105mm C1 howitzer

[rob love]

Well, even over here I have been able to watch ebay and acquire a few small pieces for my howitzer. I got the panaramic sight, and a few other small bits. Now if I just had the sight mount to put it in. At this rate, I should have the gun completed in about 50 years.

Anyway, I got some info from higher authority re the Cdn 105s. We bought 36 m2a1s the US to tide us over until the approx 300 C1s were built by Sorel. The US guns were known as the C2. They later went through Sorel for standardisation and eventually became became C1s. The last of the C2s were relegated to ceremonial use in the 70s.

And of course, we know that the C3 was the upgraded C1 with the longer barrel and the muzzle brake.

Still looking for a breech ring and barrel if anyone knows of anything out there. I'll throw in a full wood Longbranch 303 rifle as a finders fee if any tip leads to a purchase. Even cut up parts are fine.

[chris vickery]

Nothing out in the sand outside the wire????
Take care and be safe, I will keep eyes open for you, Chris

[Scott Bentley]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Nothing out in the sand outside the wire????
Take care and be safe, I will keep eyes open for you, Chris

Too bad your not in Kabul.

I could give you the the Grids to find these ones:



Or, if missiles are more your speed:

[rob love]

Tsk tsk: those Russian's. You are never to abandon your guns.


There were one or two of those howitzers kicking around KAF, but I guess some of the other collectors must have beat me to them as they are nowhere to be found now. One was sitting just yards from the courier companies shipping outlet as well.

[rob love]

So I have been itching to get at this project. While in Kandahar I managed to spend a little bit of time on ebay and came up with the panoramic scope, the elbow scope, and the qunner's quadrant. I got one small breech part as well.

Once home, I got to the sandblasting and cleaned up the axle, the drums, and the backing plates. All turned out very well. I hammered out the one rusty bearing to try and get a part number, but no luck. I did manage to get some part numbers off the races. A check from the manuals to google gave me several online NSN breakdowns from which I got the commercial numbers for the bearing and races, the wheel seals, along with the thread pitch and size of some of the large nuts used on the gun. I ordered almost all the parts from ebay, where bearings average about $10 each vice the $20-40 you pay now at the jobbers. I even found the brake pivot shafts on ebay for a couple bucks each.

Below are some shots of the progress so far. I do not have brake shoes for it, but have the first drum installed (still waiting for one more bearing) and the pintle bar is also sandblasted waiting it's turn to go on. The middle photo shows just some of the inspector's marks along with the Sorel Industries stamps found on the top of the axle. The pintle has a large nut on it that is 2-1/4 with 12 threads per inch. An internet search found me one for only $17....far cheaper than the $60 it would have cost downtown here. The trail locks on the axle were also sandblasted, disassembled and lubed, with new set screws to keep them on the axle.

If anyone has a spare set of brake shoes for a 105mm kicking around, and has no plans to use them, please give me a shout.

Winter is fast approaching so this is likely just as far as I will get this season....time to prep the outdoor stuff and the yard for what is supposed to be an extra harsh winter.

[super dave]

Do you have a picture or a part number for the break shoes as I got some shoes with some of the iltis parts I purchased and maybe they might fit as I don't know there application.

[rob love]

Below is a scan of the part numbers. The shoe assembly is 2530-00-653-7585. If you can't ID the shoes you have shoot me a pic or a part number and I'll see if I recognize them.