Cannon

WHILE most sporting shooting matches are conducted with hand-held firearms such as rifles, shotguns and handguns, there’s a small but growing contingent who like to use something with a bit more range presence – Cannon.

Obviously full-size cannon would be impractical, as well as being somewhat difficult to transport, therefore most competitors in SSAA Cannon matches use scaled-down reproductions of muzzle-loading historical naval or artillery pieces.

With a barrel length of a maximum 120cm, cannon are divided into two classes: Demi-cannon (up to .75in bore) and Open Cannon (bore greater than .75in).

Demi-cannon matches are shot between 50m and 100m, while Open Cannon is shot between 100m and 200m.

Targets for both classes are 1.2m high by 2.4m wide, depicting a fort. A door and two windows are marked. Points are scored for hits on the door (3 points), window (2 points) and the rest of the target (1 point).

In addition to the traditional cannon events, there is also a Mortar event whereby black powder mortars lob projectiles at a target flag between 100m and 180m away.
The barrel is set at 45 degrees, with distance and accuracy adjusted by altering the amount of black powder used.

Competitors launch seven shots with the five projectiles under 15 metres from the flag scored – the closer to the flag, the higher the score and the highest score wins.