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Proper Rack Placement and Setup
Now that you have a few mortar racks built, we are going to talk about how
to properly setup and place them. You might be thinking what do mean properly place
them? This article will help explain why the pros setup mortar racks the
way that they do.
| Proper rack orientation (PRO) When you are setting up your mortar racks and other items, you should have an idea where your audience is going to be sitting. This becomes important when setting up mortars racks because there is a wrong way and a right way to place the rack depending on where the audience is. The way that you should setup the mortar racks is that the long side of the rack should be perpendicular to where your audience is going to be, not parallel. The philosophy behind this placement is that is should a rack tip over in the beginning of a flight the shells, the shells won't be shooting at your audience. This conclusion has been made because normally racks are longer than wide, and if it would tip over it would be tough to tip over on the narrow side. Even if you think that you can secure the rack, why even take a risk by putting the mortar rack parallel to your audience. |
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Exceptions to this proper orientations
Right now you are probably asking yourself what if the rack is a fan
rack, you can't put that perpendicular to the audience. Your right you
can't without loosing the effect of the rack. When setting up your angled
rack you will have to orient it so that it is parallel to the audience. To
improve your audiences safety make sure to use the stabilization
techniques that are discussed below.
Properly securing your rack
Rack placement isn't the only step in setting up your mortar racks.
You must make sure that you properly secure the rack in place. The are a
number of different techniques that are out there and we are going to
discuss a few of them.
If you are shooting on a grass surface:
Bury
This is by far the safest way to brace these. What you do is dig a
trench long and wide enough to place the rack in then fill the dirt back
in. This is the hardest of ways to brace racks. If you are not setting them off in a field but on pavement this technique of bracing
is out of the question.
| Stake With the racks that I build, I normally secure brass pipe clamps onto the bottom sides of my racks. Thanks to the suggestion from one of the sites visitors. I then drive tent stakes into the ground through the clamp. Also you can hammer in wooden or metal stakes on all 4 sides, then attach the rack to them. Another thing that is good to secure your racks is rebar. However once again you can only use this technique if you are on a grass field. This seems to be the easiest way to set up mortar racks on a grassy surface. |
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Brace
If you are shooting on a level and hard grassy surface you may also
brace your mortar racks by using concrete blocks or stones. When shooting
on grass this is a lot harder than just staking them to the ground since
you have to drag blocks or large stones to brace the racks. If you need a
good work out then use this technique.
If you are shooting on a hard or black top surface.
Legs
To secure a rack using legs you want to take a 2x4 and cut the length
so that it is 2 times as wide as the rack. Either screw or nail the legs
to the base at the each end of the rack. Then put either sandbags bricks
or stones over the legs for extra safety.
Sandbags, Stones, or Cinder Blocks
With sandbags you want to stack them on each long side to prevent it
from tipping over. You can also use cinder blocks
to brace the rack.