I used to have a cannon - made it myself out of two blocks of steel each a foot long, 3" and 4" diameter after turning, bronzed together the blocks using the sublimation and dove-drill methods, then ran a bead of arc-welding around the outer edge. bored out to 8 gauge. Had it in a wood frame, classic cherry fuse for the lighting method, handled about a quarter pound of black powder safely, cast my own lead for it... made my own pre-packed loads for it from parchment paper. Used to fire it off in public on holidays with just cardboard wadding, or out at the sand pit blowing the piss out of hornets nests and abandoned appliances.
Ah, those were the days. Sold if off like 20 years ago.
It fit just right in the trunk of my Fiat 128, and could even be fired out the back (given what it weighed I usually didn't move it without the lift). Used to drive out to the beach on holidays and pop it off with it in the car. (gotta love that class 3 FFL).
One Fourth of July for "laughs" my old man swapped out my black powder in one of my pre-packed loads for red-dot smokeless... Thing jerked up denting the trunk lid, smashing the rear window and lifting the rear end of the car 6" off the ground. Oh yeah pops, that's a riot.
Actually, in hindsight that is pretty damned funny.
