First of all, thanks again to Kap!
Here are some shots of the little mortar in action.
Projectile is a standard paintball, no patch.
The powder charge in the first photo is a chamber level full of FFFg, roughly three grains. In the other photos, the mortar was loaded using the .3cc dipper from my Lee kit, approximately 4 grains of FFFg. This charge slightly overfills the chamber, but not by much. This was done mainly for convenience, since I don't yet have a measure that throws the exact volume of the chamber.
I've found that the .3cc charge gives a little more smoke/fire but about the same downrange effect as the level full chamber, while any more powder gives very erratic results. I believe that this is becuase the soft paintball will give enough to fully seat over a slight hump in the powder charge. I need to make the correct measure.
I also tried FFFFg powder and was not impressed. The FFFFg gave very poor report and only threw the paintball about half as far as an equal amount of FFFg.
I was using the premium 1/16" fuse, which is a little fatter than the cheap stuff, and it's a VERY tight fit in the vent. The vent must be cleaned thoroughly after each shot. Not a big issue, and I definitely do
NOT want to drill the vent larger.
The paintballs will only break if they hit a certain way on hard pavement. The best shot I could confirm point-of-impact was 45 paces with the .3cc charge. Most of the shots were just for fun and lobbed onto the roof of the empty duplex next door.
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It's not easy to see, but there is a small block of wood sitting behind the barrel. This was to keep the sparks from the fuse off the base. I plan to mount a brass plate to the base in the future.
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