A funny story I was reminded of today during my college days

[Snattlerake]

A story about the 75 MM Pack Howitzer the NWOSU Army ROTC fired after every score at our football games.

The 75mm is a small gun as far as guns go. It is only 1,400 lbs and around 12 ft long including the carriage. It shoots an 18 pound shell that is roughly 3 inches. 2.95276 to be exact. The total round length was about 2 feet long and exited the gun at 1,400 FPS. We had 75mm blank rounds which were decidedly too expensive so the higher ranking officers decided to use 10 gauge black powder blanks inside a 10 gauge holder welded into a used 75mm blank brass.

Well after the first score we fired off a round of 10 gauge. "Boom." The captain came running down to our gun and told us they couldn’t hear the gun and to turn it toward the press box. We scored again and again fired off a 10 gauge blank, "boom".

Ol captain again came running down to our gun and said the 10 gauges just weren’t working out like they thought they would and to go back to the regular 75mm blanks.

Guess what? He forgot to tell us to turn the gun back around and the next score we dutifully fired the howitzer with the regular 75mm blank,


"BOOOOM!"

A few minutes later an out of breath captain again arrived screaming “Cease fire! Cease fire!” “Turn the gun back around!” He explained that we had blown some windows out of the press box.

 

[turkeyrun]

Why am I thinking "Support Your Local Sheriff" and Madam Orr's house?

 

[Snattlerake]

Why am I thinking "Support Your Local Sheriff" and Madam Orr's house?

That's pretty close except we knew it was loaded.

 

[XYZ]

To be honest…..,
Yeah never mind.

 

[T. MIKE SMITH]

Back in '74 the high school band was getting ready for the spring concert. We were going to do the Overture of 1812. Our alkie band director came up with the idea of firing blank BP shotgun shells off to imitate the cannon fire. They decided to have a run through the morning before the concert that evening. Our Deen of Boys was an x-pro basketball player- 6' 9" and kind of big fella. He was a big hunter and had a lot of guns, so he brings about 4 down and they decided to fire into some steel 55 gal drums. It was a dam cool sound, but the black power smoke filled up the whole auditorium, and nobody could hear anything. The idea was abandoned, and he just had the drums- base and kettle, to pound the hell out of them. I can't believe they didn't bust out those kettles.

 

[Snattlerake]

While training at Fort Sill, I had the opportunity to enjoy the one thing a 105 and a great crew can do with ease.
With a good crew, it can shoot a high angle shot, then lower the gun to shoot another shot at the same target and have both shots hit at the same time. The target was so far away, that it looked as if it was only one explosion. This fact was pointed out by the gun crew to the audience so to prove what they did was an actual two shots hitting at once, they did it again. This time they traversed the gun a few degrees sideways to show both shots hitting the target at the same time about 15 feet apart.