Just a fun memory to share...

[TimboKhan]

A response on another post brought up a cool story from my pre-teen years that I thought you guys might get a kick out of.

So, my dad and his buddies decided to build a cannon. A pretty big cannon. Once built, we spent many happy hours out in the plains blasting pretty much whatever we could fit down the tube out of it. I can remember my dad would send me into the town dump to find lysol cans, because they apparently were the perfect diameter and were the preferred ammunition. I can also remember my dad buying a whole lot of cannon fuse. I swiped some, and my friends and I had a delightful time lighting it on fire and watching it burn. Eventually, the town cops decided that my dad and his buddies didn't need a cannon, so they politely suggested that they get rid of it, immediately. My dad and his buddies ended up giving it to the JayCees, who in turn donated it to Fort Lupton High School, where it is still in use today. After every touchdown at home football games, they fire that bad boy off. If, for some mysterious reason, you ever happen to be in Fort Lupton, CO for a football game, you will now know the story of the cannon!

By the way, the timeframe on this story is mid to late 1970's.....

 

[hacksaw]

That is a VERY cool story. One of my fathers friends had a cannon, a reproduction of a civil war field oiece I believe. He lived on the Long island sound. Every 4th of July it was flaming tennis balls getting launched into the bay! Big fun.

 

[NeoSpud]

I love building cannons, though all of mine are PVC and run off of propane

Great story! Makes me want to try BP cannonry

 

[Mr White]

My uncle used to have a cannon. He'd shoot pint paint cans full of ? out into Lake Erie when we were there on vacation.

 

[crankshop1000]

Cant have a plastic knife in a lunch kit but the school has a cannon.Kind of ironic.My kids can't believe it when I tell them we used to bring guns and ammo to school and keep them in our lockers so we could hunt right after school. The only rule was don't load the guns till we were outside.Ahhhhhhh for the olden days... Chuck.

 

[TimboKhan]

you know, I graduated in 1990, and at my little rural school we did the same thing. The vice-principal at the time actually went hunting with us! I returned back to the school in 1995, and I was shocked at how things had changed. Certainly no one was bringing shotguns to school, but there were so many other changes: Security guards. Locks on the lockers. Random drug sniffing dog searches. We didn't have any of that stuff. I don't know what changed from 1990 to 1995, but it was really pretty dramatic.

 

[230RN]

I remember them using black powder cannons to start sailing races off Flushing Bay in Long Island Sound. I guess nowadays they mostly use propane cannons.

So I Googled "propane cannons" and I guess mostly they're used as bird repellants. But in that search I also found this:

http://www.banthecannons.com/

Oh, you poor dears...

There's a link in there about some guy using a laser to scare the birds, too....

http://www.banthecannons.com/lasers.html

Wisecracks about that one are invited.