So you find something that appears to be an explosive device. Dam!

[rob63]

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/news/civil-war-2.html?A1c=1

Sam White was the guy I was talking about. The article also mentions Harry Ridgeway, and he is the guy that did my other shell for me. It's a pretty small community.

Museums occasionally still find shells in their collection that are live. People didn't used to be as concerned about it as we are today. There is a cannon that sits in the Rhode Island capital building with a cannon ball that got stuck in the dented muzzle while the gun was being loaded during the battle of Gettysburg. The funny thing is that it was there for nearly 100 years before anyone thought to remove the powder from the cannon!

 

[Brad69]

Ft. Polk, LA M203 range was loaded with rifle grenades and 40mm rounds.

Range control would not mow it. You could fire a training round and hit a live round about 1 out ten times.

Digging a foxhole at Camp Grayling, MI uncovered a 4.2 mortar round completely live could have killed everyone around!

Unexploded stuff is scary!

 

[vtnewbie]

March 2003 I grabbed my gear which had 4 Hand Grenades on it.

One of the pins caught on the radio mount and was pulled out.

Anyone guess why I am not dead?

On a side note as DS we would sometimes get old pineapple grenades from the 50’s for the PVT’s to throw. Most of the M67‘s were from the late 60’s to mid 70’s.

The spoon was held down in the pouch by the strap.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

They have a drill set-up that has a remote control and a pulley system that allows the drill bit and shell to be immersed in water during the drilling process. There aren't too many people around with the proper set-up to do it safely.

Sadly, one of the people that was killed a few years back was one of the guys that did one of my shells. He was doing a bunch of them in an assembly line process and accidentally got a live shell mixed in with ones that had already been deactivated. He was using a power tool to clean the rust off of it and a spark set it off. It's certainly not a hobby tolerant of mistakes.

There are also Civil War era shells that had a particular kind of fuse that is very dangerous because it becomes unstable. The people that dig them really need to know what they are doing as well.

The flip side is that you also see stories of people calling in the bomb squad for shells that a knowledgeable collector can see from the photos isn't dangerous. Solid shells don't have any powder at all, but they get "disarmed" fairly frequently.

Interesting.

 

[Tactically Fat]

I *have* a grenade at my house!

It's a purdy blue color. Totally inert WWII-era Mk2 training grenade.

 

[Ark]

Sam White was the guy I was talking about. The article also mentions Harry Ridgeway, and he is the guy that did my other shell for me. It's a pretty small community.

Museums occasionally still find shells in their collection that are live. People didn't used to be as concerned about it as we are today. There is a cannon that sits in the Rhode Island capital building with a cannon ball that got stuck in the dented muzzle while the gun was being loaded during the battle of Gettysburg. The funny thing is that it was there for nearly 100 years before anyone thought to remove the powder from the cannon!

Wow. About the only thing that could cause that dent is a direct hit from incoming cannon fire.

 

[rob63]

Wow. About the only thing that could cause that dent is a direct hit from incoming cannon fire.

That is exactly what is supposed to have happened. It's the reason why it was sent to Rhode Island to be put on display. The crew of the gun returned to work the gun immediately after receiving a direct hit.

 

[SmileDocHill]

Don't some forms of explosives degrade over time into nitroglycerin? That could result in not even needing to pull the pin to have a bad day.

 

[SmileDocHill]

Ft. Polk, LA M203 range was loaded with rifle grenades and 40mm rounds.

Range control would not mow it. You could fire a training round and hit a live round about 1 out ten times.

Digging a foxhole at Camp Grayling, MI uncovered a 4.2 mortar round completely live could have killed everyone around!

Unexploded stuff is scary!

This is awesome. Our work environments and experiences have been wildly different. Lol

 

[HoughMade]

Don't some forms of explosives degrade over time into nitroglycerin? That could result in not even needing to pull the pin to have a bad day.

TNT used to. Don't know about the modern version.