davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
cannon ball
- Thread starter davidlhyde63366
- Start date
Wings63
Junior Member
You beat me to it. Cool find? Things that make you go......hmmm errr... BOOM! Glad no one was hurt.
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
can you imagine if they hit it with rocks or some thing hard.
jeepcollector
Junior Member
Wow. Food for thought.
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
have to think some of the gunpowder in that cannon ball could of been real unstable. big boom. Would of been a pretty exciting find for those kids , wonder what else is to be found in that area .
Soil Surgeon
Forum Supporter
Makes you wonder if there are any more around that vicinity .
7centsworth
Forum Supporter
It takes a lot to make one go off. Think about it, they were carried in the back of wagons on rutted out dirt roads. I have heard of a lot of people getting them drilled out and keeping them.
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
Doesn't the black powder become unstable after a number of years ?
worm12ga
Elite Member
Not really. It usually degrades in a harmless manner. It can still go off, but not easily.
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
good to know.
Soil Surgeon
Forum Supporter
I remember reading about this when it happened . I didn't realize it was so long ago .
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/news/civil-war-2.html
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
interesting article
EmuDetector
Forum Supporter
Agree. The powder by all means is considered explosive and therefore dangerous. But it doesn't deteriorate like old tnt, where that develops explosive crystals and issues with just moving it. This powder is made above the standards of normal black powder, it needed to survive the concussion of the ordinance firing, then explode under a controlled fuse. Have people been injured trying to drill and handle them? Yes. But there's plenty of research to do it the right way and plenty of people do it. Don't be the bubba in the woods with a black and decker just hammering into it. There's also people you can pay to do it for you, you'd need to just drive it over to them.
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
live civil war cannon ball
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/b...l-found-in-maryland/ar-BB1f3uwF?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/b...l-found-in-maryland/ar-BB1f3uwF?ocid=msedgntp
Huckleberry
Elite Member
Years ago I found what I thought was a cannonball. It was about the size of a baseball and had a flat spot on it about the size of a nickel. If you shook it, you could hear something inside, and I assumed that was gunpowder. Don't know what ever happened to it, it just kinda "disappeared" one day.
georgeinsc
Elite Member
Black powder that has gotten wet and then allowed to dry out is more unstable and more highly volatile than any that has not gotten wet and then dried out.
A friend was visiting a lowcountry family and they had a cannon ball as a door stop. He asked if the thing had been checked to make sure it was stable and the answer was no. They had an EOD TEAM check and it was highly volatile and make a very large boom when they blew it up.
A friend was visiting a lowcountry family and they had a cannon ball as a door stop. He asked if the thing had been checked to make sure it was stable and the answer was no. They had an EOD TEAM check and it was highly volatile and make a very large boom when they blew it up.
