while in the army we were shooting at maximum elevation over a mountain...we had 18 155 guns and 4 -8 inch guns...half way up that mountain was papa-sons straw hut...when we fired it usally sounded like we were poping pop corn...when the order came to fire all the guns went off at the same time...papa sons house literally disappeared in a cloud of smoke....out of the smoke came papa son charging down that mountain with him yelling at the top of his lungs....he had a wooden pitch fork in his hands....what a brave man charging a battalion of men alone he was....we all looked to see who s gun had hit the straw hut but nary a gun was aimed at the hut...the blast from all the guns had blowed the hut away...I ll never forget that papa son charging down that mountain with the wooden pitchfork in his hands or that straw hut just disappearing in a cloud of smoke....charlie

Charlie-were you in Korea? I spent the better part of a year near Pusan

This thread is on an interesting tangent and I'll add to it. Here's a black powder mortar with elevation mechanism. 3-inch bore and she shoots dog food cans filled with concrete = 2 pounds. In use the can is patched with a coffee maker filter.

Nice would love to see you fire that.

There was an episode of American pickers where a father and son were firing bowling balls over the hill behind their house with a homemade mortar. I remember a story in the news a few years ago where someone made a mortar out of the top half of an oxygen bottle. Those bottles only have 3/16 inch wall section and he blew it up and killed himself.

Frank - that mortar looks like those used at Fort Ticonderoga in the mortar accuracy competitions. Do they still hold those events there?





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Dean, sorry I don't know about mortar competitions at Fort Ti. This one is usually fired in an old coal mining spoil area with little vegetation owing to the acid in the burned culm; of course the target area is fully checked out and observed before shooting. The machine shop that made this one, has the elevation mechanism maxed out at about 75 degrees for obvious safety reasons. She weighs about 90 pounds as shown. EZ to clean after shooting with a garden hose, bore is then dried with paper towels and spray oiled when dry.

big d I spent 15 months in korea we were on the dmz...cold place to be....charlie