Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at RIA taking a look
at a flintlock hand mortar. This is a cool piece of technology
that is actually pretty darn scarce.
I did a video a couple years ago on a
pair of wheellock hand mortars,
and this one has come up here and I thought
it'd be cool to show you another different variation
on the same basic theme. So the idea of course is
this throws a thing.
And exactly what sort of thing it throws kind of depends.
So in some situations these were actually used as grenade launchers in siege combat, or any combat really.
The idea was you would have a little cast-iron grenade full of gunpowder,
with a little old-timey fuse sticking out of it.
And you'd light the fuse, you'd have a charge of gunpowder in here,
and you drop the grenade into the big open cup at the front, and then fire the gun.
And make sure that you fire the thing before the fuse on the grenade detonates.
And if it all goes well, it goes flying over ... behind the enemy wall,
or into the enemy troops, or whatever and explodes, and does what you want it to do.
There are a few issues with this. First off,
if the gun misfires you're sitting there with a burning fuse in your hand grenade
right next to you that you'd better get rid of pretty quick. That caused some issues.
They also had substantial recoil.
... I mean, this is really not that much different in power from rifle grenades that are still in use today.
And the idea that you would do that from the shoulder - you really wouldn't. You'd stick that thing on the ground.
Now most of the time what we see with something like this is actually ...
either a signalling device for launching a flare, or a fireworks launcher.
So you can see how big that thing is, this one is 3.5 inches in diameter at the giant cup end of the bore there.
So, fireworks were a not uncommon thing in the 1600s and 1700s,
which, by the way, is when this sort of thing was typically in use.
As I mentioned in my previous video a couple of years ago, Queen Elizabeth actually had a Master of Fire,
whose job was coordinating fireworks displays for her because she really enjoyed that.
So, that's the sort of thing where just firing what you today would kind of refer to as a bird bomb or, well, firecracker.
Doing that doesn't generate very much recoil because you're not throwing a lot of weight,
and you're not throwing it very far, you're just launching something into the air so it can make a kaboom.
That is much more likely what these are.
So let me show you this one up close because I mean, come on, it just looks really cool.
So there's the whole thing. This one actually has pretty much a full-on regular
and fairly heavy duty rifle buttstock attached to it.
There is a little bit of carving in the wood.
It looks nice, but you know a little subdued, not too gaudy there.
So, got a little bit of a decorative reinforcing bar opposite the lock.
Just a little bit of like a hint of a butt plate,
because this doesn't actually have a butt plate, it's just wood on the end.
The lock plate is unfortunately unmarked, so we don't know who exactly made this.
And then of course, we have the business end, this gigantic brass or gunmetal barrel.
Just over 3.25 inches in diameter.
So, there is the business end of this sucker.
The way it would actually work is this bottom compartment down in there, that would hold your powder charge.
And then the cup at the end holds whatever it is that you're trying to throw.
Now one of ... several reasons I suspect this was not actually a grenade launcher
is that the end (let's see, there we go), the bottom of this, is not actually metal, it's just wood.
This barrel is actually a hollow tube that just ends at the stock.
In fact, I can shine a light through the flash hole
and you can see it coming out right down there.
I don't know if you can tell in the video, but that is in fact wood that it is venting into.
So you wouldn't be able to shoot anything particularly high pressure out of this.
That being said, it's pretty much perfect for signalling flares or fireworks.
It's got enough buttstock to it that you can get a good shoulder position on the thing,
and you could throw a pretty hefty flare or firework.
You can aim it reasonably well, it's not just kind of pointing something pistol style.
And it looks nice.
The wood stock here is nice and heavy duty and should hold up pretty well.
Well, there you go, there is ye olde hand mortar.
Definitely cool, these don't come up very often.
I like showing you kind of the interesting and unusual firearms, and this definitely qualifies.
So, this is an old historical example. If you just want a reproduction to play around with and shoot some tennis balls,
there is at least one company out there that does make new reproductions of these.
And they look pretty darn good too. So you'll have to look them up on the net, I can't put a link in the video.
But I'm sure you can find them if you're interested. Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.
[ sub by sk cn2 ]