What happened to us 30 years ago may not technically apply, but here’s what happened anyway. Back in my gunsmith school days in 1976 and ’77, a group of us took my SBR ˝ scale 1797 8” Mortar up to the old Infantry Small Arms Range at the south end of Camp Hale, used by the Ski Troops of the U.S. Army’s 10
th Mountain Division for training during WWII. Camp Hale is a flat, high altitude valley at 9,200 feet elevation surrounded by 12 and 13 thousand foot mountains.
We found a 55 gallon drum and wondered what a point blank shot, at 5 feet, would do. Generally it was suspected that the 9 lb. malleable iron ball would go into the drum, but not out of it, lifting the drum out to about 25 yards or so. So, after loading the mortar with 5 or 6 oz. of Fg BP and lighting the fuse, we all hid behind stout spruce trees. KA_BLAM !! AS the smoke drifted away we could see the drum rolling around only a few feet from where it stood. Suddenly, there was a CRACK! In the distance, and we could see a tiny puff of granite splinters and dust come off the face of a cliff high on a mountain side. Looking at a topo map of the area I had in my truck, we determined that the ball had struck the mountain 1,000 feet higher than we were, about 10,200 feet elev. and approx 900 yards down range.
Fortunately for us our backstop was a mountain almost 12,000 feet high. The photo below shows how the shot went through the drum’s reinforced rim with little difficulty. Mike remembers that weekend very clearly. When hauling the 275 Lb. mortar to a new location it took a little hop onto his foot! Ouch!!
Tracy and Mike