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I was president and CTO of a small company that sought to produce an alternative propellant/black powder replacement. Actually black powder burns faster than smokeless powders. Doesn't reach same high pressures, though, and pressure does not affect burn rate of black as it does so greatly with...

There ain't no Patterson The name was & is Paterson, after the Paterson, NJ, factory where the Colt designed guns were made. And Sam Houston had a pair of them with him at San Jacinto, where Texas won her independance from Mexico by beating Santa Anna in a very short battle.

I Shot very well with a 50 cal using 54 cal balls! Yes, it was a bit of a challenge to short start, and the round ball was no longer round (spherical, actually) but was a 50 cal bullet with round base and nose of whatever shape the short starter was. Still, it shot very well.

Wrinkles always mean mould is too cool and pouring rate is too fast. I always get best results holding sprue cutter tight against spout and letting pressure dwell a few seconds befor withdrawing.

I wanted one very much...until I saw an authentic Hawken rifle. 1974 that was. I paid more for a kit of parts than I'd pay for a new TC "Hawken". Never looked back nor regretted. Still I must say I've seen some folks shoot very well with their TCs. I shot my first ans won many prizes with it...

They will be a bit harder to start, but will then ram home with little to no increased effort. I have even shot 54 cal balls in a 50 cal rifle. Hard to start, yes! But shot very well! Goes in round, but comes out elongated!

Kind of an old thread, but here goes anyways. I'm a Whitworth nut. I have a cannon I made from a 40mm Bofors AA gun barrel back in 1966 using the best pics I could get then. Have won some matches with it! Looks right externally, but not in the bore. Now I want to make a smaller scale model...

The case is CLEARLY a home-made addition. Not terrible, just far from professional.

Would love to see pix of this.

Howdy "Mad Monk" Great to see your smoke signals again after so many years! Our experiments with ascorbic/nitrates based powders produced a lot of interesting information and pretty neat stuff. Unfortunately, the economics were way off for commercialization.

The clearance (windage) between bowling ball & cylinder walls leaves little clearance for coatings or fouling. This is fortunate, as this requires wiping the bore with a damp towel between shots so you can load the next ball. Cylinders come with an internal coating already in place. There's no...

I will not do your engineering for you, but assure I know a lot about this. There are a few different specs of gas cylinders suitable, size-wise, for making a bowling ball mortar or howitzer. Look it up. The heaviest is probably best, as its wall is thickest (though only by about 1/16th inch)...

In many years I have never seen or had a chain fire...ever. I hear folks say lube over the ball prevents such, to which I say BS! A proper fitting ball will seal the muzzle end w/o fail. Surely someone has captured video of a chain fire. I wanna see that.