SpudFiles

The cannon I am working on will likely feature a 2 1/2" ID barrel. Look what I found.

http://www.craftparts.com/10-rb2500-p-2422.html

Not TOO expensive either. $1.80 each? That sounds really cheap for what your getting. Its a badass wooden cannon ball! They can be bought in bags of 100 for about $130. Plus, these might be retrievable.

Moonbogg:

Only you with wooden balls!

that is 1/20th of my monthly income

Nice, but how well would wooden balls perform as ammunition. Admittedly, they're not any worse than tennis balls when it comes to density, but if you're looking for destruction, I'd look elsewhere.

See if they sell pressure treated balls.

Kinda lightweight ain't they?

jrrdw wrote:Kinda lightweight ain't they?

I agree. I don't think they would be heavy enough to do any real damage of even fly very far.

You could order the center drilled balls and fill them with lead.
How they would behave in flight is another question.

Yeah I'm with the rest... I don't think its a good idea.

Lightweight..sure. But how much damage are you looking to cause? My old pvc gun puts 1 1/4" neoprene balls through 3/4" spruce construction ply at 10yards...2 1/2" hard wood balls are going to be plenty of fun at typical spuddy ranges.

For extended ranges....maybe look into those nifty compound rounds.

My .02?

Give it a try.

I know they might be light, but still much heavier than a tennis ball. I bought a bag of 10 to try them out and I bought the tube for my new barrel, so now I am committed. I am not too interested in damage for the typical range trip. Something tells me those balls will still fly fast out of sight. Time will tell.
I did consider drilling a large hole and filling with lead and then sealing with EPOXY.

Hahaha I knew as soon as I hit the submit someone would bring up a tennis ball to compair with. If you think about it the wood balls are probably heavier. This should be very interesting...

I think they are going to curve quite a bit when fired, but its worth a shot. Hope it works out the way you want it too, but it just seems to me they will be too light! Good luck!!

I'm with Gippeto. My hybird can put a 10g ball of tin foil through 1/2" plywood (never bothered to try anything thicker) from 15'. A wooden ball can cause plenty of destruction.

mattyzip77 wrote:I think they are going to curve quite a bit when fired....

They will. Any spherical projectile will wander given enough range. I shoot 1.250" ball bearings (134 gm) at 1kpsi. They begin to wander at about 100 yards. Obviously, projectile weight will not prevent a spherical projectile from drifting.

I expect them to wander pretty hard. But, occasionally I might get lucky and have one go straight, like the occasionally lucky golf ball. I was mainly attracted to them because they look like cannon balls and they are a close match to the barrel. Maybe I can use one to make a casting and cast some sort of goop-like material for ammo.