Quote:
Originally Posted by rcaf_777
I am qualifed on the 60mm mortar and have always wonder how far the basic round no extra charges would travel
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Well...this is more geared towards the older mortars I'm familiar with, but the book minimum ranges for M-19 60mm mortar using the small M-2 baseplate is 40 meters. For the M-29 81mm mortar, the book minimum range 100 meters. For the M-30 4.2" mortar, it's 770 meters.
That said, if your gunner know a few tricks, like propping up the legs of an 81mm mortar or hand-holding a 60mm mortar without the bipod, you can literally drop the round right on top of your self, or very close to yourself. Those minimum ranges are for safety. A 4.2" mortar, on the other hand, has a definite elevation maximum; on charge 0 at max elevation (which is NOT recommended) you can expect that heavy round to travel no more than about 50 meters. For the 81mm on max elevation on charge 0, you can just about quarter the minimum range above (and the old M-29 can superelevate; don't know about the newer ones). For the 60mm, if you are using it handheld, you can almost use it as a grenade launcher; some countries make a HEAT round for their 60mm because of that. If you are using the bipod, you can expect about 20 meters on charge 0.
60mm mortars are the most difficult to quantify, since they can be used as indirect fire weapons and to an extent direct fire weapons, when they are handheld.