Hot damn, that doesn't sound very fun...
I'd like to think that even though airsoft mortars would add a whole new level of realism, how feasible are they really? I've seen paintball mortars that work half decently, but BB's are much smaller, thus making them lighter; they would be severely affected by wind so you'd be running the risk of hitting an entirely different target!

Imagine you're pinned down and call for a mortar strike, you hear the thump of the mortar going off and a next thing you know, you're being nailed by a swarm of BB's destined for a different location. :P

Even if the wind is barely noticeable, I'm sure the BB's would deviate from their course no matter what! A more realistic solution would be an airburst, but that mean it will be more expensive and you have a fairly heavy object flying through the air, not to mention a possible explosive charge.

Just my $0.02, but I don't think it there can ever be a cost effective AND reliable/efficient mortar.

Oh it's really fun for the enemy and allies alike. Very realistic, no issues with people calling hits or anything. But do you really want to spend hours the day before the game making 100 mortar rounds for 10 minutes of bombardment? And drag an air compressor and extension cord around the field? And if theres no electricity you have to bring 4 bicycle pumps. 4 because we had 2 fill valves on the mortar, and bicycle pumps are in no way 100% duty cycle devices and at least one would break everytime we played with the mortar. They all overheat real bad too. Its 33 degrees out we're pumping non stop and throwing pumps in the shade and pouring ice cold water on them lol
Anyway its just way more work than fun for the guys on the mortar that's why we stopped doing it.

Run it off compressed gas kind of like an airsoft LAW or Grenade launcher.

Then you gotta drag ALOT of gas around with you, that gets expensive.
Our mortars get spectacular range (650 feet under good conditions) and the volume of the air tank is 1500 cubic inches, and you need alot more than 1500 cubic inches of gas to compress it up to 60 PSI to get that 650 foot range.
If you want to take the time and money to use compressed gas, that's definitely your best option for making it portable.
But besides gas the option is to get 2 guys in real good shape and 2 custom made 100% duty cycle air cooled pumps and pump away lol
Doesn't take that long to charge it up with 2 pumps

That is pretty much the way to go, but try carrying a 20 litre tank of 200+ PSI CO2 or air with you. Your basically talking about huffing a scuba tank into the field with you.

Duster and paintball CO2 rigs could work relatively well.
But surprisingly the best luck we've had is disposable Co2 catridges. You can buy a gadget that uses them to fill bike tires and the like with a std Schroeder valve on the end. But with a mortar you need 2 per shot, they still have weight and there not cheap.


and before anyone says it *cough*AMOS*cough*
PROPANE IS A DUMB IDEA
PVC OR ABS + FOAM = STATIC
STATIC = SPARK
SPARK + PROPANE = PVC PIPE BOMB

PVC shrapnel is extremely dangerous. Not only does it fragment into razor-sharp (like glass shard sharp) shrapnel, it doesn't show up very well in X-rays. PVC pipe is prohibited for use in fireworks mortars in Canada for this reason; HDPE and FRE are all we use now.

That's precisely why we don't use anything with greater than 50lbs of pressure.

PVC and ABS is only rated to 100lbs and even then you have to factor in the valves, and joints you probably glued incorrectly.

I've hurled nerf vortex footballs 600m on 35lbs of air. If you need more pressure you're doing something wrong.

Actually the highest we've charged it up to was 90PSI, I'm pretty sure it's rated to 125

use a paintball grenade shell. from like r.a.p.

Run it off Hairspray like a spud gun.

yes lets run all airsoft launchers off compressed flammable propellants.

Then lets all go to the hospital to get the PVC shrapnel taken out of our asses

Are you freakin insane? could you imagine getting hit with those friggin things?! holy crap! rofl!

My thoughts: same as what someone else said, use a thin easily breakable foam ball (hallow) and fill it with 2000 bbs that are like 3 bucks per 1000 pack.

Keep in mind 2000 round of .2s is 400g
That's alot of interia at 280fps (ya that's right, we chrono'd one of our old version 1 mortars)

Yeah, I guess that is a lot of weight to be fireing through the air, you'd need a large mortar cannon :P. I'd say you're only gonna get about 200 feet outta that beast if it's the best you could make :P

We got 650 feet using a 40" mortar using 400-500g projectiles :)
Dangerous as it may be we've never had to fire further than 200 feet in a game, however we lent our mortar to the enemy team at keystone and they were laying down a good barrage from 300 feet until they broke it lol