TV Cannonball Hits Home

Wait until they see their insurance bill...They are now riskier than the Euro...

Now there is a show I would watch.

I did a quick scan of the web to see if I could get an idea how far this errant cannonball traveled, I couldn't find out this information. I'm happy that nobody got hurt. I'm certain that the Alameda Bomb disposal staff felt that the safety berm at their facility would safely absorb the shot instead of launching it skyward. The second good thing of this incident is that there will certainly be plenty of evidence to sort out what went wrong. Hopefully Mythbusters will survive this mistake. At the very least Mythbusters will not be doing any more episodes involving cannons. Then again they may have one last cannon episode to show.

I was amazed at the list of things it passed through!

Actually most of the things it went through are not that structurally dense. The front door is steel sheet metal over a low density core, the interior walls are 0.5 or 0.75 inch thick sheetrock/drywall over 2x4 pine or fir wood studs, the roof is probably 0.75 inch thick wood multi-strand pressboard with shingles or tiles. The mini van window is a two pane glass and plastic sheet laminate of about 0.25 inch thickness. None of that is going to slow down a cannon ball very much. One of the problems of using a handgun in home defense is that the projectiles will usually punch through multiple walls and exit the building (if it doesn't have a brick/masonry exterior wall) exposing other people to potential injury. It takes some pretty substantial stuff to stand up to canon fire - look at the forts built in the 1800's. Also, a lot of the infantry fatalities in the Civil War were from solid shot cannonballs bouncing through the formed ranks - sort of like a bowling ball through a pin setup.

Apparently the cannonball travelled 3kms. Thats just what I heard on a news website if anyone believes in what a journalist says ;-P

I heard 700 yards.

Seems about the right conversion

Was Mars mentioned?

During WW2,Hitler was firing cannonballs into France from Germany using a specially built cannon. French people checked the vicinity and couldn't find out from where they were coming. At last to their amazement they located it many kms inside Germany

I saw something saying the cannonball traveled about 3300 feet before finally hitting a minivan.

They gonna rename the show Housebusters?

Well 'Home Improvement' is already taken.

Glad this freak accident didn't hurt anyone (and look forward to seeing the upcoming episode). Good thing the President and his family are huge fans.

The latest update is, "They promised they wouldn't air the footage they had filmed of the near-catastrophic cannon shot". Fortunately, no one was hurt or killed and being the damage is already done, why not share it

Because of the law suit.

Too bad Home was not the desired target....

_{Too bad they weren't doing the 'straight up' one.}

I suppose they will get a visit from Homeland Security and the ATF ( Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) boys. And oh- for you like-minded chaps looking for a fun gig, DON'T EVEN apply to ATF! It turns out they aren't in favor of alcohol, tobacco OR firearms.

I always felt Adam was going to get his. But with statistics the way they are, his number will be coming up.

The bright side if that would happen, ratings would go through the roof. ^{right behind Adam}

The Facebook images that were later taken down were of Kari Byron and Tori Belleci with a show built canon and a Civil War style canon. This may have been stock images that were posted. The images may not have been from the range that day. Rightly so I saw Jamie and Adam surveying the damage, appologizing, being greatful that nobody was hurt and assuring all that repairs will be covered by the show. So I don't think that Adam was directly involved in this particular mishap.

From the apparent size of the hole in the door I suspect that the Civil War era canon launched the errant shot. The show built canon had a larger bore (think bowling ball) and a shorter barrel.

I'm just saying, I saw things happen to Adam for not thinking, while Jamie is more cautious.....

Cannon balls, actually skip pretty good, Not one can say now, that the town is so small you can shoot a cannon down main street and not hit anything.

Actually, skipping was fundamental to cannon tactics back in the black powder days

Why hit just one target when it is so difficult to stop a cannon ball