Who here has a mortar? Blackpowder? Class III?

[MatthewVanitas]

I've been corresponding with a fellow who owns a Class III 60mm mortar. Apparently, you can get launching projectiles which send an iron training round about 150 yards. There are also training rounds holding a BP shotgun shell that a create a puff of smoke to help spot your shots. Unfortunately, no manufacturer seems to be willing to sell increments to civvies, and even if legal I have zero interest in cooking up my own.

So, does anyone have any tips on the most fun mortar-like device which can actually be used with a proper compass and whiz-wheel?

I was in Marine Artillery, and always liked FO practice. It'd be fun to mess around with the charts-n-darts again.

Due to those requirements, I believe the historical mortars are out, since they don't seem to have any decent way to measure and maintain deflection and elevation.

Are there any BP variants of the modern 60mm out there, that don't need a class three? I'd be far happier just dumping some powder in a tube and priming it, rather than filling out paperwork just to use a blank launching charge. If you can't get increments and VT fuses anyway...

If it were BP, no NFA issues, plus you could use the standard tripods and levels for the 60mm, which I imagine might be bought surplus. Just need to measure out some powder, try a few shots, sketch up a basic Firing Table, and Bob's your uncle.

Any info on a BP version of a modern mortar, or any other alternatives?

-MV

 

[PvtPyle]

I have a 60mm, 2 inch, 81mm and 82mm mortars. Cast your own rounds from foam or resin. If you are creative then you can make your own out of PVC and fill them with colored chalk or talc powder.

To launch them use shotgun shells with no shot in a metal fin assembly. If you make enough of the fin assemblies you can just keep loading the plastic rounds on the top of the stem.

 

[dfaugh]

I've thought about using "spun gun" (potato launcher) techniques to fire a fin stabilized, sabot round. As long as there's no explosive charge in the mortar round, I think this is legal, but IANAL. Interesting experiment, which I'll probably get around to some day.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

THR member Billll built this one:

That's Billll on the left. Firing the mortar is Crystal Albertus, the late Labgrade's widow.

It fires a soda can filled with cement

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Homemade are cool, but it's tempting to get one semi-close to an issue 60mm, in order to use the accessories mentioned above.

Has anyone actually made a firing table for their mortar, or are they more just for goofy plinking fun vice "benchrest" work?

There's got to be some guy out there making BP mortars out of de-watt smoothbore milsurp mortars. If not, there's a business niche in search of an entrepeneur. Turning a dewatt into a BP is legal, right? I think I've read an article about a dewatt howitzer being used for BP, with the mil-issue carriage and all.

Any source for dewatt mortars? I've got some capital if somebody else has the machining skills...

-MV

 

[wdlsguy]

Turning a dewatt into a BP is legal, right?

Why not get the real thing? You are in Texas, after all.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Why not get the real thing? You are in Texas, after all.

200 smackers out-of-pocket just for paperwork.

Can't get increments, but _can_ adjust the amount of BP in a BP mortar.

Haven't yet seen a BP mortar with a proper sight unit and bipod mil-adjustable for deflection and elevation.

Aside from that, it'd certainly be cool...

-MV

 

[Zero_DgZ]

I have a mortar. It fires tennis balls... But as a consolation, it fires them really, really far.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

I have a mortar. It fires tennis balls... But as a consolation, it fires them really, really far.

How far are we talking here?

More importantly, if you keep all the other factors consistent, does it fire them acccurately?

-MV

 

[OpFlash]

This reminds me of the mortar a friend and I made when we were teenagers. We had found a 3ft length of heavy pipe with threaded ends. We went to a hardware store and bought one end cap. Then we went and bought some black powder, waterproof fuse and a box of baggies. We used a narrow ml flask as a measuring device for the powder and created charges using the corner of baggies with a length of fuse and twist ties. The pipe diameter fit D-cell batteries perfectly. We set it up at the extreme end of a high school football field and were launching batteries high into the crystal blue sky which would fall near the opposite end. It was great fun to go down into the targeted area and watch them tumbling through the air glinting in the sun as they arced over toward you. The ground was soft enough that we could reuse them a couple of times. Ah, those were the days...

 

[Auslander]

Pricey hobby

Matt,

I have to let you know. I paid ~$4000 for my parts kit, taxes (Form 1), new manufactured tube, rounds and stuff to get my M-2 mortar going. You can get parts and stuff cheaper than that but I wanted a WWII M-2 mortar.

Like PvtPyle says if you have the skills and tooling you can roll your own rounds and have a lower cost per shot. The fin units are available. A 20ga. shotgun shell will fit in the units if you ream them out a bit. You can buy one from Big Sky Surplus and use it as a model and make your own with a lathe, a spot welder, time and inexpensive materials.

J.B Trading company [email protected] sells 12ga. shotgun shell reactive nose cones

Go to James Bardwell’s NFA information site. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wbardwel/public/nfalist/index.html

to get the details on purchasing/making NFA items.

Go to Tom Bower’s http://www.subguns.com board for input on NFA and the law and who to call for parts and such.

Go to the board at http://www.obscure-reference.com/cgi-bin/atr.cgi for infomation on DD’s and NFA parts.