Two days ago on NPR they were talking about the recent problems in the Middle East when they said IIRC…
“The Palestinians (sp) seem to have built a homemade mortar cannon that has a range of 2-3 miles and allows them to bomb some Israeli settlements from the safety of the Palestinian lands”
How did they do this? How can I get a 2-3 mile range from my potato cannon? DO you go down to your local Cannon-parts-R-us store?
Depends on what you made your potato cannon out of. This is after all simple ballistics, it’s not rocket science…
That didn’t sound right.
Building a simple cannon or mortar isn’t terribly difficult. If the Palestinians are using military mortar rounds the mortar itself is quite a simple affair. I’m sure one could be welded up easily from well casing and scrap metal. Watch a few episodes of Junkyard Wars (there was a cannon building episode) and you’ll see that this isn’t high technology.
Did this cannon, by any chance, launch nonstandard ammunition of some sort, such as goats?
Why on earth would a goat be considered ‘nonstandard?’ What army could stand against El Cabron de Muerto flying out of a homemade weapon and down onto their heads?
In a more serious vein, homemade weapons are a pretty dicy business. Well casing and scrap metal aren’t up to the task of launching munitions, and Allah help you if it misfires (as it is likely to do). Granted, you’ll certainly be able to get it to work, but good luck on sane volunteers to fire the cursed thing.
Even the hair spray and PVC jobs that are a rite of passage for those with a certain destructive bent aren’t really safe. Taking the same idea and incorporating high explosives is best left to the dedicated and desperate.
Oh, there you go again. The Baron of the Barnyard. The Lord of Livestock. The High Priest of Hooves.. You are my fucking GOD. I PRAY to you.
Pass the lamb stew?
Cartooniverse
p.s. I still wanna do t-shirts based on your idea…
If I am not mistaken a Mortar is a high angle of attack weapon that is considered portable (i.e. not a howitzer). The 81mm Mortar the Marine Corps (and possibly the Army) uses has an effective range of 5700 meters. Now with 2.2 Km in a mile (forgive me if my conversion is off, I have no reference), that is over 2 1/2 miles EFFECTIVE range, which nmeans it has a very good chance of doing damage to the intended target. Now for the Palestinians, or any group that attacks a GENERAL target, the standard issue 81mm would do just FINE at greater ranges, and it would not be that much trouble to make a mortar with more range.
(Cite from Britannica.com, search Mortar, click Marine Corps 81mm Mortar)
I just got out of the (US) Army. I was not a mortarman, I was a Tank crewman. We did have a mortar platoon, and I watched them fire several times. The 120mm mortar in use today has an effective range of 7 Kilometers. As primitive as they may seem, mortars are remarkably effective. In trained hands, they are remarkably accurate.