Cannonball or shot put?

[Capn Jack]

I saw a lot of, "Stamp Mill" balls at INTALCO in the carbon plant. They were all different sizes depeding on the amount of ware. Some of the guys used to weld eyes on them and use them for down rgger weights.

 

[lucusloc]

NOT a canon ball or shotput. It's for a 'stamp mill' to crush the rock to extract the mineral.

Would they really stamp each one with the weight? I am not so knowledgeable with ball mills that would take something that size, but I know it would be rather silly to stamp anything on smaller ball mill media. That stuff does wear and any markings on it would not be long for this world. Seems like it would be rather useless to mark it.

Sports equipment, however, will be marked for anything relevant, so a shotput or weight of some kind will be nearly guaranteed to have a weight mark. I just looked it up and women's shotput is indeed 4kg, and the rough texture is pretty typical of the balls I have seen. They are typically made of cast iron from what I can tell and it seems to me the texture is left rough on purpose (but it was not my sport in HS, so I have no idea if the texture was a point of concern for the participants, I was only passingly familiar with the equipment. I do see smooth and polished balls online, so I presume this is probably something that the athletes have strong preferences about and argue over). It does look exactly like the ones we had.

Here is an example I found online. This one has paint, while the ones I remember did not, but you can still see the casting texture under it;

 

[lucusloc]

We have people build or buy whole guns just for 1 case they have in a caliber they didn't own before as well as build whole new gun around a stock, or extra barrel

I would do that. . .

 

[lucusloc]

I have one I found in the alley besides the house soon after we bought the place in 88. but it was there quite a while and is in much rougher condition. I never thought to weigh it in Kilo's I was trying to figure out if it as a shot put weighing it in pounds. As this thing has to if its a shot put date back to at least the 60's for the condition its in. It currently locked up or I would reweigh it, It looks like mine is a little bigger unless you have really really big hands

FYI women's puts are weighed in Kg, men's are weighed in pounds, at least for the rules I can find online. Men's puts are 12 for HS and 16 for men (women's HS and adult are the same at 4kg, I have no idea why). If your example has been in the soil for a while it may have corroded down to some weird weight, especially if you have acidic soils.

 

[Capn Jack]

I would do that. . .

I did that...
A 9mm muzzle loading rifle. Another, "Franken" rifle for my collection.

 

[lucusloc]

I did that...
A 9mm muzzle loading rifle. Another, "Franken" rifle for my collection.

Black powder is my next frontier. I plan on getting into that during the next crazy times. Our local black powder shop say their prices are pretty immune to those fluctuations since black powder stuff is off most people's radar.

 

[Bobbygun]

Black powder is my next frontier. I plan on getting into that during the next crazy times. Our local black powder shop say their prices are pretty immune to those fluctuations since black powder stuff is off most people's radar.

If you're headed into black powder shooting, keep your eyes open for percussion caps. They have been pretty scarce for the past few years.

 

[lucusloc]

If you're headed into black powder shooting, keep your eyes open for percussion caps. They have been pretty scarce for the past few years.

I can see that. It is the same technology as primers, and those have been tough to come by too. I am not sure exactly how it is done but it seems to me if you want to get a percussion cap you just stop the process of making a primer about half way through. If you have a shortage of one you will have a shortage of the other by default.

 

[gmerkt]

We should use the metric system but I'm not surprised we don't.

When I was in junior high school in the 1960's, I remember my Algebra teacher talking about how the US would be converting to the metric system. He said it would happen by 1970. Well, it never fully happened. Because in the US we are a free and open society, the subject has been talked to death and subject to a lot of political foot-dragging. The US military and government agencies have been in the forefront of conversion. Not so much commercial goods, like clothing sizes and greengrocer goods.

The ins and outs of measurements in the US make my head hurt:

Metrication in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I have a set of metric tools for working on nominally US-made vehicles. I've worked on foreign-made vehicles, used 17 and 22mm a lot. My later US-made vehicles, use 16, 18, and 21mm a lot. Maybe somewhere "it says" what size metric fasteners must be used but that one eludes me. Never have used 11mm much.

 

[Bobbygun]

I can see that. It is the same technology as primers, and those have been tough to come by too. I am not sure exactly how it is done but it seems to me if you want to get a percussion cap you just stop the process of making a primer about half way through. If you have a shortage of one you will have a shortage of the other by default.

Absolutely. The big difference is, even if you don't have any primers, cartridge ammunition is still widely available in most cases. With black powder, if you don't have any percussion caps - OUCH! (Unless you've got a flintlock or such. My somewhat limited experience with black powder is all cap and ball.)

 

[lucusloc]

When I was in junior high school in the 1960's, I remember my Algebra teacher talking about how the US would be converting to the metric system. He said it would happen by 1970. Well, it never fully happened. Because in the US we are a free and open society, the subject has been talked to death and subject to a lot of political foot-dragging. The US military and government agencies have been in the forefront of conversion. Not so much commercial goods, like clothing sizes and greengrocer goods.

The ins and outs of measurements in the US make my head hurt:

Metrication in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I have a set of metric tools for working on nominally US-made vehicles. I've worked on foreign-made vehicles, used 17 and 22mm a lot. My later US-made vehicles, use 16, 18, and 21mm a lot. Maybe somewhere "it says" what size metric fasteners must be used but that one eludes me. Never have used 11mm much.

There are a lot of places where the standard system shines. It is great for lots of daily tasks as the base numbers are easy to divide into common fractions like 1/2 and 1/3, and it becomes intuitive once you are familiar with it. But it is harder for tasks that require more complicated math like is found in more intensive engineering situations. Not having to convert between different bases is absolutely wonderful and you can just stick to the higher order math to get the job done. But the metric apologists never recognize the benefits of standard and pretend like base 10 is just as easy to use for mundane tasks. If it were it would be far more readily adopted and would not need to be a top down forced type affair.

 

[red442joe]

My buddy used to tell me about an organisation in Southern California that got together for all kinds of cannon shoots. I think they disbanded after the '68 GCA. He always wondered what happened to their hardware...
The Benevolent Association of Loaders and Loafers...B.A.L.L.s...

Joe

 

[CamoDeafie]

My buddy used to tell me about an organisation in Southern California that got together for all kinds of cannon shoots. I think they disbanded after the '68 GCA. He always wondered what happened to their hardware...
The Benevolent Association of Loaders and Loafers...B.A.L.L.s...

Joe

Thats an awesome group name

 

[lucusloc]

Absolutely. The big difference is, even if you don't have any primers, cartridge ammunition is still widely available in most cases. With black powder, if you don't have any percussion caps - OUCH! (Unless you've got a flintlock or such. My somewhat limited experience with black powder is all cap and ball.)

I am considering getting all kinds of actions. Flint lock, cap, matchlock (already do have one of those), and whatever else I can find. I have not seen any reproduction wheel locks, but one of those would be neat. . .

 

[Capn Jack]

My buddy used to tell me about an organisation in Southern California that got together for all kinds of cannon shoots. I think they disbanded after the '68 GCA. He always wondered what happened to their hardware...
The Benevolent Association of Loaders and Loafers...B.A.L.L.s...

Joe

Years ago I belonged to The Cascade Cannon Club out of Tacoma WA.
All sizes of guns from 3" long to a full sized mountain howitzer.

 

[PiratePast40]

We have people build or buy whole guns just for 1 case they have in a caliber they didn't own before as well as build whole new gun around a stock, or extra barrel

You say that like it's a bad thing!

 

[gmerkt]

There are a lot of places where the standard system shines. It is great for lots of daily tasks as the base numbers are easy to divide into common fractions like 1/2 and 1/3, and it becomes intuitive once you are familiar with it. But it is harder for tasks that require more complicated math like is found in more intensive engineering situations. Not having to convert between different bases is absolutely wonderful and you can just stick to the higher order math to get the job done. But the metric apologists never recognize the benefits of standard and pretend like base 10 is just as easy to use for mundane tasks. If it were it would be far more readily adopted and would not need to be a top down forced type affair.

The government may attempt to go all metric but I'll bet you can still find a ruler or tape measure in inches in the GSA store.

We've had a metric money system since Day One and functionally, it's worked well.

It's difficult to imagine that firearms in calibers vice millimeters will go away any time soon. I have pistols in 9mm, a rifle in 7mm Mauser, but the rest are measured in calibers, bores or gauges. In Europe, they have a metric version for everything that started out as a caliber. I don't know that I'll ever warm up to 7.62x51R rather than .30-30 Winchester.

 

[sobo]

We have people build or buy whole guns just for 1 case they have in a caliber they didn't own before as well as build whole new gun around a stock, or extra barrel

You know my brother...???

 

[kmk1012]

You know my brother...???

You admit to having a brother? If your brother was anything like mine, I'd be an only child

 

[sobo]

You admit to having a brother? If your brother was anything like mine, I'd be an only child

Almost was an only... When I was 19 and he was 21, we threw each other out of the house. Literally!

We were in a huge fight in the kitchen, beating the shiit out of each other in front of our mother (screaming for us to stop), and we both crashed through the back door and broke the screen door off the hinges! Landed in a heap in the backyard and kept on beating the shiit out of each other for who knows how much longer.

He lived, though...