Witnessed 859 caliber gun being shot this weekend

[r6vr6]

Home made bowling ball cannon - beyond amazing

So we just finished up our spring man weekend. A friend made a bowling ball cannon\ howitzer that was beyond awesome. Enjoy the video.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoHP5A0x6PE[/ame]

 

[shibumiseeker]

Need pics of the impact!

Also, that should be 8.59 caliber, as an 859 caliber weapon could not be towed by a truck

 

[Slawburger]

I have seen videos of bowling ball cannon/mortar before and wondered about the flight path. Bowling balls have a weight in the core. The weight can be symmetrical or asymmetrical (even pancake style). Part of what makes the ball "hook" or curve on the lane is the location of the finger holes and the off-center location of the weight. If the off-center weight changes the path of travel on the lane, what does it do in the air? Does the ball/projectile "hook" or travel on a normal arc? Either way, you can't help but grin when you see one these.

Edit: Silly auto-correct. It never guesses what I am typing correctly.

 

[superman63086]

All I can say is I want to come see this thing in action, however I am slightly curious to know if the inner weight affects the trajectory as well.

 

[kludge]

Also, that should be 8.59 caliber, as an 859 caliber weapon could not be towed by a truck

It's common to drop the decimal point when talking about caliber, since it's understood that we're talking about decimal inches.

 

[shibumiseeker]

It's common to drop the decimal point when talking about caliber, since it's understood that we're talking about decimal inches.

For relatively common or known rounds sure, but for an oddball (see what I did there?) it's useful to use the proper designation since from the title alone I initially interpreted it as a .859 AFAIK there is no SAAMI spec on bowling ball cannon.

 

[indy1919a4]

My God that was beautiful.... Much better then a BB mortar...

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I don't think the asymmetrical mass distribution would affect the path through the air much, as the ball is very smooth, especially if you were to plug the holes and smooth them over. It might cause it to wobble if you got it spinning much on the wrong axis, though. The bowling ball hooks on the lane because it's in contact, and has something to get some traction on, like a golf ball has dimples to get traction in the air.