Loud bang in a small package, that’s how I would describe the Seadog .50. Phil and I had the opportunity to have John from SeaHag Munitions on the show back in September. If you haven’t listened to the show you can click here and listen to it now, I highly recommend it. See, John has an interesting job, he makes cannons. These cannons are 100% legal to purchase directly from him and own. He makes many different sizes, ranging from something that can be put on a desk to one that would make a great centerpiece in any living room. These cannons range from the Mini Crusty Black Iron Cannon shooting a .50 caliber ball up to the 160 pound, 38mm Calypso Cannon.
I contacted John and told him to charge my credit card, I had to have one of these. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into so I bought The Seadog. Next to the Mini Crusty Black Iron Cannon it is the smallest package. The cannon came in a boxed up wooden crate with everything you need to have fun but the powder. In the kit you get the cannon of course, you get the wicks, patches (which is just blue shop paper towel), balls, plunger to pack everything down and a little step block to help with aiming. I was immediately happy with how well this was constructed.
If you like to shoot at all, and you can’t help but smile when you do shoot…..you’ll love this and the smile will not leave your face the entire time and even after you are done. Loading the cannon is easier than you’d think, place the wick in the port, followed by the pyrodex, patch, ball and then stuff it all down with the rod. Now, the wick burns fast. I wanna say it’s a 5 second time, so when you light it, run. Of course you could add a longer wick but what is the fun in that. I highly recommend placing this on the ground, do not place on a table or up high due to when it fires it will become a backwards flying projectile. All I have to say is, Mind your shins.
The first time I shot this off I was with my uncle and dad, we were standing about 5 feet behind it and thinking we were far enough back; apparently we were wrong. When it fired it rolled back and went up my dads foot into his shin. I laughed, my uncle laughed, pretty sure the birds and squirrels laughed too. The second shot, we stood about 15 feet back. It was very quick to reload and continue to shoot. You only get about 6 shots in the package, but the balls that are used can easily be found with a simple google search for .50 caliber ball, same as the wicks. The patches used are actually blue shop towels torn up which work just fine, if you want to get actual patches you can, it’s just more expensive.
One thing I would HIGHLY recommend is attaching the aiming block with some 550 cord or something equivalent. I lost mine on the first shot and had to use sticks to adjust the barrel. Also, start close to your target and get used to aiming the barrel. John says this can be accurate up to 40 yards away, with a little practice that can be achieved. Keep in mind you are using pyrodex. If you are shooting it off in a wet climate or area you will need to run some patches to dry out the barrel. We ran into some issues firing it off because we had snow around and from it tumbling back it did get wet.
Saying this cannon was fun to shoot is an understatement. You will show it off to anybody who likes to shoot and probably to people who don’t. It is interesting to sit back and look at, admiring the craftsmanship John has put into this product. Not to mention you may or may not be tempted to throw out some pirate lingo as you are shooting it off. Big thanks to John for coming on the show we are definitely going to have him back on the show. In the meantime I highly recommend getting yourself one of these cannons. After all, how many of your friends have their own functional cannon?
Check out Seahag Munitions website, Facebook or YouTube Channel for more information.
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