This is not a serious project, at all. The line launching project is in it's final assembly stage and I could not resist using some of the parts for a quick test with a 3 inch barrel. By leaving the pressure chamber the full length of the piece of pipe that we had I had enough volume to shoot something big. It may not shoot very far but so what. This is all for fun anyway. I know, you don't have to tell me, the 3 inch barrel can't be fed through a 1.5 inch valve. And yes I know that it is not enough volume for the barrel length. Now, we have that out of the way! By the way, the overall length is 12'-8''.

2 May 98

The first thing I shot was a empty 15 oz bean can. Of course it did not go very far with so little mass, but it did go about 150 feet. Next I launched a 20 oz drink bottle full of water, then another. They both went about 200 yards. Also, a 15 oz bean can about 1/3 full of ice (solid). The open end was toward the valve. It flew pretty good and went about 150 yards. Here is a video(123k mpg). Then I put the empty can in with the open end toward the muzzle. In the can I put a potato. The can caught a lot of air after exiting the barrel and the potato kept going very fast. This 'can' method could be used for pushing any small objects or anything that will not seal in the barrel very well. I have no idea how far the potato went. Based on the height and the fact it was moving away more than up, I would guess it went between 300 and 400 yards. When I am through playing I will take the 3 inch barrel off and put the 2x30 inch barrel on. I will also cut the chamber down and recap it to be a little shorter than the barrel. Maybe first I will put a 1.25 inch barrel on it and fire some of my bullets out of it.

3 May 98

I fired a few more shots today. A 12oz pop can full of ice did a number on the old doghouse. I ask my wife if she had a can full of something she did not want. She handed me a 15oz can of white beans she said had been on the shelf for a long time and may not be good anymore. This gun is so big I have it hung on a rope from the rail around the top if my deck. So I had limits on what I could find to shoot. What about that tree just outside the fence. I doubt I can hit it but can't see anything else more inviting. I eye-balled down the barrel and jerked the valve handle. I don't know how this happened but the can flew without tumbling. There were three others watching and it was very clear that all anyone could see of the can was the bottom, as it flew toward the tree. It did hit the tree, a little off center. The can and beans went flying. I am sorry I did not have the video on it. There was a mark on the tree from the end of the can and this is what the pieces of the can looked like. The tree was a little over 45 yards away.

Frozen 20oz drink bottles full of water go pretty far but do tumble.

 4 May 98 Ice breaks concrete

I had to try that again. I fired a bean can full of ice at a slab of concrete. The concrete was the cover to a sand filter. It is about 2 inches thick with no wire in it. This time I got it on video(258k MPG).  My video editing software has a time read out in thousandths of a second. I started timing the frame before the muzzle blast. I stopped timing when the can hit the target. The flight time was 0.387 seconds to cover 93 feet. That is 240 ft/sec. The camera was about 30 feet behind me looking over my shoulder and zoomed in.

Here is a page full of photos of the approch and impact of the can. The AVI video is very good to look at the can frame by frame as it wobbles toward the target. Be sure you have the MJPG codec for your video player. If you don't here is how you can get it.

7 May 98 Death of the Doghouse

Well we could not take the big gun apart without one last big fling. I ask my brother up and shot the old doghouse to bits. It was falling apart anyway. The south side had come apart but the rest of it was in fair shape. We shot most of it away from the north and them moved closer and to the west. The final shots were from the east end and it fell down. After that we turned the roof over and shot the roof full of holes. Here is a video(1.5meg mpeg) of several shots in rapid succession. I think it is worth the download time.

23 May 98 Concrete Can Shooting

My brother, some friends, and I shot about 40 times 15 oz vegatable cans full of concrete. They weigh about 2 pounds each. We shot them at a large cardboard (4x8 ft) target at about 150 yards. Stan hit it once with a direct hit. We also had several bounce and hit it. Some of the cans ended up about 80 yards passed the target because they bounced and rolled. Later I set the gun up deck and fixed it to fire at about a 45 deg. angle. We fired one shot at the following pressure settings. Here are the recorded ranges for a can of concrete.
 

Pressure/PSI	Range/Yds
40	175
50	240
60	262
70	267
80	285