Four men were busted in New Jersey while allegedly planning to shoot bowling balls out of a cannon — sending a bomb team rushing to the site, according to reports Thursday.
-Frank
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See, in Tennessee or Kentucky, if you were going to do this a farmer would volunteer to let you use his field, the churches would set up tables to sell sweet tea and baked goods, and 12 other people would rush home to build their own cannons so there'd be a competition.
Fuck, the South is where we do anvil shoots - seriously, fire anvils into the air using black powder.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because it's fun, and illegal in Yankeeland...
We do that shit here in Arizona all the time. What's the big deal?
ReplyDelete"We don't know why someone should do this". Dumbasses. Because this, that's why. I just looked, and found several pounds of "explosive chemical" just sittin' there, waiting for a bowling ball. I'll be in the garage.
ReplyDeleteIt seems possible that this was those Jersey boys first foray into ballistics. In many parts of "flyover country", I figure your guess to be correct,with a strong possibility of cannon building and beneficial modifications.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention that. A guy just moved here to Eastern Tennessee to work where I work, and one of the first things he did was get a little piece of land north of Knoxville to use as a shooting range. It had a fair sized flat area, but was up against a hill as a backstop. The first weekend he went up there and did a little shooting a nearby farmer came by to see what he was doing. My friend was afraid that there would be a problem, but as soon as the farmer saw what he was doing, he offered a deal. If my friend would let him mow the hay from the place and do a little shooting himself, he would set up circular bales to hold targets. So, the next time he went up to go shooting, there were five huge circular bales at the end of the field, and five smaller bales up front to set things on, and a few bales scattered about to hide clay throwers.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds of the first time I brought my Florida raised wife home to East Tennessee to meet my family at Christmas time. She was amazed at all the guns that suddenly appeared from the backs of trucks when one of my cousins suggested that we go shootin’ in the holler. She said, “It wasn’t even planned. It’s like the just drive around all the time with guns in their trucks.” Poor, sweet Yankee.
DeleteIn New Jersey hollowpoint ammunition is illegal so it's no surprise they would freak out over something like this
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I used to make my own gun powder. At Urbani Drug store I would buy potassium nitrate (saltpeter) and powdered sulfur and grind my own charcoal. We had this old encyclopedia that gave me the formulas for different types of gun powder. When I look back at my lack of understanding , I shudder. I'm really surprised I didn't blow up when grinding the powder.
ReplyDelete"...it wasn't clear why" the men wanted to shoot bowling balls from an "old-school weapon"? The same reason people launch pumpkins and refrigerators from a home-built trebuchet. Because this is America.
ReplyDeleteYears ago knew a guy who built a cannon out of pipe. Ammo was those perforated wiffle balls filled with concrete. He sent me one video. It was pretty damn accurate. Anvil shooting is baddass. Seen many videos wanted to do it but 2 matching anvils to expensive for my tightass. Tannerite, thats another story that ended when you could no longer make 40 lb bulk purchases directly from Dan Tanner.
ReplyDeleteBomb squad?? Really??
ReplyDelete"...wasn’t clear why"??
Gebus, weren't these people ever kids?
That, right there, shows the huge cultural gulf between a place like New Jersey and Kentucky or Tennessee.
But then again, the reporter's story is stupid. Those guys were probably busted more for the drugs than the cannon and explosives. Seriously, "...a box of a powdery black “explosive chemical”, sounds exactly like black powder to me, a perfectly legal substance around these parts.
There is this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buckstix.com/CoehornMortarHunt.htm
and then there is that too...
http://www.buckstix.com/howitzer.htm
The howitzer is for use in those areas where rifles are not permitted for deer hunting but shotguns are.
But more importantly, why not?
Phil B
Why would anyone do that?
ReplyDeleteBecause it's there!
- Zombie George Leigh Mallory
Heh.."first foray into ballistics"?
ReplyDeleteI was a 15-year-old brat on an Army base I can't name, that snuck out with a bunch of other fools, a roll of prime-a-cord, or det-cord as some remember, 20 or 30 lbs of TNT short blocks (1/4#???) and a box of electric caps thrown in the "laundry bag" for good measure.
A static spark would've vaporized 5 kids from **HS in 1964 or so...We found (we knew where it was!) a 3.5" rocket range, the old "bazooka" with an old gutted tank hull, shot to crap from AP small arms, lotsa blast and shrapnel damage.
"Tamp some of those blocks under the turret, we'll blow it off!" Ha! No we didn't! but we left some blocks near enough to catch fire, but not explode. Old dipstick had to take them home with him, which is how we got caught.
I blew up more crap as a military dependent than as 3-year soldier...love the smell of cordite in the morning!