British Ordnance Collectors Network
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Speaking of shrapnel
- Thread starter Slick
- Start date
Hemplatte for slowing the round during testing.
Pete
Pete
Its amazing the number of these projectiles you find that are fired....The other thing I find interesting in the fired ones...the threads alway seem fine, I would've thought that with the charge blowing the shrapnel and thus the fuze out, the threads would have been destroyed...
Slick
Well-Known Member
As things have progressed, picture taking wise, here are some closeups of the Hemplatte. Along with some stampings on the body of the projectile. Some paint remnants are visible. This particular projectile was dustier and rustier than the rest. Using RemOil and a brass brush to clean things up. Will hit everything with a bench grinder wire brush and Brasso when time permits. I prefer shiny.
Just jokin' about the wire brush and shiny part.
Just jokin' about the wire brush and shiny part.
There are two threads. A course thread where the fuze screws into the head and a fine thread where the head screws into the body. The fine thread is the one that strips and if you'll look at a fired projectile you can see how the fine threads are rounded over, just enough for the shrapnel to be expelled. If you have the fuze and head, they can usually be screwed back into the body, although maybe a little loose.
Ray
Rick,
The projo on the far left looks like 77mm German. You should have cases for it in your other post showing cases. They will have two crimp grooves near the mouth. The projo second from the left and the one on the far right appear to be 3 inch either AAA or Field gun. And of course, the second projo from the right is the standard U.S. HE projectile.
The projo on the far left looks like 77mm German. You should have cases for it in your other post showing cases. They will have two crimp grooves near the mouth. The projo second from the left and the one on the far right appear to be 3 inch either AAA or Field gun. And of course, the second projo from the right is the standard U.S. HE projectile.
Last edited:
Your projectile seems to have plenty of original paint on (dirty and darkened) why ruining this historic item by making it shiny for no other purpose than just having it "look good"?
Hey, you can always drill out the base too and turn it into a nice lamp, or some other tacky kind of (post-all-relevant-wars-and-eras) 'trench' art too. 
The mrs. might like it better that way too!
@pzjgr: it is actually not surprising at all that the shrapnel ones are found so often in fired condition: when a shrapnel projectile 'explodes' (i.e. 'triggers'/fires), it 'opens' up much like a shotshell. The back is pushed backwards and is left pretty much intact, except for the shearing of the thin threads, as you mentioned. The front also stays mostly intact. Such items would at one time have littered battlefields and they would have made for 'handy containers', or interesting souvenirs, to people after (and during) the wars. I find that most of the taller projectiles I find in Japan tend to be of the shrapnel kinds, and all of them (except for one, that went for a LOT of money) were fired. The HE and APHE ones are of course blown to smithereens upon the fuze setting it off. Such projectiles are much rarer finds in Japan, and when one sees them, those typically were not fired (of course). The shrapnel ones were used in vast volumes, and as mentioned by Ray, with some slow screwing action they can normally be screwed back together again.
Cheers,
Olafo
The mrs. might like it better that way too!
@pzjgr: it is actually not surprising at all that the shrapnel ones are found so often in fired condition: when a shrapnel projectile 'explodes' (i.e. 'triggers'/fires), it 'opens' up much like a shotshell. The back is pushed backwards and is left pretty much intact, except for the shearing of the thin threads, as you mentioned. The front also stays mostly intact. Such items would at one time have littered battlefields and they would have made for 'handy containers', or interesting souvenirs, to people after (and during) the wars. I find that most of the taller projectiles I find in Japan tend to be of the shrapnel kinds, and all of them (except for one, that went for a LOT of money) were fired. The HE and APHE ones are of course blown to smithereens upon the fuze setting it off. Such projectiles are much rarer finds in Japan, and when one sees them, those typically were not fired (of course). The shrapnel ones were used in vast volumes, and as mentioned by Ray, with some slow screwing action they can normally be screwed back together again.
Cheers,
Olafo