The last car dealership I worked for was 1/4 mile from the local police department and abutted interstate 91. Three guys owned cannons from a 12 gauge up to 1 1/4” and the would set them off at lunch regularly.
Growing up. My buddy Tommy. His dad was a machinist in a steel mill. He made a cannon. The base was a piece of 1" thick steel. The barrel was 2" OD, with a 1/2" ID. It was about 2 ft long. The cannon weighted about a 100 lbs. Earl had it in a wagon. He would shoot it on the 4th of July every year. WELL...........Being early teenagers. We took the cannon to a construction site where the state was building a new highway. We unloaded the cannon from the wagon. Tommy stuffed the barrel almost all the way full with Triple F black gun powder. Stuck a 1/2" harden bolt with the head cut off, and a point on the end. Aimed it at a dozer blade. Tommy lit the fuse and we all hide behind another dozer. The cannon went off. We found the cannon about 50 ft from where it was. The bolt was stuck in the dozer blade. Tommy loaded the cannon up again and pointed it to the side of the dozer. The bolt went into the engine bolt. We never went back to that site for over a month after that. We used to play ball there too.
