Man Uses Live Cannonball as Toy

Foxnews.com ^ | December 9th, 2005

[Termite_Commander]

Things most guys can have around the house: baseballs, basketballs, footballs, softballs.

Things guys most definitely shouldn't have around the house: cannonballs.

A collector in McKinney, Texas, kept an antique cannonball that he'd bought from the trunk of a man's car at a gun show in his apartment as a decoration, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Responding to an anonymous tip, police seized the man's 45-pound, cast-iron cannonball on Monday and the weapons collector allowed officials to detonate it in a field close by behind McKinney High School.

"It was a live cannonball," Plano police Detective Bryan Wood, a member of the bomb squad, told The Morning News. "This thing was designed to maim and kill people in battle. The whole idea of this thing was you put a fuse in it, shoot it out over troops ... to rain Minié balls over them."

Police did not name the collector because of an ongoing probe.

It's fine if you want to collect old memorabilia. But be very careful when collecting munitions. Don't buy them out of the trunks of people's cars," Detective Wood told The Morning News.....

[CharlesWayneCT]

Do they really call them "cannonballs" when they are loaded with explosive? I thought there was a special name for them, but I can't find it.

[Red Badger]

I doubt that it was dangerous after over a hundred and 40 years........

[x1stcav]

Cannister.

[aculeus]

It's fine if you want to collect old memorabilia. But be very careful when collecting munitions. Don't buy them out of the trunks of people's cars," Detective Wood told The Morning News.

Got it.

[JAWs]

LEAVE SAM GUTHRIE ALONE!

[Red Badger]

they are called "INCOMING!"..........

[x1stcav]

Au contraire...explosives can become very unstable with age.

[x1stcav]

I always prefer 'OUTGOING!'.

[Little Ray]

An explosive "cannonball" is a shell.
An incendiary cannonball would be a "carcass."

[Redcloak]

It's dangerous if you're a bed-wetting liberal.

[RightWhale]

Yeah, it might go off all by itself if dropped or otherwise tampered with. It might be even more dangerous to handle than when it was new, depending what they packed it with.

[Rastus]

he'd bought from the trunk of a man's car at a gun show in his apartment

How did he manage to fit a man's car AND a gun show in his apartment. Everything's bigger in Texas.

[L98Fiero]

http://www.inert-ord.net/19cent/shells/case.html

[Spok]

"The whole idea of this thing was you put a fuse in it, shoot it out over troops ... to rain Minié balls over them."

I'm no expert, but I know that 'minnie balls' were fired from rifles.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"I doubt that it was dangerous after over a hundred and 40 years........"

Depends on how the explosives aged. Sometimes they can get very unstable.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"I'm no expert, but I know that 'minnie balls' were fired from rifles."

So what were "mickey balls" fired from? :)

[TexasRepublic]

It is probably an artillery shell.

[Termite_Commander]

Well, I assume you can shove 'em into a cannonball too and detonate it to spray shrapnel.

[EricT.]

I doubt that it was dangerous after over a hundred and 40 years........

Black powder can be very unpredictable. That is one of the reasons we don't use it much these days. I wouldn't want to be the one putting out a cigarette on it or touching it after removing a wool sweater.