The saker was a medium cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 slightly smaller than a culverin

Culverin

A culverin was a relatively simple ancestor of the musket, and later a medieval cannon, adapted for use by the French in the 15th century, and later adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century. The culverin was used to bombard targets from a distance. The weapon had a...

 developed during the early 16th century and often used by the English. It was named after the Saker Falcon

Saker Falcon

The Saker Falcon is a very large falcon. This species breeds from eastern Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China...

, a large falconry

Falconry

Falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...

 bird native to the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

.

A saker's barrel was approximately 9.5 ft (2.9m) long, had a calibre of 3.25 inches (8.26 cm) and weighed approximately 1900 lb (860 kg). It could fire round shot weighing 5.25 lb (2.4 kg) approximately 7400 ft (2.3 km) using 4 lb (1.8 kg) of black powder.