AllisterF Posted July 8, 2017 Posted July 8, 2017 Has anyone built a black powder salute cannon that used common plastic shotgun wads or plastic gas seals instead of say paper towels or what not? It's any idea I have been tossing around in my head to try for a few years now... Basically make the salute cannon bore a tight fit for whatever common shotgun wad caliber, then slightly taper out the muzzle end of the bore so that the wad could more easily be started, but still have a tight fit once packed down... Curious if anyone has tried it and if so, did it produce a decent report for it's caliber?
dynomike1 Posted July 9, 2017 Posted July 9, 2017 I dont see why it wouldnt work. I had rather have a wad in there than a paper towel, especially a wet one. It shouldn't have to fit all that tight.
lloyd Posted July 9, 2017 Posted July 9, 2017 I would guess that it's going to take a bit more containment than only a plastic wad will provide. It might work, though, if it was tight enough. However, maintaining close tolerances in a BP weapon in the field is a bit of a chore. Lloyd 1
davidh Posted July 9, 2017 Posted July 9, 2017 If your cannon is the right diameter, I bet these would work great. They work great in black powder blanks. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/198066/bpi-shotshell-wads-12-gauge-1-2-fiber-bag-of-500
AllisterF Posted July 10, 2017 Author Posted July 10, 2017 If your cannon is the right diameter, I bet these would work great. They work great in black powder blanks. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/198066/bpi-shotshell-wads-12-gauge-1-2-fiber-bag-of-500 Yeah that is another option if you make the cannon a common shotgun caliber... I know that one could argue that packing in some crumpled paper is not that troublesome or too much hassle, but I just like the simplicity of using something over the counter that is clean and consistent between loads... Plus I figure if there is ever a dud round, soak the powder through the fuse hole then a common muzzle loading bullet puller could easily extract a shotgun wad... Again I admit that extracting a bunch of crumpled paper isn't too much of a hassle, but just the same... Looks like I might pursue this someday, way too busy with other stuff right now to machine out a custom cannon barrel, as I know that if I'm going to go through all the trouble, I'm probably going to go all out and make a whatever scale field cannon or ship cannon replica...
dynomike1 Posted July 16, 2017 Posted July 16, 2017 I would go with a paper wad, the thing about them you can use them in other things like caps for Crossetts or i also use them to close the report end of serpents.
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