Author Topic: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities  (Read 867 times)

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Offline Cat Whisperer

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Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« on: February 02, 2008, 07:29:10 AM »
What are YOUR favorite WINTER cannon or mortar activities?

I'm sitting here at the confuser, just regaining my sense of smell after a sinus infection of last week.  (I knew it was going to be bad when I couldn't smell the cat poop from emptying the litter box!) 

Next week some of us that shoot single-shot rifles are getting together for an informal dinner up near New Market.  I was asked to bring a a mortar or two to show one of the others that is a member of N-SSA. 

One of these days - when Lance gets out from under all the snow and ice we're going to get together for dinner and also sometime do a WINTER mortar shoot!

What do y'all do,  or would y'all LIKE to do?  (DD I KNOW is doing what he WANTS to do - come back state-side and retire!)



Tim K                 www.GBOCANNONS.COM
Cat Whisperer
Chief of Smoke, Pulaski Coehorn Works & Winery
U.S.Army Retired
N 37.05224  W 80.78133 (front door +/- 15 feet)

Offline Terry C.

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2008, 07:40:02 AM »
Hmmm...

Winter shooting really isn't much different from summer shooting here.

It's sunny and 62° right now, expected to be about 72° tomorrow.

May hit 80+ by Tuesday.

Offline KABAR2

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2008, 08:12:48 AM »
Well I still don't have anything to shoot, so it's a moot point :-\
but very soon I will have my wood model finished for a small mortar (Pool ball size)
then it's time to see about changing this chunk of bronze I have sitting
here into something that goes boom! ;D I'm hoping by spring to have the first one done.
I'll post some photos as the model progresses.
Mr president I do not cling to either my gun or my Bible.... my gun is holstered on my side so I may carry my Bible and quote from it!

Sed tamen sal petrae LURO VOPO CAN UTRIET sulphuris; et sic facies tonituum et coruscationem si scias artficium

Offline seacoastartillery

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2008, 08:16:18 AM »
     Tim,   To say that we are jealous of Terry's weather, is quite an understatement, but we are looking forward to dragging something out next week, snow or not.  Our winter outings in the past included one very interesting experiment.  We wanted to see what the spread would be at 200 yards on grapeshot from our 4" mortar, Model 1797.  We went out to the prairie and found the slope that gradually rose as it went away from our mortar battery.  We blocked the bed up with landscape timbers and a few sand bags at about 45 deg.  We fired 7, one-pound lead bricks, surrounded with cut hardwood sticks, to keep the lead from jamming and let fly ahead of six ounces of 1Fg.  They actually did better than we figured with a 75' lateral and 150' distribution in range.  The impact hole for each brick was extremely well marked when it tore through the 2" of snow and threw a half bucket of dry, dusty soil out on the snow!

     Chin up, Lance; things can only get better.  Take a few pictures of your mid-winter shoot to show here.  Have fun!  We will be watching for those pics, KABAR2.  Sounds like a good size to make.

Regards,

Tracy and Mike
     
     
Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin'-cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets
It's only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets - 'Tss! 'Tss!

From the poem  Screw-Guns  by Rudyard Kipling

Offline lance

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2008, 02:24:01 PM »
 Tim, i hope SOON we can have that dinner and shoot, i need a fun day!!! We got to try Mike and Tracy's mortar grapeshot experiment, i know that will be fun!!!!
PALADIN had a gun.....I have guns, mortars, and cannons!

Offline intoodeep

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2008, 03:30:12 PM »
Lance,

 I think you guys just need to build a snow fort and just have at it..... :D  :D That sounds like a Winter Cannon/Mortar activity to me..... ;D





 
If you make it idiot proof, then, someone will make a better idiot.


Offline lance

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2008, 03:46:34 PM »
Lance,

 I think you guys just need to build a snow fort and just have at it..... :D  :D That sounds like a Winter Cannon/Mortar activity to me..... ;D





 
O.K., hey i just thought up a name, Fort Intoodeep, any rules we should know about?
PALADIN had a gun.....I have guns, mortars, and cannons!

Offline intoodeep

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2008, 04:23:35 PM »
 
O.K., hey i just thought up a name, Fort Intoodeep, any rules we should know about?

;D  ;D  ;D Hey be nice...:D The only rules are. I claim the Dictator "snowy" that "entsminger" created awhile back......

If you make it idiot proof, then, someone will make a better idiot.


Offline lance

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2008, 04:29:30 PM »
 intoodeep, ya mean this one:
PALADIN had a gun.....I have guns, mortars, and cannons!

Offline intoodeep

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2008, 04:38:09 PM »
Yep, That's the one..... I give up, you win..... :D I couldn't come up with the photo....  :(





If you make it idiot proof, then, someone will make a better idiot.


Offline lance

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2008, 04:49:52 PM »
intoodeep, do you ever get any snow to make one?
PALADIN had a gun.....I have guns, mortars, and cannons!

Offline intoodeep

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2008, 05:29:35 PM »
Lance,

 The answer is no. We get flurries once ever 3 or 4 years but, no measure-able amount. If, I want snow I can drive 40 minutes into the Mountains. But, I try to stay away from that white stuff.... That's why I left PA.

 Now, back to the topic. ;) My winter cannon activity has been moving the cannons in the living room so I can paint. Maybe, I can check one off the Honeydo list..... ;D



If you make it idiot proof, then, someone will make a better idiot.


Offline Victor3

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #12 on: February 03, 2008, 02:13:28 AM »
 It usually gets pretty nasty here in Redondo Beach, CA around this time of year. I actually have to wear a wetsuit while surfing. Right now it's raining and 55 degrees, so I can't go out of the house except for emergencies - the pavement is all wet and stuff.

 I'm looking on ebay for cheap pool balls as ammo for one of my cannons until this storm blows over. Later today I'll be doing some woodwork on the base of one of my mortars after the game. By March I should have two new mortars and one cannon ready to shoot!
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

Sherlock Holmes

Offline Terry C.

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2008, 02:48:32 AM »
It usually gets pretty nasty here in Redondo Beach, CA around this time of year. I actually have to wear a wetsuit while surfing. Right now it's raining and 55 degrees, so I can't go out of the house except for emergencies - the pavement is all wet and stuff.

I know what'cha mean, we're pinned down by robins here. ;D


Seriously, it snows a flurry or two maybe every other year. Actual accumulation that stays on the ground more than a few hours only comes around about every 20 years.

We're about due for a good 2-3 day snow event.

The town will shut down.

Offline jeeper1

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #14 on: February 03, 2008, 05:38:34 AM »
Quote
so I can't go out of the house except for emergencies - the pavement is all wet and stuff.
I can certainly understand your reluctance to go outside. The drivers in the PRK south, for the most part, don't know how to drive on a wet road. 
I may not be completely sane, but at least I don't think I have the power to influence the weather.

Offline Will Bison

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Re: Winter Cannon/Mortar activities
« Reply #15 on: February 03, 2008, 08:53:43 AM »
Besides chasing snow around for the last 6 weeks I've been preparing ammo in anticipation of Spring and the first shooting session of the year. My project for this week will be building a slap hammer for one cannon. My plan is to make it a side mounted affair so as not to block my sights.

Other than that I watch the snow fall at night and then crank up the tractor in the morning for the daily plowing ;D ;D ;D

Bill