In my younger days, I had a friend whose dad was a doctor, which allowed him to drop big bucks on his firework habit. (The dad not the friend). He used to make a trip to N.C. from Florida just to load up with $300 worth of fireworks. (and those were ’80s dollars!) He got these mortars that had a cardboard tube, you’d light this little tennis ball sized package drop it in the tube and run. I think they were packed with gunpowder and pure awesomeness, because it “thumped” when it went off. Just like the real deal.