So I am watching this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv0GVJyr6DE and about 2 minutes in when they are using the mortar and watching it rise and fall, I just wondered how HIGH the mortar gets to if the target is about what, half a mile away?







 

Interested in the loader-guy's helmet.
Looks like an ACH, with Ops core rails, and a Surefire helmet light.

A ton of US-issue Interceptor body armor as well.

Different mortars require different elevations for ranges and charges. A half mile isn't all that far.

120mm mortars have a max range of 7200 meters at which point the elevation is set at a low arc of about 800 mils. The 60mm has a hand held indicator bubble for charge zero and charge one. This makes for fast and generally accurate fire to about 1100 meters.

Depends on charge and elevation.  The practice is to fire on as low an elevation as possible.  Not always the case when firing from defilade or assets in the air or if it's an illum mission.   Just lots  of factors.

OP, the term you're looking for is Max Ord (abbreviation for maximum ordinate).  Using similar search terms will come up with some data.  

I've lost all my cheat sheets and digital TFTs on mortars.


It varies based on a large number of factors.  Range, charge, altitude of target, etc, etc, etc...

Yep,  I was 4.2 inch mortarman in the guard.  I can remember max range was 6000m but max height nope.  Was never in my brain housing group.  

If you had a special consideration you got out the data tables.  We also rarely fired at high angle, were were mounted in M106A2's and high angles and full charges made the track suspension squat and they were sometimes a little slow coming back up to height.   (I can still recall a sister mortar team fire an uncut round with an extension on it by mistake),  We all looked over when they fired because we never heard that before.  Their poor old track was slowly coming back up when I looked over.  

To the OP, as was said,  you used few preset barrel angles, and adjusted range with the charge.  It was much faster to calculate that way in the days of data tables and plotting boards.

I was four deuce.  We're old.

and feeling it!   My knees remind me of the shit we did in the old days.  

How old was your tube?   We had Whirlpools from the 40's and I think some from the 50's.  My membory is starting to get fuzzy.  I think mine was a 1944.

Our oldest was a 1953 but it scoped good all the way to 1996.

they don't make em like that anymore!



 

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My recollection is that 60mm charge two had a max ord of 2000 feet. They are firing charge zero, so maybe a little over 1000 feet max ord.

If you look at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o65nB1J4sPI

You can see how for that crew, one minute in they are firing charge zero, and 3:30 or so they are firing charge one.

A small hand held 60mm, high angle, charge zero...enemy are pretty close and it isnt going up too high.

You bitches be old.

My tube was a 1953, the others in the platoon were within a year of that.

The 60mm was fun that is what I taught mostly at Benning when I came back to the states.

The WWII M2 4.2in 107mm Mortar used a totally different tube from the M30 4.2in which were adopted in 1951.   The WW2 Four Deuce had the elevation standard connected to the baseplate by two cables instead of that massive chunk of iron bridge used on the M30



 

That bridge.  I'd like to go back in time and beat the piss out of the guy who designed the ground mount.