Airsoft Mortar

Alright, so the CO of my team made a custom airsoft mortar. Here's how it's made:

The mortar itself is made of a metal tube about 5 inches in diameter. It has a rear cap on the bottom with a firing pin on it. It also has a metal bipod. The round is made of two screwable (lol) PVC pipe pieces. the bottom piece holds a MADBULL 40mm M203 airsoft round, and the top is where you could put a NERF rocket if you wanted to.

How it works:
Option One: You charge the MADBULL grenade with gas and load it with BBs of your choice. Then you put it into the bottom half of the round and screw it onto the top half. To fire it, you drop the round down the tube. The firing pin on the bottom strikes the gas valve, firing the grenade and launching the BBs out of the mortar.

Option Two: Charge the MADBULL grenade with gas and put it into the bottom half of the round and screw the two halves together. Then put a small NERF rocket into the opening on the top half of the round. When the round is dropped down the mortar tube, it fires the MADBULL 203's gas into the rocket, which launches the rocket out of the tube. I myself think it's rather badass.

The makers of it hit a couple brick walls though... The rocket only fires about 5 feet and the BBs fire about 10 to 15 feet. Do you guys have any ideas on how it could be perfected to launch the projectiles around 50+ feet? The guy can launch a NERF rocket out of his M203 an estimate of over 75 feet if you arc it.

I suggest getting rid of the 40 mike-mike and going for a compressed air system. Honestly though, this is not my area of expertise. Wait 'till Durkee says something about it.

M203's are extremely underpowered...50-75 feet is WAAAY less than what you should be running an effective mortar at. I started out with green gas as well, but as you can see...its weaksauce.

You're going to want to upgrade to compressed air.
Its cheaper, easier, and more powerful.

I'll hop on again in a bit and share some specs.

Compressed air is the easiest set up, but there is also the option of using a firing chamber with Propane ( Potato Gun ).

slob212 wrote:

Compressed air is the easiest set up, but there is also the option of using a firing chamber with Propane ( Potato Gun ).

Potato guns aren't very consisten though, since you can't really regulate the ammount of propane.

Quote :

Potato guns aren't very consisten though, since you can't really regulate the ammount of propane.

Actualy you can, you need a fill regulator, pressure valve w/ scale, not that hard and depending on how you set it up, you can make it part of the Sight Assembly.

Personaly I think the Mortar in a game would present more problems than being of any tactical worth.

1, Power of the projectile being launched.
2, type of Projectile.
3, Scoring Hits and BDA.
4, Transport.

5, Tube Crew, and maturity.

just a few that come to mind right at the get go.

"Watch your language", I wrote out a big long response...but then when I pressed Send it crashed my internet and I lost it.
So heres a condensed version...lol.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here are densities of various airgun projectiles:
(Courtesy of BBBastard's "Physicaly Characteristics of Pellets")




Basically what that chart says is that a falling BB's velocity will leave it exposed to wind and wont hit a player with a noteable force. High mass/diameter BB's will not help, so don't say it heheh BB's are out of the question as a mortar projectile.


WHICH IS WHY the prefered projectile for airsoft mortars is the humble tennis ball.
A terminal velocity of over 100 FPS, which it reaches after roughly 4.5 seconds of freefall, will ensure it's not easily swayed by wind.

Heres a little chart for you, will definitely help once you start shootin':
(Courtesy of WB6ZQZ, HAM OPERATOR...WOOT!)



With tennis balls a direct hit is not needed (but can be fun). Instead it falls under EBR-R's...
Effective Blast Radius Rules.

If you are within a designated radius of a tennis ball's impact point, you must call yourself out (honor system FTW!).

There are always other options...nerf footballs are one. But they are expensive...

And about the mortar itself, 140 psi is more than enough to chuck a tennis ball or nerf football over 500 feet.