81mm in an 8 by 20?
The ears would ring a bit afterwards without proper ear plugs, but it may be a workable possibility.
That'd be a pretty funny surprise for someone.
Especially if using the weird 'mounting' the Picatin Arsenal uses on their test tower to fire a mortar straight down.
It could be used to turn a mortar into a direct fire weapon.
(Whatever works, but I'd have to pick the brain of a mortarman for that idea.)
Try picking the brain of a Coast Guardsman. I was thinking of that over-and-under mount they use on some small patrol boats, with a .50 Browning on top and an 81mm mortar rigge for either direct or high-angle fire on a pintle mount, as on the Vietnam era PRR boats.
But the 81mm mortar [and 102mm, and 120mm] has meen successfully mounted inside armored personnel carriers, using a turntable mount.
"Chief [Warrant] Gunner Elmer L. HICKS, USCG, has designed an adapter for a .50 caliber Browning machine gun on top of the recoil cylinder of the 81mm seagoing mortar mount which may eventually be standard armament on all Coast Guard cutters. The accompanying picture shows Chief Gunner HICKS beside his mount. The 81mm is designated a mortar but it can also be fired by trigger. It is light weight, has a simple pedestal mount and can be operated in train and elevation by one man. A variety of ammunition types are available to this gun making it a very effective weapon for WPB Class Coast Guard Cutters. The stability provided by using the 81mm mortar as a platform also increases the accuracy of the .50 caliber gun."
56 vehicles implemented in the Danish Army, some being the M106 delivered in 1964 and some the M125A1 (shown) delivered in the mid 1970´s. The 81 mm mortar is placed in mount M/65. 120 rounds are carried in sidemounted racks. Approx max. range 3,6 km. Also armed with a 12.7 mm (cal .50) machine gun.
Here's the mount I had in mind:
Like its AVGP precessors, the Bison is equipped with hinged roof hatches. Similar hatches on the M113 were used to convert those tracked APCs into mortar carriers. All that was required for a Bison-based mortar carrier was a suitable mounting*. The outcome of that requirement was the Wolf mount – in effect a heavy-duty turntable allowing a C3 81mm mortar to rotate through 360°. The standard C3 (complete with its base plate) is attached to the Wolf mount which, in turn, is bolted to the floor of the Bison’s rear compartment. Installation kits for this simple expedient were devised by DEW Engineering of Ottawa and Royal Ordnance (makers of the C3 mortar).Of the 199 Bison originally purchased by the CF, only 16 mortar-carrying ‘SEV’s (Special Equipment Vehicles) were ordered. However, the ongoing Bison ‘Life Extension’** project includes 60 Wolf mount conversions from Bison APCs. The advantage of using a wheeled light armoured vehicle as a mortar carrier are obvious. WLAVs are much quieter running than their tracked counterparts, allowing the Wolf-mount Bison to manoeuvre into a firing position without attracting too much attention. Stealth is tactically important when deploying short-ranged mortars but especially critical with the modest 81mm C3 — most armies rely upon 120mm weapons to do this job.
It helps that the Bison’s boxy rear compartment is so capacious, leaving room for both mortar crew and plenty of rounds of ammunition. The equivalent USMC mortar-carrier is based on a turretless LAV-25 with its much more cramped rear quarters due to sloped side armour. ** ‘Re-roling’ of the Bison fleet go hand-in-hand with the WLAV ‘Life Extension’ project. The Bison upgrades will include much-needed beefing up of steering columns, suspension improvements (including sturdier torsion bars for higher weights), improved protection (bolt- on armour attachment points and kevlar ‘ballistic’ seats for the crew), and complete removal of the little-used propeller drive components.
Was trying to think of a way to mount the cradle of the M119 onto the rotating plate of an old AA gun in such a way that anyone used ot the traversing gear on the 119 could continue to use the same method of adjustment. Somewhat of a flatbed strapdown mounting on the base, four jack up/jackdown wheels and a flip up flip down towing pintle deal, with the AA mount being the 'baseplate' for the altered artillery piece.
Tossed the idea away late last night as probably unworkable without knowing the specifics of the mechanical bits of the AA base.
Something like one of these?
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