Author Topic: Long mortar shots. (Read 1150 times)

Artilleryman · « **on:** September 07, 2011, 12:24:31 PM »

Has anyone ever fired or see someone fire a mortar projectile to a much longer distance that was unintended? If so, how did it happen?

KABAR2 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 07, 2011, 12:49:47 PM »

Yep! intended 125 yards and shot out around 350 yards...... Reason distracted by talking explaing what I was doing... forgot to measure charge and fully loaded chamber..... oops Thankfully I had plenty of realestate where we were firing.

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #2 on:** September 07, 2011, 01:24:10 PM »

No I haven't. But we all know you would not start a thread like this unless you had a spectacular shot in mind. Please tell us about it.

Tracy and Mike

Artilleryman · « **Reply #3 on:** September 07, 2011, 02:29:39 PM »

You're right, but I am going to save the story until later. Since it happened at the nssa nationals someone else may want to relate the story.

dominick · « **Reply #4 on:** September 07, 2011, 02:43:50 PM »

The range that friends and I used to shoot at was a quarry with a 50 foot wall at the 200 yd range. Above the wall, it went up another 30 feet into a small mountain peak. On the other side of it are dirt bike trails. The first time I test fired my soda can mortar there, it was with a full charge and cement filled can and it completely cleared the mountain.

BoomLover · « **Reply #5 on:** September 07, 2011, 06:21:05 PM »

@ Dominick

Whoops!

Artilleryman · « **Reply #6 on:** September 07, 2011, 06:23:33 PM »

I think we are going to hear a lot of "whoops" events.

smokemjoe · « **Reply #7 on:** September 07, 2011, 07:09:07 PM »

We were shooting with our bowling ball mortars for 1,000 yds. using 4 oz. 2 ff and kiddie balls, A small plane came in and keep flying around watching us. We fired when it was behine us.
One other time at a friend farm we were shooting across this set aside land, 500 yds. Fired a few times and then the Amish came in to pick corn across from across his land by hand, They watched as we shot at a 45 deg. away from them.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #8 on:** September 08, 2011, 01:43:05 AM »

And then there was the time when the round cleared the mountain in the back and the thought popped up - I wonder what's on the other side? (Actually very steep other-side in the National Forrest.)

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #9 on:** September 08, 2011, 01:48:18 AM »

One winter in Iowa when it was -10dF for at least 3 weeks (it took that to freeze the river) we were shooting out on the ice. (A GOOD place to shoot as the river was some 50-75' wide a couple of feet deep AND 15' below the grade of the surrounding area - which put US out of the wind.

After a bunch of shots with the wind we tried on INTO the wind. Being a soda can full of water, it traveled slowly up at 60 degrees. And then the wind caught it and it landed 20 yards or so BEHIND us.

Artilleryman · « **Reply #10 on:** September 08, 2011, 02:51:48 AM »

Quote from: Cat Whisperer on September 08, 2011, 01:43:05 AM

And then there was the time when the round cleared the mountain in the back and the thought popped up - I wonder what's on the other side? (Actually very steep other-side in the National Forrest.)

Were you experimenting with powder charges?

DaveSB · « **Reply #11 on:** September 08, 2011, 04:17:57 AM »

I'm sure mistakes will happen to me as I'm just getting into artillery. At least now I won't feel as stupid when they do

I'll just try my best to keep them at a minimum.

flagman1776 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 08, 2011, 04:28:02 AM »

delete

Double D · « **Reply #13 on:** September 08, 2011, 05:36:19 AM »

At the recent Montana Cannon shoot several of us had shots just leave the range..as the temperature increased my standard loads just shoot further and further.

Fortunately one of the selection criteria for this range was the consideration of just this type of thing. We have a good clear area behind the range for overages...

subdjoe · « **Reply #14 on:** September 08, 2011, 06:05:19 AM »

Quote from: DaveSB on September 08, 2011, 04:17:57 AM

I'm sure mistakes will happen to me as I'm just getting into artillery. At least now I won't feel as stupid when they do I'll just try my best to keep them at a minimum.

No, you will feel just as stupid. Trust me. But you will know you are in good company.

ADDED: keep in mind, powder first. THEN shot.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #15 on:** September 08, 2011, 06:13:16 AM »

Quote from: Artilleryman on September 08, 2011, 02:51:48 AM

Quote from: Cat Whisperer on September 08, 2011, 01:43:05 AM
And then there was the time when the round cleared the mountain in the back and the thought popped up - I wonder what's on the other side? (Actually very steep other-side in the National Forrest.)

Were you experimenting with powder charges?

In a way. Just trying to get max range. Keeping the 'hit' in sight was an afterthought that should have been a primary consideration. Hmmm. Got a little smarter.

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #16 on:** September 08, 2011, 06:27:41 AM »

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 ½ 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

KABAR2 · « **Reply #17 on:** September 08, 2011, 07:39:25 AM »

Tracy,
From what I gathered from a previous thread your 275 pound mortar is not one of Mike's most liked items.....

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #18 on:** September 08, 2011, 01:44:07 PM »

You are absolutely correct, Allen. This was the only time it smashed his toes, but there was another time that it made Mike disappear briefly. Again, this was 30 or 35 years ago back when we were young and foolish, so none of us thought there was anything wrong with tearing the end off our 'Stupid Quills'. They were the type of ignition quill that you make by filling an entire paper soda straw with FFFg BP and sealing both ends. At the range you insert one end into the vent and tear off the other end which sticks out about two inches and then jam a two inch long cannon fuse in the quill.

Mike did all this and, as soon as he lit the fuse, He Disappeared! in a large cloud of black powder smoke! Little did we know that we had been preparing this little surprise by tearing the quill's end off each time, spilling a little powder on the ground every time. Fortunately the piece did not go off when he went poof, but rather, after the huge flare from the large quantity of 3 F that was in that stupid quill, giving Mike time to step back. After that experience we discovered black match and used it for almost 35 years until learning of the instantaneous ignition quills from Double D.

Tracy and Mike

Double D · « **Reply #19 on:** September 08, 2011, 04:19:18 PM »

I wish I could take credit for the quill design, but I can't, someone else came up with it. I just photo documented it...

Artilleryman · « **Reply #20 on:** September 10, 2011, 02:22:20 PM »

I wrote earlier that I had a story about a mortar shot that went farther than intended. This was at the NSSA Nationals and involves a crew firing a 24 pdr. Apparently, (according to the story I heard) the person who made up the powder charges was not the person who dispensed them from the ammo box, and the person didn't know the difference between the main charges and the boost charges. He sent forward a boost charge for the first shot and the shell only went 5 or 10 yards which of course caused the spectators to laugh. He then doubled up on the boost charge and it went 15-20 yards. He doubled that and it went 40 yards or so. Finally he got to the main charges and combined at least two of them. I was standing about 15 yds away with my back to the mortar when they fired it. I knew immediately that this was more than a normal load and turned around to watch the shell going up and over the ridge that is the backstop on that range. I estimate that the shell went at least 400 yards instead of 100. That got a lot of wows and OMGs from the spectators.

Problem here was apparently powder containers that may not have been clearly marked, and crew members that were unfamiliar with the powder containers.