How far have you ever launched a golf ball?

I started this project several months ago with the original bore in the barrel. This is 4" round stock bored with a smooth bore of 1 11/16" in a 42" barrel. Unfortunately I wasn't there and it's bored completely through. So, I need to slice off about a 3" piece of the 4" round stock, 45 the edges on one end of the barrel, one side of the round stock and weld it together. To insure strength, I'll use some relatively rare 3/8" 7024 rods, as shown, to attach. You can also see in my picture that I finally got around to mounting my old vice on my welding table...2 years after I made the table.

Anyway, before I bore the nipple hole for the fuse I can take it to a friend's hydraulic shop and he can give it a test of all the pressure his machines can put out. I don't expect my weld to fail, but I'd rather it fail in a controlled situation if it's going to fail.

Anyway, even after cleaning up the end of the barrel after the pressure test, I'll still have a full 42" left. Any guesses how far 2 pounds of black powder would push a golf ball? I have a minimum of a 6 mile range up at my other property. I'm sure it won't go nearly that far. Guesses?

After putting a little thought and no math at all to this quesiton, I'll take a WAG that it will fly 1/2 mile before hitting ground.

Cool project. Good pics.

What would Feathered1 say about you being irresponsible?

Have you considered the consequences of corrupting your children's minds with a project like this?

Did you file a letter with the local school system indicating that you are building a uber-glorified spud gun?

Now, for 2 serious issues:
-- Could that be mounted on a Snow Trac?
-- How far away is that pesky rooster?

-- Can I have one?

I promise not to dent any Snow Tracs with it, I prefer moving targets!

WTF!!!????? Dargo.....A NIKE BALL????? Come on! Get a box of top flight or something.
Looks like a great project! haha I bet you blow the skin right off the ball.

Ha! Oh yeah, I invite anybody to post a picture of a bigger nut if they have one!

It measures a full 8" across and weighs 19 pounds.

rico304 said:

I bet you blow the skin right off the ball.

Click to expand...

Hopefully the skin will stay on the golf ball. Those dimples all over the exterior surface of the golf ball increase its aerodynamic efficiency and allow it to fly much farther!

DARGO I take everything smart ass I said about you back! Your my kinda guy! You will never know how far because you will NEVER SEE it again! Also go with a yellow or pink ball. The back side IF you ever find it years later (not likely) will be scorched black but you may actually see it in flight for a few Nano seconds. It will go at least 3 miles!

So Dargo, hopefully your going to have somebody video this? it would be fun to watch!

WW is absolutely correct on this. If you dont we will protest and use your face as our new Avatar! LOL.

Gees, I must be getting soft in my old age. It took me about 3 hours to draw out a plan for some steel wheels, cut them out with my plasma cutter, scrap them, and then the rest of the time to cut out a 6" section of solid 4" rod to be welded to the end of the barrel. Dang if it's not somewhat difficult to cut a 6" section out of 6" rod and have it all squared up and straight; even out of old stock!

Here is a (again, phone pic) picture of that piece. However, it's almost kick off time for the Colts vs. Pats game....can't miss that!


Hmm, pics won't upload now. Later I guess...

Dargo, I was shown something very similar to what you are making a couple of years ago. The guy who made it could shoot a golf ball far enough to loose sight of it and never see it again.
He also said that with a little work a pigs foot could be loaded, and shot over quite a long distance!

I dont know what explosive he was using, but I dont think it was gun powder.

When I was young a neighbor and I built one for marbles. We just used a 1/2" black pipe with a cap on the end. The end had a small hole drilled in it for a fuse from a firecracker. The first time we shot it, straight up in a residential area we never did know where the marble went. One night on a still night we shot it up straight again and used a stop watch, we heard it hit a neighbors roof about 45 seconds later. We think we know which neighbors it was but we didn't investigate or try and retrieve the marble.


murph

Okay, let's see if I can upload the picture of the 6" long solid 4" thick steel rod I cut off for the breech of the golf club.

I'll have to bevel one end of it at a 45 degree angle as as well as one end of the other part of the golf club to insure that they are properly attached. Oh well, I'll post more pics of the progress later if anyone wants to see the progress. If not, are roosters good eatin'? I'm not sure how much meat would be left though...

I'll take a SWAG and say that you will never find that golf ball to know the real answer.

Hmmm, a golf ball weighs about 1 1/2 oz.

I'm figuring 300 grains of 2F will get you probably 12-1300 fps. I wouldn't start with 2 pounds...

Ever think of making it saboted? I'm wondering if the bore isn't just right, a slight resistance will make the ball slice like a bad shot with a 9-iron.

Do they make "tracer" golf balls?

I have a mental picture of it. I figure it'll look pretty close to this when you're done.

bczoom said:

Hmmm, a golf ball weighs about 1 1/2 oz.

I'm figuring 300 grains of 2F will get you probably 12-1300 fps. I wouldn't start with 2 pounds...

Ever think of making it saboted? I'm wondering if the bore isn't just right, a slight resistance will make the ball slice like a bad shot with a 9-iron.

Do they make "tracer" golf balls?

I have a mental picture of it. I figure it'll look pretty close to this when you're done.

Click to expand...

Well, two thoughts; first, I just might have "tracer" golf balls as one side just may be on fire , next, ever putt too hard and putt through the break in the green? Maybe it would work the same way with the drive...

Dargo said:

Well, two thoughts; first, I just might have "tracer" golf balls as one side just may be on fire

Click to expand...

A good reason for a sabot.

Oh, my guess is 1/2 - 3/4 mile (depending on powder used).

To know for sure, you need to find the ball. To accomplish this, here's what I think you should do.
Put a piece of velcro on the ball. Put the opposite piece (so they stick together) on the back of your GPS. Load the ball in the cannon then tape the GPS to the end of the barrel. When the ball comes out, the velcro will attach and your GPS and they'll fly together. This way, you can keep track of altitude, velocity and distance traveled.

Dargo,

If your contraption can shoot your golf ball farther and more accurately than Mitzi at the Empress was able to shoot a ping pong ball then I'll buy you a beer!

PB

PBinWA said:

Mitzi at the Empress was able to shoot a ping pong ball

Click to expand...

My midget cannon (about 1/4 size) will fire a 12 gauge shotgun shell filled with whatever we stuff in the empty shell (mud, dirt, shot etc.) well over a mile and it only has a 12" long barrel and uses about 4 oz. of black powder per shot. The Ohio River is well over a mile wide at certain points by me and it doesn't take much of an arc to clear the river. Way back in college some fool peeled a golf ball down to the rubber bands and got it small enough to fit in the small cannon. It was sighted up on an empty barge tray on the opposite side of the river and fired. It apparently had enough power to fire the portion of a golf ball at least 2 miles because it came all the way back! Yeah, we put it away after that one...

With 4 times the barrel length and more than 4 times the power, it may go a dern fer piece if the golf ball stays together. They seem to be pretty tough though. I can't see it going anywhere near the 6 miles of guaranteed clear area though.

My uncle built a cannon a few years back. He used the down rigger hydraulic cylinder from a backhoe. He welded side lugs to it, and using a chiansaw and a big log, made a cradle. It was drilled for a fuse hole.

He started it as a 4th of July/New Years noise maker. Put 300gr of FF black powder in, and some patches to compress it a little; made a big bang; everyone thought it was cool.

A friend who worked at a golf course came by. Said the cylinder looked about like a golf ball size. So, they miked out a golf ball and the cylinder. Nice fit... So, they loaded one up, and blammo! It was GONE! So he started shooting these things off. His log/cradle never moved, so they fired in the same direction each time.

About a year later, another buddy, who did timber cruising, told him about finding golf balls scattered in the forest and a meadow about 1.5 miles away. golf balls seemed singed a little... they tried some colored balls; sure enough...

He also shot at a 1/2" plywood, at 100 yards. He had a box of rusty 1/4-20 nuts and bolts. Dumped them in there, and fired at the plywood. You could see where bolts went through sideways, and actually make out threads...

He moved back in to town, and the golf ball setup was scrapped...

Hey Brent, how about this?

http://lgweaponry.com/ad_sheets/gfa.htm

L&G GFA (Golfball Firing Attachment)

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Aluminum construction
Mil Spec Black Anodized Finish
Post Ban version also available

Pricing:
Thread on GFA for pre-ban rifles $65.00

Clamp on GFA for post-ban rifles and Ruger Mini 14 $130

Box of 20 GI Blanks $10.00


L&G Weaponry
Specialty AR-15 / M-16 Products
Tel 714-840-3772
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I found Dargo's long lost British relative!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVADKznOhY

Dargo, he's snickering at your little cannons too and says their quaint little American toys!

Well, I guess I'll give an update on my little "project" even though it hasn't been touched in a while.

After finishing the welding on the barrel and tapping in a fuse nipple I gave the barrel a test of 100,000 psi and it passed no problem. So, I fired exactly one golf ball from it (it's just a really heavy barrel right now - nothing else attached yet) into my shooting backstop. I have no idea how far it will shoot a golf ball, but it fired the golf ball more than 48" into the dirt backstop! I used a broom handle to see how far the golf ball went into the dirt (hole was easy enough to find) and the broom handle went all the way in and never hit the ball.

Seems to me like that would be a pretty hard hit based on the fact that most ammo only penetrates a few inches into dirt. Even better, that was only with about a half pound of black powder. I test fired it with up to a pound and a half without any hint of a problem. Oh yeah, it makes a rather big boom!

Thanks for the update. Sounds like you could make a very popular video for you tube shooting that thing.

I've just got a csv19 antenna launcher.
Antenna Launchers

I don't have the spool on the end, as I'm just seeing how far I can shoot a tennis ball. I'm over 100' at 100lbs. Nothing near as powerful as yours Brent, but something to play with.

Cool Doc. Never seen one of those before. I did make a really cool spud gun after dozens and dozens of design attempts. The final one was built with schedule 80 PVC (gray) which will hold considerably more pressure than the standard schedule 40. The only drawback is that it cost almost $300 in parts for the stronger, and safer, schedule 80 spud gun. Using starting fluid we could launch 1 1/2" apples (the barrel was made to cut the apples to fit when pressed in) just over 1500'. Any more power and we ended up making applesauce.

I had a spud gun also, but of the white schedule 40. We would use lighter fluid or hair spray for ignition. It was much more powerful than the antenna launcher. But after talking with a co worker I just had to try it out. I'll post a pic of it sometime.

My bro made a spud gun when we were in high school. See if I can draw the picture for you. We lived across the street from the school. The practice football field ran lengthwise from the North end of the exterior gymnasium wall
to the street in front of my parents house. Imaging HUGE wall at about 130 meters. I hate to think how many taters went SPLAT on that wall.

A Hydraulic repair shop that had a shop next to mine, built a "Cannon" that fired golf balls. They would fill it with a 12Ga. shotgun shell full of black power to fire it.

Their first test was in their shop at a piece of 1/2" Plywood, leaned up against a steel folding chair.... Well after the loud bang made me fall out of my desk chair, I ran over assuming they had blown up one of the welding hoses again...

When I got over there, they were standing around with the "Wiley E. Coyotie" look on their face in a dense haze of white smoke, basically stunned.

The golf ball went through the plywood, back of the steel flolding chair, hit a Steel "I" Beam and bounced 90 degrees and went though almost 40 feet of brand new parts in boxes on a shelf (holes in all of them), hit a big steel hydraulic test stand, then went though most of another row of parts (mostly thousands of "O"-rings) and ended up in a pretty expensive Hydraulic Oil Filter...

What did impress me was the ball looked in pretty good shape, concidering the "I" beam had a mark of almost double the size of the golf ball where it was flattened before taking off in the new direction.

A few weeks later they fired it again, but down by the Port of Anchorage to see how far it went before they saw a splash out in the Inlet.... They didn't see one and had to scoot before doing a second test shot, the police showed up for that blast too.... but they were long gone...

They figured the golf ball on the first shot took out about 6,000.00 in Parts, so for the amount invested verses distruction caused, it was pretty effective... Should pass it on to the military and get some contract worth the big bucks...

Could fire it into one to those concrete houses in Iraq, the golf ball would bounce around for ten minutes taking out anyone that put their head up... Real game of "Pong"....