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Site Index > Ordnance > Artillery > Early Guns > Great Mortar of Moscow
Great Mortar of Moscow or Czar Cannon
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Great Mortar of Moscow or Czar Cannon

The largest recorded caliber gun ever made was the Great Mortar of Moscow known vicariously as the Tsar (Czar) Cannon built in 1586. It had a caliber of 36 inches or 914.4mm and was about 16.25 feet or 5 meters long. It reputedly weighed over 85,000 pounds (42.5 Yankee tons, 38000 kg). Tsar Fyodor I son of Ivan IV commissioned Andrei Chokhov to cast the great gun. It was designed to fire stone projectiles weighing about 2000 pounds or 900kg or some type of multiple shot such as grapeshot. The gun reputedly has never been fired and therefore still exists today at the Kremlin.

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