Finally had a successful shoot. I say finally because the first attempt was a failure. It had been so long since I fired black powder I did a rookie mistake: failed to run dry patches down the barrel. Wound up with an oil soaked charge that simply would not fire. Had to take the cannon back home and fortunately was able to remove the ball and fouled powder using compressed air. My son learned a few things that day including how to deal with disappointment yet continue to work the problem while maintaining a level head and positive attitude.
Next attempt my son made sure the barrel was dry prior to leaving the house. So we get to our spot to fire the cannon and get set up. Load the cannon, insert the fuse and light it. Fuse burns all the way down...nothing. Thinking "not again" I waited a few minutes to insure all sparks had burned out then went up to the cannon. Using a piece of wire I had brought I cleared the fuse hole then proceeded to pour a bit of powder into it then worked the powder in with the wire. I continued this until it would accept no more powder. Inserted a fresh fuse and we lit it. BOOM! It fired!
I talked over what I thought with my son. There was a space between the bottom of the fuse hole and the powder charge with no powder. This time we inserted the fuse FIRST in the loading sequence so it would contain the powder where it was needed. Success! We were able to reliably fire it once we made this adjustment in the loading sequence.
My son did take some video, I need to get it from him so I can post it.
Glenn