Slap Hammer, or Cannon Lock

[hotfxr]

So it is wet and cold (at least for us it is), my beloved bride is up having a girls weekend at our friend's ranch and I was a bit bored today. Now usually that means I am going to get into some kind of trouble, but today I figured to do something productive. Not as productive as say, cleaning up my shop (so I can see the floor again), organizing my tools, or finish digging out and clearing the french drain out back so I won't have a lake in my back yard. No I decided to make a hammer for the cannon. Going through a drawer of misc parts I found a solid brass sash cord pulley that spoke to me. It said I can be part of your cannon lock. With a piece of brass rod and part of an inactive door dead bolt, taps & dies, and a bit of solder, viola!





Total cost, $0.00! Now that's cheap.

It is set up on a practice block of wood and there is a hole drilled in the front that I put powder in. A #11 cap, 25 grains of 3f, a quick pull and smoke & fire blasted out the front. All in all a good day. Now if I could only find a few hundred RWS 4 eared musket caps I would be in business. I tried to buy the one box of 100 ($11 I might add, only twice what it should be) that Sportsman Warehouse had, but when I got to checkout, the $6 shipping wasn't so bad, but the $25 hazmat fee plus a $3 shipping surcharge put it right out of the sane and affordable arena. I guess I will keep cruising the gun shops and hopefully will find someone that has a box or two of the caps for sale, at only two to three times MSRP and pick them up then. For now, I have no problem using the fuses. Just ask the Badger man.

[Watauga]

Nice! One of my favorite things is to take Scrap, odds and ends and make something Cool and Useful . 
Plus this offers Remote Badger Control   

[beowulf]

looks like we have a regular MacGyver here ! 

[hotfxr]

Actually, although this works OK, I am going to try to find the correct size spiral spring, make another one, and use a dog leg lever on the side for release. That way it will only take a light touch to set it off, and more importantly, it can be fired from the side. The better to see the fear in R.B.s eyes if he ever tricks me into challenging him to another duel.

[hotfxr]

Some times, despite all efforts and indications, something goes right every once in a while. Realizing that trying to mail order musket caps was going to be pricey for the near future, whilst driving about between home and two small jobs, I stopped at a couple of gun shops just to see if anyone had anything related to black powder in the wan hopes of finding some musket caps and if found would not force me to refinance the house to buy them. At the store of an old buddy that ceased being a buddy once he opened up said store (He went from the most laid back person I knew to a raving screaming lunatic) I found out that 1, he had been bought out and the store was now run by someone who is universally unliked and now I will never enter that store again and 2, there were 4 cans of musket caps on a shelf that were part of a consignment. Two were full and two were about half full and they went for four bucks for the bunch. So now I am set for caps for the old hammer.



So after I paid for the caps and put them into my truck, I did, in most friendly way, go back into the store and informed him (as was my duty) that he could have gotten $20 a piece for the cans and wished him a good day. off to install parts and test them out.

[flintboomer]

Being Alcan caps they are pretty old, but well worth the price if they work. Don't be surprised if they aren't very consistant in power level or don't work. I used to have some Navy Arms brand that didn't always make the gun go boom and they were only 15-20 years old. Those Alcan caps are at least twice that old.

[Patocazador]

Just spring for a Hubbard Mag-spark and convert to 209 primers. I put one on my Hawken and can now shoot Blackhorn 209 in it. It just about eliminates the possibility of corrosion if not cleaned immediately and guarantees a BOOM if the primer is good.