December 6-8, 2023 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/6/2023
Extremely popular WW2 Finnish mortar which utilizes 12 gauge blank shotgun shell cartridges as propellent charges utilizing an innovative spring firing pin and lanyard system. A removable “chamber” holds the blank shotshell at a 90 degree angle to the bore-line. The removable chamber is locked into place within the mortar by rotating it into a threaded locking “keyway” in the same manner that breechblocks lock up in many early centerfire cannon. The removable chamber is perforated on the sides as is the receptacle it locks into. A plate which pulls the firing pin back against spring pressure when the lanyard is rapidly pulled back releases the firing pin and the cartridge is detonated. The expanding gas pressure from the detonation within the chamber pushes the projectile out of the muzzle of the mortar. Very ingenious! No need for any propellant charge in or on the projectile itself ! This cataloger has commonly seen repurposed soup cans packed with concrete, or sand and resin glue utilized as projectiles at recreational shooting events. Often times with firework pull string smoke canisters as the payload. Originally these mortars were used during WW2 to project smoke projectiles. 161 of this particular model were in the Finnish inventory in June of 1940. The design was devised as expedient to providing different charges of propellent for projectiles without having to attach additional propellent charges to the projectiles themselves. It was also easier to keep boxes of 12 gauge blank cartridges out of the weather than crates of 81 mm projectiles themselves. The bottom of the tube is banded in the manner of a Parrot rifle to strengthen the chamber area, but even so, these mortars were designed only for smoke and light projectiles as opposed to the heavier high explosive rounds. Original bipod and small round baseplate are included in this lot. Serial numbers 2091 on receiver cup and 2038 on firing actuator mechanism. It is usually the case that these do not match between the receiver cup and the firing actuator. The original production run included spare actuators to go with the main assemblies. When there was a demand for more mortars, the most expedient way to get more into the field quickly was to make additional cups, tubes, baseplates, and bipods, and instead of having to machine and assemble the additional complex actuator mechanisms, to just take the spares already produced and put them with the newly produced pieces. Very clever ! The result, of course is mismatched serial numbers. Electronic NFA registry indicates “HAMILTON & SONS FIREARMS CO.” as the manufacturer, and "Finish" as the model. CONDITION: Overall appearance and finish is near excellent as repainted. Bore is extremely fine as is the firing mechanism. Any who have seen these mortars in action at the range know how easy, and how much fun they are to shoot. THIS IS A NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT ITEM AND REQUIRES BATF APPROVAL PRIOR TO TRANSFER. THIS ITEM IS FULLY TRANSFERABLE ON AN ATF FORM 3 OR 4 AS A DESTRUCTIVE DEVICE. JWK 2023-12-24
Manufacturer
Hamilton & Sons Firearms Co.