I finally found a good use for golf balls!

[Captain Lee Bishop]

This came in the mail on Wednesday from my father. He hand-casts stuff like this for fun. He'd made one for me, my brother and my nephew. Notice the golf ball projectile. It's made to fire them. Finally, I've found a real use for golf ball! If anyone cares, the pattern is a 1/3 scale Confederate coehorn mortar. I haven't gotten to fire it yet and probably won't until next weekend at the earliest. I've seen my nephew's mortar fired right after Dad made it (the first one he'd built) and the golf balls went about 100 yards (maybe a little further) at about the elevation shown in the photo, with a light load of powder. My brother has fired his and my nephew's one, and he swears with a hot load, the golf ball will go almost a quarter mile. Just in case anyone asks, Dad doesn't make anything to sell, as he's retired and once told me that he didn't want to turn a hobby into something that wasn't fun anymore. That being said, the man has skills.  This is his pride and joy, a hand-built, 3/4 M1841 6 pdr field gun.
He even made the wheel by hand as well, using tools that probably were not even in the same level as what they used in the 1800s! He's working right now on a breech-loading 30MM gun using hand-made (non-standard) cartridges and a pre-1900 breech block design, which also has a lot of bronze parts in the breech block area. It'll only be for shooting blanks, and it will be able to drop right onto the carriage for his 1841 gun. I've got to get back to Florida to shoot it when he's done with that!

[Bull Schmitt]

WOW!!!

Your father does some beautiful work!!


Col Bull

[Silent Joe]

A very nice piece of hobbywork. You can be proud on your Dad.

[Advertising]

[Pony Soldier]

Beautiful work, truely a real craftsman.  Has he ever made a gatling gun?

[Captain Lee Bishop]

A very nice piece of hobbywork. You can be proud on your Dad.

Funny you'd ask, he's been toying with the idea for years, but wouldn't make one you could re-enact with. He has bought several Chinese SKS barrelled actions and has a pretty clever idea of making a modern Gatling (if such a thing can exist). I keep telling him to get off his backside and build it...

[Silver Creek Slim]

Those are great.

Slim

[US Scout]

Back when I used to attend Rendezvous, a friend had a small cannon that were perfect for golf balls.  I had more fun shooting that cannon than I think is legal. 

I like that little 1841 your Dad made.  Well done!

US Scout
Bvt Brig Gen

[Black Powder]

the golf balls went about 100 yards (maybe a little further) at about the elevation shown in the photo, with a light load of powder.

It can replace my pitching wedge.  Any backspin, or do ya gotta allow for roll?  I suppose noise might be an issue (altho the sport's not as quiet as it used to be).

These are great.

BP

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Nice pieces!...........................

[minerotago]

The very best use for golf balls that anyone could think of! I love your dads workmanship and I am jealous! The funny thing is that I have quite  a lot of golf balls fly over our hedge and just accumulate them - now you have me thinking! In the past I did wonder if they would go down a log splitting gun but they dont but a home cast or turned replica cannon or mortar -yes thats the thing.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

OUTSTANDING!!

That cannon is a work of art!

[Bull Schmitt]

I have heard said that a golf course is the waste of a perfectly good rifle range!!

[Mustang Gregg]

Bull:

That statement is correct, Sir! 
Actually I have said that for years.
It really pisses some [golf-loving liberal] folks off, too.   

MG

[Deadeye Don]

To me it has nothing to do with being liberal or conservative.  I know plenty of both that love golf.  Personally, I think it is a fairly useless sport.  I agree the land could be put to much better use. 

[Marshal harpoluke]

 

[Black Powder]

Now hold on a sec, folks...  I've hated the game for the 40+ years I've been playing it, so I gotta ante up.

I have cut back on golf (so I could do CAS!), but in populated areas where the courses are where I live, you're not about to use the land for a range.  And many courses have gotten smart about watering and fertilizer.  Plus, they're a good habitat for wildlife.

And they're pretty.   

BP

[Captain Lee Bishop]

"Country clubs and cemeteries are the biggest wasters of prime real estate!"
-Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czervic in 'Caddyshack'

[Black Powder]

By tradition, watched every year at the beginning of the season!

[minerotago]

Love the comment that a golf course would be a good rifle range - made me remember when I was a little fellow Dad and his friend put me in the golf bag looking out over the top, snuggled in beside a Winchester pump action .22 and a couple of golf clubs, the idea being to go to the golf course to shoot rabbits in the pretext of playing a round of golf!
Back before the Political Correct brigade took over the country you could do those things in New Zealand!

[Mustang Gregg]

Very nice mortar, Pard.  He has talent. 

After looking a model cannons that fired 1/2 Coors cans full of concrete at a gunshow in Denver, I built a BP smoothbore 1.75" caliber to fire golf balls 20 years back.  It fired cast lead balls much more accurately than golf balls.  We used referigerator boxes & sheet rock for targets.

I did not finish it off nicely as your Pa did.  In fact, it was not a scale model of any real cannon.  More of an experiment.

BUT IT WAS A BLAST!

MG