Somebody at Boomershoot this year was wistfully recalling the fellow with the Bowling Ball Mortar who used to fire it off at lunchtime. He hasn’t shown up for several years.
Thus, I was intrigued by this discussion on Calguns.net.Â
There is a good shortcut for bowling ball mortars. By mysterious
mechanical serendipity,
1) A standard bowling ball fits perfectly into a half of one of the
standard high-pressure gas cylinders. Buy a used cylinder and cut
it.
2) A forged steel 2 5/16″ trailer ball can be threaded into the
former top of the gas cylinder after some machine work.
3) The standard US Army mortar base from a while back uses
a 2 5/16 socket, so the bowling ball mortar drops right in.CAUTION! CAUTION! Range is measured in miles.
CAUTION! CAUTION! Pressure wave from this device will pulverize
all automobile windows within 100 feet. It is not good for ears,
eyes, light bulbs and similar stuff.
The Boomershoot Bowling Ball Mortar didn’t have a range measured in miles. Perhaps it was a reduced charge or different design?
Kewl.
That must need a few pounds of black magic.
Barb keeps asking about the bowling ball guy too.
I thought there was going to be different guy show up with a bowling ball motar this year but he didn’t make it.
The guy we did have that one time (or was it more? I forget) in 2005 had a very short barrel and he deliberately kept the charge lower than the maximum. IIRC he said he could get about 600 yards out of it but kept it to less than 300 for Boomershoot. We had to keep it short of the tree line so it wouldn’t mess up my cousin’s field.
Do want.
Where can I buy one!!?? lol
I’d be careful using a gas cylinder for a punt mortar. While strong for what they are designed for, keeping gas under pressures in the low thousands of PSI, as we know, even the oldest centerfire cartridge around, the 45-70, develops well over 10,000 psi.
A max charge to give max loft and range to the bowling ball could easily be more than the cylinder could stand, especially if it’s blank end has been weakened by the heat of welding a trailer ball to it.
I’ve seen these cylinders holed out with a 5.56 NATO round…
Different cylinders have different pressure ratings. Oxygen or Nitrogen do not liquefy easily, and the cylinders are very heavy to resist 3-6000 psi. Acetylene liquefys at around 250 psi, so the cylinders are quite thin and NOT suitable for this sort of thing.
A friend of mine who had one used about 1/4 lb of cannon powder per shot.