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.
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.
