Its a 1860's style 12 pound Mountain Howitzer cannon. 4 and 5/8 inch bore. A 2 litre pop bottle fits nicely into the barrel, and we've fired a 2 litre bottle full of 1 inch ball bearings before and lemme tell ya... a hundred or so 1 inch ball bearings fired out of a cannon is AWESOME! We generally shoot 1 pound of FFFg black powder. Or sometimes Half pound of said powder, and half pound of coal dust. Ususally at LEAST a 25ft flame out the barrel. And has a Maximum Area Target Effective Range of almost 2 miles, Maximum Point Target Effective Range is approximately 3/4 mile -- IF LOADED WITH SOLID SHOT. If loaded with grape-shot (sorta like a shotgun) then it has a maximum effective range of approximately 100 yards, approximately 45 yard spread at 100 yards.
The cannon is also about 85% hand made. The barrel is a 777B rock truck suspension tube. Machined out, bored a firing chamber into it, welded trunyons onto the sides of the barrel, and added a hole for a friction primer to set it off.
The carriage it sits on was a large block of wood acquired from a Saw Mill. It was cured, cut down to the rough size of what my father needed it to look like with a chainsaw, then used a set of hand planers to finish it.
All in all it took my dad over a year to make. But it is 100% authentic and period for the 1860's. And my dad made everything on it except for the wheels, we bought them as they are extremely hard to make yourself
1st pic includes lawn mower for size reference, second pic shows hand for barrel bore reference.
Easily fits into full size pickup bed, weighs in at about 600 pounds. Barrel alone weighs about 200.
