired but with the speed at which it is hitting the berm, 200 is a short estimate.

Bed sheets are the next test, do you know if they will start on fire? or should I grease them to be safe?

BCrider, you are correct about the chamber, I don't remember the actual size because I just grabbed a drill bit out of the tool room and drilled it about that deep. I measured the volume with vermiculite, it was handy, and found it to be 58gr in a Lyman measure.
 
Black powder can be so much fun. I have a mortar I stuck together once, and looking for a suitable projectile I went through the canned goods section at Wal Mart and settled on the larger cans of generic chunky chicken noodle soup. This has become the projectiles of choice and I don't shoot anything but chicken soup. The cans hold together most of the time, but occasionally one blows and it puts a nice smell of soup in the air and you can find the noodles out to about 75 yds or so. I settled on a 35 mm film canister of 2f and it will put a can almost out of sight vertically and still get out to about 150/175 yds.
I didn't build in a powder chamber, I just stick through some fuse, drop the powder on it and put in a ball of tin foil to hold it all in one place...sort of.
My wife thinks it's a little immature, but I enjoy it.
 
Gotcha!

So it would seem that at least something in the way of a tightwad (I've got a few friends that could be used :D) is needed for something to hold the powder down firmly and for long enough for at least some minimal pressure build. Good to know.

I doubt you will have any issue with bed sheet as a patch. Us folk that are shooting old tyme front stuffers use cotton patches all the time and when recovered the only black I've seen is where the patch rubs the rifling and it picks up some black fouling off the lands and grooves. The part in behind the ball isn't touched. Mind you I don't know how much of the moisture in the patch lube gets into there. If you're worried about it then dampen the patches with something. It'll be fine for sure if you do. There's lots of recipes but an easy one that I like is a 1:3 mix of Ballistol:water . It makes a milky like suspension that cleans the bore nicely and when the water evaporates it leaves a trace of the Ballistol.

And if you don't have Ballistol already then you should get some. Other oils will react with the Pyrodex or black powder residue to become a tarry, sticky mess. Ballistol is one of the few oils that is black powder and BP substitute friendly in that way. It softens instead of hardening the fouling.
 
Thanks BCRider, I will get some after we complete our move to Montana.

No Pato, that was really, really big rain drops, one reason I had to use a tourch and not a match.

Is there anything I need to go see or look out for while I'm in south Germany? Black powder wise or other?
 
Went out with 4v50Gary today to shoot some big BP guns, we shot his beer can mortar and the golf ball launcher, we had a blast.

We used bed sheets to shoot the PGBs (Patched Golf Balls) and it worked very well, much easier and faster to load. Plus, more room for powder; in fact, if I filled it over full so that the ball could compress the powder, it was much more powerful.

I tried some FFF Goex and found it better than Prodex if you don't pack it but still anemic, packed tight it had plenty of power. Results were a little unpredictable, one shot went completely orbital with painful recoil (resting on my hip) for no apparent reason, sometimes it would fall at about 50yds.

I was just pouring it by eye into the chamber, I think this was most of the problem, that and compression. I think I was getting false readings when packing it with a dirty bore.

The most impressive, repeatable fast load, was about 20gr of 4F and the rest of the chamber, slightly over filled so that the ball compressed it, with 3F.

I shot at a target, 5yds away from the shoulder like a rifle, and it hit high completely smashing a 2x2, ripped it away from the two vertical posts, split it in half and splintered much of it. The ball continued until it skipped over the berm 80yds away. I shot again, missed high, the ball bounced off a RR tie 50yds away and came back to about 15ft from the firing line.
 
Note to self: No patches from bedsheets for the beer can mortar. In a drier environment, it can start a fire. Two 8 mm Mauser cases filled with 2F will launch a plaster filled beer/soda can about 50 yards. Three 8 mm Mauser cases of 2F generally launches them about 90 yards. With a favorable wind, it can go over 100 yards.

One of the younger guys suggested we fill a beer can with golf balls (ala grape shot). I said no. The can needs a certain amount of plaster to make it rigid on the bottom. If it's too weak, the bottom of the can will blow out and the golf balls would not go very far. I learned that years ago when I filled a can with loose dirt. Got my first dirt shower that way.

So, now I'm going to cut the top off a tall beer can and pour about 1" of plaster down it. That one we can fill with golf balls. Fore!
 
Used to be a bit of BP stuff around Swabisch Halle. Big annual BP shoot used to be there. Do research before going though as that was 40 years ago for me.

-kBob
 
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