The morning weather is nice, so the guards and Hrappr help me move the bronze cannon down to the testing area south of the mansion, which isn't difficult since there is a fine paved road for half of the way there, and the ground is quite hard and the cannon have good wheels. Once again, Hrappr have prepared by making special targets and with Ida's help also hung up wide pieces of white canvas parallel with the planned trajectory. We set up and prepare for the tests, and once again Jane takes her place to film from the side, and she signals that the recording has started.

The bronze cannon makes a heck of a noise and smoke! Quite a lot more than the iron cannon. The bronze cannon is intact and didn't explode, which is a big relief. Now, however, we will try the three more powerful charges.

Alith, Gunhild and Ciara enthusiastically help me swab the barrel. I do a quick inspection with the mirror and the flashlight to see if there has been any hidden cavity that has been formed but I can't find anything except residue on the inside of the barrel. We reload and I show that it's the same principles as with the other firearms and cannon, although the cannon use a folded paper bag of gunpowder and there is that poking hole stick, priming powder and so on. Ciara is very cute as she smiles and giggles through an adrenaline rush and she likes cannons. Big bada-boom. Kari, who considers a normal flintlock firearm to be bad enough, certainly isn't enjoying this and have decided to see how Jane is doing. We crouch behind cover, and Jane signals she is recording. When I hold out the firing cord to Ciara, she beams and give me a quick kiss.

After three powerful charges and I still can't find any sign of weakening or deformation in the barrel. Which is a heck of a relief, otherwise I wouldn't have dared to use the cannon, and Digraldi would have had to try casting a new one. Which then have to be drilled and rifled.

However, the three powerful shots seem to have given decent data and we've used the shots to set the sight at least laterally, and I am very impressed with the accuracy. The last shot was honestly frighteningly good and accurate, and its a heck of a difference compared to the iron cannon in both accuracy and power. I considered those targets to just be scrap wood to be burned, that was not like this. It's raining splinters over there. The target is actually stronger built so it might have absorbed more energy, and there is an awful lot more energy in the two last shots. That crack echoing back must have been the cannon ball passing the sound barrier. So 4kg+ coming at more than 340m/s. Ouch. That is somewhere over 230kJ. Also an impressive amount of smoke. Maybe I should just use a bigger powder charge than planned? I fine tune the sight laterally and vertically according to where the bullets landed, and we will now start making proper measurements with normal powder charges that will increase a bit to keep the shot supersonic. Considering that this cannon has a maximum elevation angle of 20 degrees and we're basically shooting flat at 100m, I'm quite interested in how far the cannon can shoot. My target range here is obviously a way too short, and my initial idea of lobbing shots over a fortress wall will be difficult to execute, because at the distance where that happens, I won't be able to aim well enough. If I were to build a new mount that could do high artillery trajectories, it will take a heck of a long time until the shot lands, and the incredibly long and high trajectory means that there will be significantly more variation due to powder differences, the mount moving and wind and just aerodynamic issues, compared to direct firing.

We aim the cannon and the following shot at 400 meters is just as effective. I have built a monster. Those targets are not as strong, so there is just a hole through the target and we could see the shot bouncing and landing somewhere in the distance. Good point for future tests: don't shoot at angled rocks. Alith and Gunhild just shout from pure happiness as they comes running to help reload, while Ciara walks more ladylike, albeit in a fast eager walking pace with a big happy smile. I correct the sight a little to line up with the hole on the target, and make a 400 meter range mark. The cannon is much more accurate than I thought it would be both laterally and vertically. We reload and fire a shot at the 600 meter target. Damn! I sure as hell hope no one in Europe has a cannon like this. I signal Jane and Kari to collect the cameras and return, while we go and try to find the shots up among the rocks.

We don't find all of them, but the ones we do find are mangled and in pieces, but we can melt down and reuse the material. My company is a little shocked at how powerful the cannon is, and how the metal is just smashed. Not to mention the rock wall in one place. It probably hit a crack or similar weak point, but it's impressive.

I've got one shot left, so I want to up the range a bit more, but it's not possible to shoot much more than about 700 meters here due to the rock, and if I aim over, I don't know where the hell the shot will land. I'm worried that the cannon have a 3km range or something if I go up to 20 degrees. And Tosra's shore is closer. In addition to people living there, I have technically fired on the Kingdom. Which is a bad thing to do. After eager suggestions from Alith and Gunhild, I decide to aim over the lowest cliffs in the southwest to try and hit the coastal cliffs a few hundred meters further on. It is the lowest option, and it should hit my own land or in the sea beyond, which is also mine for half a kilometer off shore. We'll put a camera behind the rocks in the middle to record, and one camera behind the cliffs to the east that can film from the side, and one up on the mountain in the southwest. If the shot goes over, cameras will help see where the impact is if the shot lands in the sea.

I'm reluctant when Alith and Gunhild want to go there and handle their respective cameras and experience the shot passing close by. But yes, they will be quite safe behind the mountains as long as the shot doesn't ricochet to the side, which should be a small risk as most is grassland or mud until the shot is several hundred meters past their point, so after some persuasion I agree that they can stand behind the mountains a hundred to two hundred meters to the side of the trajectory, if they take cover behind some rocks. I send Gunhild down to the south, and Alith up behind the mountains in the southwest so she gets a higher and better view behind the boulders. A bit unexpected, Jane wants to accompany Alith with the DSLR camera, and she's a better photographer. Which makes Ciara want to join them as well.

I ask them to carefully memorise where the impact is in case it will be difficult to see it afterwards, or if the shot lands in the water. They should take sight lines, pile rocks or otherwise mark where they stood and mark with something to line up towards the impact site ten to fifteen meters in front. So I send them away and say that 60 seconds after Jane signals from the crest, the shot will be fired, and she will time with her mobile phone. I also give Gunhild a signal flag so she can signal to Jane, who can signal to me that they are all ready. Vertical waves for okay and ready, sideways for no, and in a circle above the head for gathering where you point the flag where. Morse would have been handy here too, or the semaphore alphabet. They must also signal that everything is okay after the shot. I also tell them that I'll be coming to look and I've already brought one of my best island maps along, so I will check the impact site and get a better distance measurement.

Hillevi gets to pull the trigger and the bang echoes from the mountains and over the water. It's nervous as I walk towards the landing zone, and my walk quickly becomes a jog where Bodil hurries along, even though Jane has signalled that everything is okay, and I can hear faint happy shouts of 'woho'.

Once there, they all talk excitedly about the sound the shot made as it flew past and the hit on top of the Angersnäs cliff, and how the shot bounced further out and splashed down a few hundred meters further out into the sea. Wow. Yeah, the cannon got a heck of a range. I really want to see the footage from that, and I ask Jane and Gunhild to go to their lookout points, while Alith follows along and tries to find the impact site. They can direct us in the right direction if it is unclear by signalling with a flag which direction we should go, and then everyone will gather back at the cannon.

It takes a while, but eventually Alith finds the impact site, and it's very clear once you know what to look for and find it. Metallic shine, broken stone and scattered turf. I signal everyone to regroup by slowly making large circles with the flag overhead and then pointing towards the cannon, and Alith builds a small cairn, while I try to work out exactly where on the map we are and gauge how far the shot was. It's not that easy, but in the end it was about 880 meters. Wow. We're just a couple of meters above sea level which is basically at the same height as the firing place, so that will be a nice 900 meter mark on the sight, and it will allow me to estimate other distances for the sight because I now have four angle measurements and shot over a basically horizontal surface. It's damn practical to use the sea surface as a height reference. I should plan a better firing range for future artillery pieces over water at targets on distant cliffs and islets, as it will be safer and I own quite a few.

I just sit there very contentedly on the rock and look towards the mansion whose copper roof still glitters quite well, but it have been starting to dull. We're done here so time to go back and test the cannon's shotgun shell. It will be interesting as that shell will be spinning. Alith interrupts my thoughts and she have a wicked sinful smile as she suggest we celebrate with a quickie behind the cliff. I smile back. My sinful Valkyrie's cylinders must have been firing since the first shot.

Neither I nor Alith is prepared for Jane casually lounging against a tree when we reach the ridge, a third of the way back. Jane shows the DSLR camera and its long lens, with a brutally smug face. Crap. Crap! Alith doesn't really understand how good the zoom and image quality is on the camera, so she don't get it.

"The good news is that I am alone, since I just stayed on the mountain to take more pictures as memories of both the cannon and the impact site. The bad news is that I happened to see when Alith took your hand and you both disappeared behind the cliff. Your heads kissing and general motions were an obvious clue, but what sealed the deal was Alith adjusting her cloth and chain mail as you started heading back. You're both far to nonchalant for that to have been the first time." That damn smug face! "Question: Did the elks interrupt you, or were you delayed after?"

Jane laughs, and tries to translate it to Norse, eagerly showing zoomed-in pictures and a video. I hope I'm not as red-faced and embarrassed as Alith is right now. She doesn't even understand all Jane's jokes about 'shooting your load', 'intimate bodyguarding', 'fuck buddies', 'banging' etc.

Jane promise to keep quiet about the fact that, yes we had a few quick moments, and that there are people who know, but no one talks about it, because it's just sex between two adults, and I don't want people to believe that this is why Alith is my bodyguard, which Alith definitely agrees with, and Alith tells Jane how I didn't let her help me when I got drugged because Hillevi and Caecilia were there. Alith goes on to say that she was not prepared the first time she was my guard and I had sex with Liv, and it was just oral sex, and then she saw it as her responsibility to protect the other guards from the same issue. Because someone needs to watch over me even in those situations. It's clear that Jane doesn't really believe Alith, but finds her explanation amusing. Alith continue trying to convince Jane by telling her that once she got an IUD things have slowly become more intimate. We seldom have sex, and as Jane saw, it's always on her initiative.

Jane mostly seems to find Alith's awkwardness amusing, and the lengths to which Alith goes to ensure that Jane understand it is her initiative. It's still annoying that first Caecilia and now Jane learned about it in just a week. But it was a matter of time and it is not something to feel guilty about. My sambos have given me carte blanche, and actually seem to mean it, but I assume it's freedom under responsibility.

Once back at the gun, I do the sight marking and measurement and realise I have room to extend the scale a bit too and can make markings up to about 1900 meters just because it's fun. But I will work out a table for the entire approximate range up to 20 degrees, and maybe I should make an optical range finder. But when the hell will I ever need to shoot at such distances? Just because the cannon have the range, I'm unlikely to hit anything unless it's big. I can only imagine how very small angle differences, powder amount, powder manufacture, temperature, wind and other things affect over such vast distances. Although, a Castle might be worried if I have a lot of shots. If I shoot behind higher terrain from 1.5km away, they will have a hard time understanding what the hell is going on, and I can then build a defended position. It's not like the Castle people will worry even if they see a small enemy force gathering that far away. Bows and siege machines have a maximum range of a few hundred meters, not five to ten times distant. I would need field telephone or field telegraph to an artillery spotter who could give corrections. But these tests have used up an awful lot of black powder. Maybe I should think about creating a saltpeter farm come summer?

We shoot the shot shell at 200 meter against the 400 meter target. Several volunteer to be the one to pull the cord and after drawing lots, Gunhild happily pulls the cord. It is an impressive effect and will be interesting to view the recording, not least as the target is hit by several balls and we can see the trees further away and widely outside the target also being hit. The sound of all the balls hitting trees and rocks is really impressive. Bodil grimaces as she realises what would happen to warriors at that distance, and how even a large formation would have been badly hurt. Bodil gingerly fingers her shield, knowing that a slowly advancing shield wall is not the right way to face a powerful cannon, and spread out is not much better. I've told them how many musket balls there are in a cannon shot, and when we get there we see what they did to the target. Bodil grimaces, while Alith, Gunhild, Hillevi and Ciara celebrate as we take pictures. Practically speaking, the maximum range is probably around 300 meters to get a good effect from a shot shell. More than that and few balls will actually hit a line of enemies. Most of the balls will strike the ground ahead of the line or go over. After the first discoveries of hits on tree trunks and branches, everyone starts searching, and the balls have settled deep. Gunhild promises to dig as much as possible out and seal the trees wounds with tar.

We fetch the iron cannon and do two shots just to make sure its bore isn't messed up, and adjust the sights so the iron cannon is ready for use as well. Frankly, a more mobile weapon that basically shoots a large shot shell would be most useful for future battles. I believe the likeliest chance is that a battle will take place out in the open, against a larger group of infantry or cavalry who are probably relatively spread out in a line or wedge. So a mobile weapon with fairly fast reloading, that is easier to take along and use in mobile combat. Possibly with a horse carrying the weapon and ammo, but not as a wagon to pull. It is unlikely that I will need to attack a castle or fortress and won't have the time and opportunity to bring one or more cannons. The iron cannon can decently fulfil this if I design a different mount and upgrade with a lever arm that operates a fixed locking wedge or work as a rotating cam lock, and I can prioritise shot shells instead of cannon balls. The iron cannon can have several ready-made powder charges in its mug like chambers, and quickly get off at least three shots. Actually, if I only want to use shot shells against targets like riders and people, I can make a much lighter and mobile cannon, but for now, the iron cannon will be tweaked and a few more chambers made.

Eventually, the bronze cannon is back into the great hall, and the iron cannon is back in the basement. After watching videos where I can actually see the projectile enough, I now know the muzzle velocity and muzzle energy, and I've used the graph plotter function to create a simpler graph of what angle gives a certain range. Not exact, but at least I have some fixed points I can get the graph to match and work from that, and together with Iselin and Kari I also make a manual plot and show how it is possible to estimate and try out according to that method, and which factors affecting the trajectory. There will be big errors just because of uncertainty in distance and the fact that the ground will certainly not be completely flat, so longer shots will always need to be corrected. More frightening is that the cannon seems to have a range of close to 3.5km, maybe more, and 16s flight time.

When I'm downloading videos from the Mobius camera, I remember how it's modded internally. In addition to the super cap capacitor to be able to change the external battery without loosing time settings - which is annoying as hell - it has an input for a radar motion sensor which I unfortunately didn't bring, and it also have a built-in IR sensor for the DSLR camera's remote. What interprets the infrared signal is an ATtiny85 which, via a pair of mosfets, electrically 'presses the buttons' on the Mobius camera. So I have a small microprocessor I can reprogram, but I don't know what to use it for. However, the mosfets are a more powerful surface mount variant because I took what I had at home when I made the mod, and these two mosfets have been used to control lights, motors and so on from microcontrollers, and have a low VGS threshold voltage, which was the reason they worked fine with a single cell lipo and the small microprocessor. 60V, 16A. Yay! Either powerful radio, or powerful speaker.

The little red laser module might get some use but I don't know for what, because a laser sight feels silly and unnecessary. Maybe more as a curiosity, or to test optics, but there are better methods for that. Play with Krosp? The laser module is only 3mm in diameter and 10mm long, so I could build it into a gold ring with a CR2032 battery and 'point it at people'. Very cool magic effect in a dark feast hall with smoke from fires and torches. Yeah, I'll have to remember to have it in my pocket when we leave the islands.