Mortars & Howitzers

 Old & New  Black Powder Mortars!

We sometimes have various types of mortars available, Black Powder firing mortars, and occasionally - antique mortars.  Please see our current inventory below.  If you have a mortar of any type for sale -  please contact us!

         

           

The above are samples of Antique Mortars that have been sold and are not available! 

A MASSIVE 15 inch Reproduction British Mortar!

Used in the film "Last of the Mohicans"

             

It has a fiberglass shell with steel inside for the tube and pivots.



We have some original construction photos also and one that shows the steel core is above.
The fiberglass shell will need a little repairing as will the wood carriage.
We can send more detailed photos of it if you need them.
 It was made to fire pyrotechnic charges for the movie. You can clearly see it in the film belching fire and smoke.
 There is a lead wire that comes out of the bottom to hook up the charges.
This will NOT fire a projectile.
Dimensions are overall 80" long X 48" wide X 62" tall.

     

Price: $3,995 US$

Located in Illinois for free pick up or we can arrange shipping anywhere!

 

 

   

Mortar Firing Information - Click here!

The short squat mortar had changed little from the time when they were first used in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. They were well adapted, however, to hurling shells where other cannon could not -- over the walls of a fort or enemy field works. Mortars were used principally by the Union, although both sides made some use of them in combat. They ranged in size from a 'mobile' 300 lb. Coehorn mortar with a 5.8 inch bore that hurled an 18 pound shell to the immense 13 inch seacoast mortars (shown here) that weighed 17,120 lbs. and could fire a 220 pound bomb 4,325 yards. Siege mortars came in 8 inch and 10 inch bore diameters and fired 44 and 88 lb. shell respectively. Naturally devices of this weight were not very easily moved about a battlefield. Mortars in the Civil War were primarily siege weapons or mounted on ships and scows for subduing enemy fortifications. They saw a good deal of use in the campaigns on the Mississippi River. At the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip (April 1862) 19 schooners, each mounting a 13 inch mortar, pounded the Rebel forts for six days before capturing New Orleans.

Mortars - relatively short, large-caliber artillery pieces designed to fire the largest, heaviest projectiles on the highest possible trajectories. Unlike guns that fired solid shot horizontally at high velocity, mortars fired shells or vertically a low velocity. They depended for their destructive results not on the velocity of the projectile but on the explosive power and incendiary effects of their shells. With their high angle of elevation, mortars could fire over obstacles to hit their targets and were consequently especially useful siege weapons. Occasionally the small, lighter weight mortars were used in the field.

Coehorn Mortar - Small brass mortar invented by Dutch military engineer Baron Menno van Coehorn (or Coehorn, 1641-1704) and first used at the siege of Grave in 1674. During the American Civil War, both the North and the South used Coehorn mortars.

We want to buy

 ALL types of Mortars  - for CASH!

Currently looking for all types of Civil War Mortars "Originals" and/or Reproductions!

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Last up-dated on 12/20/2011