Black powder mortar plans?

Dark Alley Dan

Dark Alley Dan

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Folks:

I'm looking for a very simple black powder mortar in beercan calibre - no recoil assemply, wheels, etc, just a tube with a flash hole on one end and a big ol' bore out the other, ideally about 18" long at most.

Not being blown up is also crucial to the project.

Who has any ideas? Plans? Knows a welder who knows what he's doing?

Thanks,

Dan
 
When i lived on the Gold coast in Ausi in the 70s the Bikers there, (called Bikees LOL) Made BP Morters or Canons outa thick walled pipe and fired beer cans with cement inside the cans at police cars and each other in a big war they were haveing with another gang.
I seen a picture of one in the paper the cops had seized. it had wheels so they could tow it behind there Kawasaki 900 Z motorbikes very neat, except what they were doing with them of course lol
I cant see them being hard to make and would be alot of fun to shoot.
You been watching the Series *Pacific* on HBO Dan :p
 
I used to make them with an electrical ignition. You run a wire in through a hole (we ran it through a drilled out bolt) and hook it to steel wool. Put that in the steel tube and pour some blackpowder over it. Hook it to a car battery and boom at the connection of power. As the wire gets melted and ruined, we would just pull more through and clip it off. I liked being able to fire it off from a distance without having to light a fuse and run.
 
Thanks to all so far.

Dingus, just spent the last week in your neighbourhood, but on the outside coast of the island. Spent a lot of time pondering what we could do to liven up next year's paddling trip, and a mortar came up in the conversation. It'd have to be short and light (we're kayaking) and easy to clean. Your time in Australia sounds very interesting. Kinda Mad Max/Toecutterish!

Gallen, gonna check out your PM at home...thx.

Grizzlypeg, this sounds brilliant, but we need something pretty simple due to the circumstance.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Thanks to all so far.

Dingus, just spent the last week in your neighbourhood, but on the outside coast of the island. Spent a lot of time pondering what we could do to liven up next year's paddling trip, and a mortar came up in the conversation. It'd have to be short and light (we're kayaking) and easy to clean. Your time in Australia sounds very interesting. Kinda Mad Max/Toecutterish!

Gallen, gonna check out your PM at home...thx.

Grizzlypeg, this sounds brilliant, but we need something pretty simple due to the circumstance.
Click to expand...

I don't think "light" and safe are going to work for beer cans full of cement.

Work on golf ball size for portability.

try this place( add a w ).....http://w w.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php/board,88.0.html
 
You're in Edmonchuk. Check out high-pressure oilfield pipe/tubing. Often you can nest it to give you a 'built-up' barrel. Might take a bit of work with a lathe.

Original black-powder era mortars were iron castings with touch-holes for friction igniters: really hard to get friction igniters nowadays but you could just use a powder-train in the touch-hole.

I think you're thinking of something a bit more modern. Check out the original specs for the Stokes Mortar and its ammunition: 12-gauge powered with a blank charge! It was actually a hi/low pressure system but before the name was invented. Make your beer-can baseplates with tube extensions to hold your blank, holes drilled in the forward bit of the extension to allow the gas to pass into the main bore, drop in the baseplate and follow up with a beer-can and watch it go. Baseplates might go 50 yards or so, then you can pick them up and reload 'em.

I don't think I would want to make the beer-cans filled with cement because they could cause damage when they hit, but just enough cement to help the thing to stabilize could be fun; you could watch it go. Spray-paint the cans blaze orange and you have a 'target-launching device' (completely innocent) rather than a 'private artillery piece' (incredibly evil, not to mention anti-social).

Likely it would be classed as a home-built "firearm", so you would really want to check the legality of what you propose.

Friend and I made one of these quite a few years ago, used high-pressure treater tubing and a nice 2-inch bullplug which we welded in place. We didn't kill anybody or rob anybody, but we did give flying lessons to some tin cans. It was fun. Probably illegal now.

Darned near EVERYTHING fun is illegal these days.

Check with your lawyer and if he sez it's okay.... just have fun.
 
make a "knee mortar" aka Type 89 style mortar. Highly portable and looks like fun. Just don't try to fire it with the base on your knee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_89_grenade_discharger


Don't be this guy
8e86d17ea8f2e63b_landing
 
Right!

He's looking for a really quick ticket home. Only problem will be the shattered thigh-bone and the several years of physiotherapy that follow..... if they don't just amputate.

Jap "knee mortar" could be AIMED with the knee but the base spade stayed firmly on the ground.
 
If you are a member or have access to the NMLRA (National Muzzleloading Rifle Association), this months magazine has an article on a junkyard mortar made from about $25 bucks worth of stuff that is set up to shoot golf balls. It uses a short chuck of 4" round bar bored out to resemble a small Coehorn type mortar.
You would need access to a lathe or a friend who can machine up the barrel.
 
tonyg said:
I don't think "light" and safe are going to work for beer cans full of cement.
Click to expand...

Well, actually it does - if your smart about your design.

Here's my beer-can mortar that I've been using for the last 8 years or so. Concrete filled beer cans or pop cans really fly from this set-up. With up to 150gns of Black powder, I usually loose them visually - until I hear the "thud" of them hitting the ground!

The key to having a "light" setup is in the geometry of the internal arrangement. Note the second picture, where I've used a powder chamber - like the mortars of old, it is more ballistically efficient and safer to use this arrangement. Less powder, and the creation of gasses that expand slower, with the ability to lift very heavy projectiles.

But beer cans are not very aerodynamic. I've started to use tennis-balls filled with concrete - now that's distance!

IMG_2258.jpg


IMG_2257.jpg
 
If you embed the flare element from a pengun type flare cartridge in the projectile, it will trace.
 
[QUOTE=Weapontech;4487132]Well, actually it does - if your smart about your design.

Here's my beer-can mortar that I've been using for the last 8 years or so. Concrete filled beer cans or pop cans really fly from this set-up. With up to 150gns of Black powder, I usually loose them visually - until I hear the "thud" of them hitting the ground!

The key to having a "light" setup is in the geometry of the internal arrangement. Note the second picture, where I've used a powder chamber - like the mortars of old, it is more ballistically efficient and safer to use this arrangement. Less powder, and the creation of gasses that expand slower, with the ability to lift very heavy projectiles.

But beer cans are not very aerodynamic. I've started to use tennis-balls filled with concrete - now that's distance!
QUOTE]

very nice piece :) . The powder chamber idea is what gives the name Coehorn to that style.
As for my " lite " comment , that was based on the OP's remark that he wanted to take it along on kayaking trips....Usually those adventures are designed around 'lite' .
My beer can 'coehorn' weighs about 65# , and uses an ounce of powder / shot......mortars are definetly safer than cannons and in my mind way more fun. have contests trying to drop the beer can into a 45gallon drum:D
 
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