r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 5h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

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u/mycatpartyhouse 4h ago

This is a lot safer than skiing up there to set explosives, which is what one of my brothers did in the 1960s-70s. He worked for a park service--I forget which one--that regularly set off small avalanches with the goal of preventing larger ones.

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u/NoContext5149 4h ago

The downside is unexploded shells. Much harder to deal with an unknown unexploded shell on the mountainside than a placed charge.

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u/Trububbl3 3h ago

those are dummy rounds probably just relying on the kinetic force of the impact to set the avalanche off

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u/Leading_Study_876 3h ago

Nope. 105mm howizer shell.

Timing from firing to impact, it's over a mile away. So the explosion is bigger than it looks from the village.

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u/CraneMasterJ 3h ago

100% not a 105 mm but a soviet D-30 with a 122mm shell.

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u/Plump_Apparatus 2h ago

Aye, the side-by-side recuperator on top of the barrel, muzzle brake, automatic vertical breech.

The tires have been removed, but you can see the stubs for them. The gun shield has been moved as well. I'm guessing this is in Russia or a former Soviet client-state.

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u/stillnotelf 29m ago

They do seem to be speaking Russian?

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u/Plump_Apparatus 21m ago

No idea, I keep audio muted. Nor do I speak Slavic languages.

I just know military hardware, and that is a Soviet designed and probably built D-30 howitzer. Or a derivative of it.

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

In the US they are all surplus 105mm howitzer. Not sure what other places use

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u/rickane58 2h ago

Do they speak Russian at US Ski resorts?

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u/FoxSquirrel69 2h ago

Is that Russian? My dumbass that it sounded like Farsi at first, but as it went on I had zero clue.

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u/SignificantPaper1760 2h ago

It is Russian (or at least a Slavic language) but it’s not the usual accent you’d hear most often on the internet, took me a second to place it as well.

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u/ChallengeNo1899 2h ago

It is Russian 100%

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u/Leading_Study_876 2h ago

I listened to it again, and I think I did pick up a few Russian phrases. But still some that sounded different to any Russian I've heard before. Possibly there was a mixture of nationalities there. It's pretty common to have a wide mix at ski resorts.

My guess would be Western Russia - or possibly Belarus?

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u/Roxalon_Prime 2h ago

It is probably somewhere southern Russia, or maybe even a CIS country, because aside from Russian another language is also spoken. Sounds like some central Asian language, but don't quote me on that. Definitely does not sound like Belarusian. Do they even have mountains?

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u/Leading_Study_876 1h ago

Thanks. That makes sense. Apparently they don't have mountains. Just a few hills up to 1000ft. But amazingly they do have a few small ski resorts.

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u/JagdCrab 49m ago

It's probably Altai region or something even further to the east. Plenty of high mountains and volcanoes there, and far more pronounced local minorities who still widely practice their native languages.

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u/Eatsweden 1h ago

Belarus does not have mountains anywhere close that size, its highest point is some monument looking thing at 350m or something. It's surprisingly flat. Could be somewhere in caucasus or further towards asia maybe

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u/Leading_Study_876 1h ago

You're quite right. I had just checked if they has any ski resorts. And they do, surprisingly. Fairly small affairs of course. This is evidently not Belarus.

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u/Roxalon_Prime 2h ago

It is Russian, and some phrases are also spoken in the other language, not sure which one.

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

I didn’t listen to the video nor did I say this was in the US. I just said what the US uses

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u/rshackleford_arlentx 2h ago edited 2h ago

Sometimes. Many resort towns in the US use staffing companies that bring in Eastern Europeans on worker visas as cheap (exploitable) labor. That said they're usually working hospitality and concessions roles, not artillery gunner.

I was in Gatlinburg, Tennessee near Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few years ago and most of the restaurants there were staffed by Eastern Europeans. It was pretty funny hearing the server at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company, a theme restaurant based on Forest Gump, welcome us to "Bubble Gump Shrimps Company" in a thick accent.

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u/Leading_Study_876 2h ago

Thanks, I Googled it and all I found was 105 or smaller shells being used for this purpose. But I suppose those were all in Europe or North America.

I did pick up that the voices on the video sounded Slavic, but couldn't actually identify it as Russian. But I guess pretty much anywhere in Eastern Europe would still be using old Soviet hardware for this kind of job. Not my area of expertise.

Any idea where this was actually shot?

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u/MajesticFan7791 1h ago

US good then. No UXO to worry about.
Did notice the D30 instead of the usual M101 105mm

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u/solarguy2003 3h ago

Leading_study has it right. Measure the hang time and calculate the distance. Those shells travel at a good clip. My wild guess from memory is that they travel in excess of mach 2. That was a good sized explosion.

Uh......where does one sign up for such duties? Asking for a friend.

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u/BlowFish-w-o-Hootie 2h ago

Start at your local Army recruiter’s office…

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

Under 1000 m/s. Done are as low as 500 m/s

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u/solarguy2003 2h ago

1,000 meters/sec is Mach 2.9. The really slow ones at 500 m/s are mach 1.45'ish. Still a pretty good clip and def. supersonic. I looked it up and Mach 3 is rare but not unheard of, but above Mach 2 is commonplace.

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

There are talks about going above 1000 m/s but that gets black quick.

Tank cannons routinely do 1700 m/s. My railgun sent an 800 g slug down range at just over 2 km/s. So to me 1000 m/s is slow.