Author Topic: Streamers (Read 895 times)

Evil Dog · « **on:** October 22, 2005, 07:39:04 PM »

Took my 2 1/4" bore mortar out to the range for a little while today. Only fired 5 shots but learned quite a bit.

Bought one of those magnetic protractors so that I could easily repeat elevation settings. Just stick it on the muzzle face and rotate the barrel to the desired degree of elevation.

Also tried attaching streamers to the ball to make it a bit easier to spot and follow in flight. I use a 1 1/2 pound zinc ball... a simple screw eye worked well for attaching a streamer. Had some 3/4" bright red ribbon from the local Wally World that I thought should work pretty well. Tied a 3' long section to the screw eye.

In this picture the ribbon can be seen just leaving the ground.

The ribbon survived firing only about half of the time even though there was a wire reinforcement on the ribbon edges.

I was using 160 gr GOEX FFg.... might have been a bit more than necessary. With the barrel set to 10 degrees short of vertical the ball was landing right around 60 yards downrange.... and taking about 10 seconds to get there. Think I am going to back off to 150 gr next time.

There has to be something more suitable than Wally World ribbon though. For those of you who use streamers on your mortar rounds.... what do you use?

GGaskill · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2005, 07:42:29 PM »

If the ribbon is burning or melting off, I would use a length of wire to keep the ribbon out of the hot powder gasses.

By the way, how was Sespe?

Evil Dog · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2005, 07:49:53 PM »

Hey George.... the ribbon appears to be more tearing off than anything else.... didn't notice obvious scorch or burn marks. I'm wondering if that yellow plastic "Caution" tape might work.

Sespe was a whole lot of fun. Will make that another thread in the next day or so.

GGaskill · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2005, 07:58:55 PM »

Or maybe use elastic to tie the ribbon to the eyescrew so the jolt isn't so extreme.

Powder keg · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2005, 08:11:43 PM »

If you shoot at nite I've herd that you can drill a hole in your ball and insert one of those glow sticks. Haven't done this but I'm going to :grin:

capperbar · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2005, 09:05:33 PM »

A friend used to use those flags like the used car lots use with a rope. He would just use a wood plug to wedge it in one of the finger holes of the bowling ball and stretch the flags out in front of the mortar. Fun
Dave

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #6 on:** October 23, 2005, 02:58:04 AM »

In my 4.5" I have tried using 'Caution' (maybe 'Crime Scene') yellow plastic tape.

Same experience - the muzzle blast rips it to shreds. Usually gone in the first 20 feet. I cast a brass drawer handle (had a box of hundereds of them) in the top of the concrete filled pvc pipe) into the top. This allowed me to fold the tape on the flat top of the projo.

I would be concerned using a spherical projectile and anything attached to the top of it - under it (with protection from the powder) would be ok.

My concern is that it would be easy to wedge some of the tape between the curve of the sphere and the inside of the barrel - causing instant wedging. This concern comes from having seen pictures (when at Ft. Sill) of the side of the 105mm howitzer that was blown out from just such a 'wedging'.

The Lyle guns - line throwing cannons - used a cylindrical projo with a rod attached that would keep the 'rope' from ever seeing the inside of the barrel.

Think it through, be safe.

Double D · « **Reply #7 on:** October 23, 2005, 03:31:49 AM »

I used a small eye screw in the ball and directly tied about 2 1/2 to 3 feet plastic engineer or surveyors tape on to the eye. I loaded the ball, screw eye up and then tossed the tape in on top. The tape stayed on the full 200 yards.

Before doing the tape some of those watching the shoot couldn't see the ball in flight . After two shots with tape they didn't want the tape any more and spotted the ball in flight every time. I think using the tape gave them some idea where to look. But everyone agreed the ball with tape was boring.

I don't remember how many shots we fired with tape. Three or four? I only had one ball set up with tape and never had to replace the tape, although it was getting shorter after every shot

Double D · « **Reply #8 on:** October 23, 2005, 03:35:13 AM »

Oh yeah, the streamer ball flight was erratic, didn't go as far as the non streamer ball.

guardsgunner · « **Reply #9 on:** October 23, 2005, 04:10:37 AM »

So you might say the problem was a drag :-D

john pike · « **Reply #10 on:** October 23, 2005, 05:58:50 AM »

Quote from: guardsgunner

So you might say the problem was a drag :-D

just an idea, but what abut flyfishing line, its strng and has an elastic property,

for the larger sizes you could braid it,,.

or a small bungiee cord for the bowlinball size,,

johnp

Evil Dog · « **Reply #11 on:** October 23, 2005, 09:37:17 AM »

Hmm...... fishing line is an interesting concept. Could put a few hundred yards on one of those open face reels like they use for bow fishing. Then after the shot I could save a trip downrange to retrieve the ball.... just reel it in instead !!!

I did find something over at Wally World that just might work though. 5/32" braded Poly cord.... a bright yellow. It's got to be stronger than that ribbon that I've been using. Will tie 3 feet or so onto a ball and see what happens. Probably will be next month or so before I can get out to the range again though.

guardsgunner · « **Reply #12 on:** October 23, 2005, 01:17:29 PM »

Maybe a short piece of surgical tubing to help absorb the shock.

Stuffy25thIA · « **Reply #13 on:** October 23, 2005, 02:07:31 PM »

I use lawn chair webbing, someone is always throwing away an old lawn chair, just cut to length.