DennisS wrote:
I can only guess how cool it would be to light the fuse on one of those!
Dennis,
No fuse on the big gun. It is fired the same way it was in the Civil War.
I use a friction primer and a 10' lanyard. The primer looks like a 1 1/2" long .22 shell with a twisted brass wire attached to it. You hook the lanyard to the wire and place it into the cannon vent hole. When you pull the lanyard, it rips the wire out which ignites the primer and shoots fire down into the powder charge. Quite effective.
If your hand was above the vent hole when the gun went off, it would turn it in to hamburger meat.
Between 12 oz. of powder and a friction primer, it cost about $12 a shot.
Zulu