Ammo from toy cannon??????

[Leeann38]

Found this while digging in my yard. Could it be from a toy cannon maybe. In one of my previous posts I found a wheel and someone said that could be from a toy cannon.

 

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[Leeann38]

Better pic from outside. Can read the word ammo.

 

[Tony in SC]

Not knowing the material, I'll go with iron. Maybe slingshot ammo or ball bearing? Tony

 

[DCMatt]

"Steely" marble.



I don't know for sure, but I don't think those old toy cannons fired this type of projectile. Mostly bang and smoke from powder only. Not that kids didn't put stuff down the barrel anyway... Not that I would know anything about that...

Just ask my brother - Old DCOne-eye...

 

[Leeann38]

"Steely" marble.

View attachment 1338315

I don't know for sure, but I don't think those old toy cannons fired this type of projectile. Mostly bang and smoke from powder only. Not that kids didn't put stuff down the barrel anyway... Not that I would know anything about that...

Just ask my brother - Old DCOne-eye...

Lol kids will be kids.

At nap time I'm gonna try and get better views with the natural sunlight and try and see what it says. There are words but I haven't had time to really look. Darn daycare kids. Lol. All I want to do is dig and find more treasures

 

[Hughie]

Petrified Co-co puffs?

 

[Dirt_Hunter]

I don't think it could be ammo from a toy cannon, seems to dangerous. Possibly a musket-ball? I don't think it's a ball bearing either, most those are steel not iron.

 

[Oddjob]

Dude I would love a toy canon that fires metal balls. Sounds like the perfect toy.

 

[Tony in SC]

It is !! Tony

Dude I would love a toy canon that fires metal balls. Sounds like the perfect toy.

 

[bigfoot1]

its very likely wrist rocket ammo like tony said.I was a holy terror with mine as a kid

 

[Carolina Tom]

A toy cannon that fires metal balls is a black powder pistol! No toy fires metal projectiles with gun powder! Children would get maimed.

It must be slingshot ammo or a ball bearing.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

A toy cannon that fires metal balls is a black powder pistol! No toy fires metal projectiles with gun powder! Children would get maimed.

It must be slingshot ammo or a ball bearing.

There were early toy cannon that actually were live guns and fired black powder, back when people taught kids better than to point them at people. Most of them that I have seen were in odd sizes to keep kids from loading pistol shot in them since they were meant just for powder and wadding for a bang. I'm sure kids found a way to load them with something though,(remembering myself as a kid, I can say for certain I would have) and if they didn't blow up from the pressure and take off a finger or an eye it was probably lots of fun.

This item though I think is most likely a ball bearing.

 

[gunsil]

A toy cannon that fires metal balls is a black powder pistol! No toy fires metal projectiles with gun powder! Children would get maimed.

It must be slingshot ammo or a ball bearing.

I have at least thirty antique (1880s-early 1900s) small "toy" cannons that use black powder. Approximately .22-.60 caliber. Some have brass barrels, some are cast iron, with the brass ones being safer to shoot. They were meant as toys that bang with powder, wad, and fuse, BUT, I have shot ball bearings, old aaa and aa batteries and other objects from them, and I'll bet some kids back when they were new did so also. I agree though that Leeann's finds are common ball bearings of a more modern nature.

 

[gunsil]

Here are some cool little antique cannons that definitely will fire projectiles if so desired. A few of these are "firecracker" cannons that break at the breech and the firecracker is inserted with the fuse up a little slot, closed, and fired. The firecracker cannons are not suited to firing projectiles, but the others are muzzle loaders and work quite well. Once shot a 1/4 roll of pennies at once from a larger bore one, guess I'm just a delinquent. These are all over a hundred years old. There are a couple of tin toy cannons in the second photo from the 30s that just shot wood balls with a spring action. I bet occasionally some kid may have been injured back in the day, but we didn't raise sissies back then either.

 

[hvacker]

Great collection Gunsil.
The toy cannons that were sold are still being made. They don't shoot anything but make a very loud noise.
They use carbide and water to make acetylene gas and ignite it.
On a job at the Four Corners Power Plant some guys made one using a very large pipe and acetylene straight
from a welding cylinder. Yes a very loud noise but boys will be boys.

 

[Carolina Tom]

View attachment 1338984View attachment 1338985

Here are some cool little antique cannons that definitely will fire projectiles if so desired. A few of these are "firecracker" cannons that break at the breech and the firecracker is inserted with the fuse up a little slot, closed, and fired. The firecracker cannons are not suited to firing projectiles, but the others are muzzle loaders and work quite well. Once shot a 1/4 roll of pennies at once from a larger bore one, guess I'm just a delinquent. These are all over a hundred years old. There are a couple of tin toy cannons in the second photo from the 30s that just shot wood balls with a spring action. I bet occasionally some kid may have been injured back in the day, but we didn't raise sissies back then either.

I stand corrected. I have seen little signal cannons before, but not working "mini" cannons for kids. Ohhh, the good old days!

 

[gunsil]

Great collection Gunsil.
The toy cannons that were sold are still being made. They don't shoot anything but make a very loud noise.
They use carbide and water to make acetylene gas and ignite it.
On a job at the Four Corners Power Plant some guys made one using a very large pipe and acetylene straight
from a welding cylinder. Yes a very loud noise but boys will be boys.

Thanks!! Yeah, I have had the "Big Bang" brand of carbide cannons and they do make a good noise but lack the (to me) better sound of black powder. I have a fairly large (3' long by 2'' bore) antique cannon that I sometimes blast off with acetylene from my tank. Kind of a dull sound compared to rocking the hills with black in the same tube, but I can't get in trouble for using gas these days so I do use it. Dang I love a good boom!! I have another couple of shelves of those little ones.

 

[hvacker]

True story. I was going to make a carbide cannon out of 3" PVC for one forth of July and set it off at my son's house.
My grandson, about 5 at the time came up and quietly asked me not to because the police would put me in jail and
make me eat dirty bread. So that was it, I didn't build the cannon.
I guess dirty bread was a way for his mom to get some control.

 

[Leeann38]

Thanks!! Yeah, I have had the "Big Bang" brand of carbide cannons and they do make a good noise but lack the (to me) better sound of black powder. I have a fairly large (3' long by 2'' bore) antique cannon that I sometimes blast off with acetylene from my tank. Kind of a dull sound compared to rocking the hills with black in the same tube, but I can't get in trouble for using gas these days so I do use it. Dang I love a good boom!! I have another couple of shelves of those little ones.

That one cannon u have there looks like a wheel I found in the same dirt

 

[gunsil]

That one cannon u have there looks like a wheel I found in the same dirt

Hi Leeann, the cast iron wheels were used on many toys. Cannons were maybe the least, they made all kinds of cast iron wagons, fire engines, and other pull toys all using the same or similar wheels, so finding a wheel is finding something you know what it is but not what it came from. There were different companies making these cast iron toys and naturally they would use the same wheel on different toys if the wheels suited the job. There are new replacement cast iron wheels made these days to repair old toys but getting a proper match is difficult.