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Mortars

RosieRosie Member Posts: 14,525 ✭✭✭
edited September 2001 in General Discussion
Have shot just about every hand held gun made and owned most but know very little about the big stuff. The mortar looks like simplicity defined but i know nothing about it. Is the projectile a rocket or a shell? What kind of primer does it use Etc.? Any of you ever fired one? Where can i see exploded views of a mortar and projectile? Rosie
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    RosieRosie Member Posts: 14,525 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    New mortar development:

    http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_Mortars,,00.html?ESRC=soldiertech.nl

    "To expect bad people not to do wrong is madness, for he who expects this desires an impossibility. But to allow people to behave so to others, and to expect them not to do you any wrong, is irrational and tyrannical." --Marcus Aurelius
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    buddybbuddyb Member Posts: 5,249 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I dont know what is used now,but back in the VN days we used 81mm mortars.They had 11(I think)small detachable powder bags to adjust the shells range by the number of bags used.Cant remember what the primer was,but seems there was a pin in the nose of the round you pulled after it was set in the tube just before it was dropped.That was a long time ago and I havent needed one since Ive been back to S.C.
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    RosieRosie Member Posts: 14,525 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    What in the name of snot is a brick question? I know the size of different mortars and have seen what they can do. I just have often wondered how they work. Rosie
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    RembrandtRembrandt Member Posts: 4,486 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Rosie, the closest thing I ever got to a mortar was a steel fence post driver....dropped M80's or Cherry Bombs down the tube and then slid an ear of corn in behind it.....they sure would fly!
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    RedlegRedleg Member Posts: 417 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Let the real muzzle monkey jump in here. I am an artilleryman (still active Army) and have played with mortars for years.Mortars are high-trajectory shells that are fin stabilized. They can be fuzed to explode at a certain time, in the point detonating mode, or in the delay mode.The mortar man aims his weapon based upon the information given to him by the Fire Direction Center (FDC) who uses a MBCS (Mortar Ballistic Computer System). The Mortar guy then adjusts the charge by pulling off one or more "cheese charges" which are bags of powder wraped around the base of the shell. He then drops the projo into the weapon, closes his ears, and repeats.Attached is a picture of a mortar crew in action. You can see the Marine on the right holding the projo with the yellow cheese charges around the bottom. The primer is sticking out the bottom between the fins. The tube is to his right. The thing sticking out of the tube on the left just above the guy's hand is the weapon's sight.Hope that helped!
    Crush your enemies, drive their horses before you, hear the lamentation of their women.--Genghis Khan
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    gunboobgunboob Member Posts: 203 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Iffn' that top part don't look like a glass bottle of beer, I'll be a '........Bob
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    concealedG36concealedG36 Member Posts: 3,566 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Good one gunboob, I thought the same thing. That's a Michelob bottle, isn't it!? We used to spray starting fluid into a steel pipe that was capped at one end (with a little hole in the end to put a small wick). Then, we'd drop something into the pipe like an apple or golf ball and light the wick. We could shoot the projectile WAYYYYY out, at least 500 yards. I think those are illegal now, but when I was a kid that was a lot of fun.
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    EOD GuyEOD Guy Member Posts: 931 ✭
    edited November -1
    Not all mortars are fin stabilized. For instance, the US 4.2 inch (107 mm) mortar is spin stabilized.
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    ROT_BLACKROT_BLACK Member Posts: 5 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Rosie~I was in Lima Co. 3/5 at Camp Pendleton. My MOS was 0341 (Infantry Mortars). The picture that RedLeg posted is of a 60MM Mortar system. Don't know how the Army does it but we did not have a computer to tell us our firing solutions (Although he is Arty and we were ground pounders and we were Marines so our budget wasn't there for Computers :-)), good ol brainpower got our FDC through our fire missions. Not sure what kind of primer is used but SOME fuses could be timed. Such as White/Red Phosphorus and Illumination rounds. HE (High Expolsive) had a "Crude" timer on it. We could turn a screw and it would detonate several meters in the air, give it a fraction of a second for delay (kicks up lots of dirt) or explode upon impact. Looks all fun until you have to "Hump" that thing all over God's creation, it sure gets heavy after awhile.I hope that helps ya a little.Death from above..
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    Shootist3006Shootist3006 Member Posts: 4,171
    edited November -1
    Rosie, the primer was (in the 60's) a percussion type at the base of the shell. As others have stated, charge could be increased by adding increments of additional charge.Mortars can be exceptionally accurate. Lou Diamond is credited with SINKING a Japanese destroyer at Guadalcanal when he dropped a 4.2 round down the stack of a destroyer that was shelling the beach!!!
    Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem.Semper Fidelis
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