FinalHavenLarp.com

As those of you who frequent winter haven may know, I like to build siege weapons. My first attempt was last summer with a ballista which never worked. My second midlevel toy was a trebuchet and after several design changes will fire a tennis ball quite far and reliably. Still working on spell packets. For the third I modified the trebuchet into a catapult. This design works ok for spell packets but not great, enough oomph not enough arc.
This brings me to my latest weapon, a cannon. I used my previous knowledge of building dozens of spud guns in the past and plans for a t-shirt cannon from a book, to build a design that I knew would work before I had even fired it.
The construction of the cannon is the same as your typical spud gun, except that I plumbed a sprinkler valve in line with the barrel and use compressed air from a bike pump as propellant and a trigger. Proportionately it really looks like a cannon.
Unfortunately there are no rules for cannons in the game so I don’t know if anyone will be able to use it any time soon. I’m currently working on an operator’s manual that will cover safety and proper operation of the gun. Hopefully I will be able to make it idiot proof enough to be allowed in game.
Don’t know how far it will shoot yet, sucks living in a city. But I do know it works I have fired it dozens of times in my basement.
once i figure out how to post a picture i will

Uhm, as one who has seen both the hair spray and air cannons in use, i don't think either is really safe at LARP. First off to fire packets any distance it would need to be very powerful, unless you used a "wad" packet each time to crate the seal you would need inside the tube. Even then it would need to be pretty powerful to shoot the wad and packets a good distance.

i have already fired spell packets out of it in my basement. as little as 20 psi is needed to fire without a wad. at 60 psi they hit the basement wall with about the same amount of force as the bow that i use in game. the volume of the presure chamber is about two leters and the volume of the barrel is about one. the barrel is also removable in case ammo gets stuck it can be safely removed, NOT CRANK UP THE PSI UNTILL IT COMES OUT, also different barrel designs can be interchanged. amongst other safty features are the fact that the gun is only capable of 80 psi MAX. there are also three different switches that need to be delibritly pressed simultaniously in order to fire. in the event that pressure has been stored and the fireing has been aborted, i have installed a pressure release valve to safely discharge the air without fireing. even with all of the safty featured that i have added into the design with larping in mind i personaly never thought that the cannon was going to be larp approved anyways. ive just always wanted a spud gun that looked like a real cannon. that and i wanted to show what im capable of designing and building.

maximum range is 150 feet

i posted images of the cannon on facebook[/img]