How far has someone shot a golf ball via a pneumatic cannon

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357Wood
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Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:56 pm

I'm building my second golf ball cannon. My first one (Two 3 ft x 2" PVC chambers dumping through a single 1" sprinkler valve into 3 ft of Schedule 80 PVC) could only send a golf ball somewhat over 300 yds. I also noticed that a good 40psi was left in the chamber after firing, so I think there was a lot of power not utilized.

I'm now building a coaxial cannon with 3" PVC surrounding 2" schedule 80 PVC with two 1" sprinkler valves. It will have a lot smaller air capacity in the single chamber (with the barrel through the middle of it), but better flow characteristics. Hopefully I will add some distance.

When it's built, I'll send it through a ballistic chronometer, so I can see how well it does. Unfortunately, I didn't do that with the original gun.

Does anyone have any idea if a golf ball cannon can send a golf ball over 500 yds (my goal is to drive a par-5 in a scramble from the tee.)?
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SpudStuff
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Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:00 pm

with sch 80 sleaved with 1.5 inch sdr 21 pipe golf ball fit much better and will go much farther
if the par 5 is 500 yard say, you could probably go 750-800 yords

i persomally have acheived a 79 second hang time with a boly bullet out of my carrot cannon :x
357Wood
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Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:10 pm

I'm actually working on getting some sdr21 sleaved from Pimpmann, so that may very well be the next barrel for my gun. It would likely have to be a non-coaxial design (I can't imagine having a 4" barrel with sleaved sdr-21 inside 2" sch 80, but I guess anything is possible.
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WOW!!
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Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:09 pm

Holy S*^# Its Still Going wrote:with sch 80 sleaved with 1.5 inch sdr 21 pipe golf ball fit much better and will go much farther
if the par 5 is 500 yard say, you could probably go 750-800 yords

i persomally have acheived a 79 second hang time with a boly bullet out of my carrot cannon :x
I have 2 things to say...
1.What is a boly bullet?
2. DAAAAMMMMMMMMMM :shock: :shock:
Benny
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Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:43 pm

i got 82.5 seconds with a ball bearing and my qev cannon, the competiton is on. :twisted:
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CS
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Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:08 pm

I got the money today so Ill be trying to ship out tomorrow.

As you pointed out it only went ~300yds, and there was ~40psi in the chamber. So that tells me you have wasted power. Your projectile is exiting the barrel before the force acting on the GB reaches it full potential.

You should download GGDT if you haven’t already, it allows you to tinker with dimensions and from that you can decide which is most efficient for you application. The download can be found <a href="http://www.thehalls-in-bfe.com/GGDT/dow ... l">here</a> (for some reason its not working for me right now) Ignore the distance calculations because those wont be even close to what they will be in reality. This is because aerodynamics are not factored. A 46 gram flat faced projectile would be calculated to go just as far as a 46 gram spherical golf ball. Then on top of that consider that by only adding dimples to the spherical shape, that its distance will increase by a whopping 400%.

Ive been meaning to do some testing on them, but im being overwhelmed with two money sucking projects…
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boilingleadbath
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Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:24 pm

Pimpmann, the GGDT's flight simulator does account for drag. It's pretty much worthless if you install a hop-up device however, as it doesn't account for the magnus effect.

Personaly, with a hop-up device (adjusted to 2-3 Gs of lift) and a 5' barrel at 60 psi, I'v sent a golfball ~500-700 yards down a mild hill.
The range estimation wasn't made by me, however, as I lost track of the ball.
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