Time to post some more Bowling Ball Mortar Pic's

[Big Richard Hertzer]

Bob Mc Bride & Company  had these out at the Dry Creek Machinegun shoot last August

[Cat Whisperer]

Battery - lock and load blue 16 lb bowling balls ...

3 rounds, fire at Will.

(sorry Will).

[rdc in MN]

Thanks alot-just when I thought I might be able to regain some self control you had to post these :lol: Do you know what they used for the bipods & bases, how about the chamber plug?

[Big Richard Hertzer]

They usally get these from Sarco Or Ohio Ord,
they use actual 81mm Bipods and Base plate's as for the Ball in the base its a trailer hitch 2 inch ball..Im not sure if its the same thread pitch as the Valve of if the had to adapt it . Bob Mc bride can be found on the 50 caliber shooters assocation website. they were selling complete BB Tubes
with the remote fireing cord and Ball attached for like $350 ish They use brand new tube's. (you really want to use a tube that failed a Hydrostat?)
http://www.ohioordnanceworks.com/parts/parts.htm

[Jeff B.]

Nice looking mortars aren't they? In the pic you can also see what appears to be a very fine Lyle Gun as well. All kinds of neat toys at that shoot. Seems to me I remember seeing several 20mm anti-tank rifles as well as a 37mm AT cannon.

Very cool place to be... :-)

[Fred]

Saw the motar pictures of Dan McBride Motar which appear to be made out of cyld. used for welding, compressed gases, and I'm interested in them and would like to contact McBride Co. ref. poss. purchase.

I was unable to locate Dan McBride & Company on the 50 cal. assoc. web page, does anyone have a way to contact the company, add, phone, e-mail, web page or know the city or state he lives in.

Thanks in advance.

FRED...................................

[Cat Whisperer]

Making your own is an option - but the expensive part will be the traverse and elevation (to use machine gun terms).  Cylinders show up now and then and can be gotten for not much money (I just missed 18 of them, and the local welding supply company is looking out for me for more).  Then its getting a piece made for the fuse and for the 2" ball (trailer hitch) and the baseplate.  My first mortar (beer-can caliber) used an MGB flywheel for a baseplate.

[Cat Whisperer]

Jeff B -

You've identified the 'Lyle Gun' in the picture.  What other information can you share with us about it?

Thanks,

[Fire50]

Got a tx from Bob thursday night on this subject.  By the jest of the conversation he's out of building them for sale, T&E and base plates have all but dried up.   I'm looking into making a trunion for one and mounting it on either a wood or metal sled base.  Tube must be retapped from 1" tapered to 1" stright. As for elevation adjustments I'm still thinking on that.  Bob stated tube length has no effect as far as this mortar is concerned so shorter and a sled may be the way to go.  There's a lot more that goes into this also, so I'll post as I go on with this project.

[Double D]

I can't realy see the need for the T&E stuff and base plate other than they are available.  For the type of shooting intended just about any secure mount would work and a shorter barrel might look better.

Cut some rings to go over the outer portion of the tube and make it look like Dahlgren rings and more like a Coehorn.

But if I  had a mortar base plate and T&E legs, I sure would use them.