war of 1812 Bar Shot

[acepro]

Hi guys. Today I have to show you a war of 1812 bar shout found on Niagara on the lake canada. I looks like a dumbbell and is about 24 pounds. Sadly mine is restored someone has taken the rust off and painted it black. Any more info anyone has would be appreciated!
ps. I belive these were only used by US forces durring the war of 1812...
thanks!

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Acepro asked me to take a look at this object. I am complying with his request.

Unfortunately, it seems to not be a Bar-Shot... for three reasons:
1- (Most important.) In the photo showing its entire body, the "ball" on its left APPEARS to be egg-shaped, Actual Bar-Shot balls were round, like cannonballs, or half-balls (see photo below).
2- On ALL of the "documented" actual Bar-Shot that had the balls connected by a single bar, the bar is square-bodied, not round-bodied (again, see photo below).
3- On actual Bar-Shot, as shown in the photo below, the bar is much longer. Notice that the bar on your object is only a little bit wider than a man's hand-width. In view of that and reasons #1 and 2 above, I have to believe this object is a weightlifting Dumbbell.

I should mention, on nearly all of the actual Bar-Shots, only half-balls were used. That is because two whole balls would be twice the weight which the cannon was constructed to be able to shoot safely. "Overloading" the cannon by firing double the normal weight of projectile could cause the cannon to burst. That is why half-balls were used on Bar-Shot.

But for the moment, let's set all that aside, and rely on the usual tests for determining whether or not an object is an artillery projectile.
1- Weight the object on a precision weighing-scale, such as a Postal Shipping scale.
2- Use a caliper or a Pi-Tape (also called a Diameter-Tape) to precisely measure the diameter of the balls. If they are not the exactly-correct diameter to properly fit any of the calibers of smoothbore cannons, the object is not an artillery projectile.

If you are willing to do those precise measurements, please let us know the result.

 

[acepro]

ok yes sure I will try to get those for you! I got this from a friend who has a woman who owns land by fort george, she has pulled 100's of cannonballs from her property just when shes out about in her yard gardining or whatever... this one came from her friend who lives close to her,,, apears he has ground the shot quite alot... as I imagine the finder did not know that it was best to leave alone he restored it sadly,, this may explain the imperfections like the egg shape

 

[acepro]

War of 1812 Canon NAVAL BAR SHOT. Rare Ordnance!
heres a smaller version from war of 1812 that I found while googling war of 1812 bar shot... this is the only other example of war of 1812 barshot I could find, I belive it mentions a larger version (mine?) in his listing.
thanks!

 

[deodra]

Pretty cool!

 

[acepro]

I have a question... were barshots only fired from ships durring the war of 1812?
thanks!
AcePro