Value of U.S. 75mm rounds ?

[Gspragge]

A local militaria outfit has two American 75mm Field gun rounds.
One is an HE PD, the other the shrapnell. No original paint, but these are
unfired, with fuzes. What is a reasonable value for these - which is not
of course what I expect from this outfit. Lots of these I image in the U.S., not
found up here of course, or if so , seldom.
No images available.

 

[sksvlad]

I do not know, but I grabbed two 75mm dummies (from local Craigslist) for $25 each, and I thought it was a fair price. But also I normally don't deal with things above 20mm, so don't know the prices.

 

[US-Subs]

If it is just the projectiles with fuze, 50-75 USD for the HE, depending on the fuze. The shrapnel is 30-50, the most commonly found projectile (above 20mm) in the US. Cases will not so much up the price, but will make it sell faster.

 

[M8owner]

Minimum $200 each.

 

[Darkman]

In Australia, AUD$600+ each

 

[sksvlad]

OK, I am bringing my whole collection to Down Under...:wink:

 

[US-Subs]

Minimum $200 each.

If someone is paying that kind of money for a 75mm shrapnel or HE with no paint they are grossly overpaying. I've seen maybe 20 in the past year, most not selling for $75.00. I'll have 4-5 at the Michigan cartridges' show this weekend for $40-50 ea and just hope that I don't have to bring them all home with me.

 

[M8owner]

If you put them up for auction on Gunbroker, then you might be surprised on what people are willing to pay. Better yet, email me photos of what you have to sell. They should fit nicely into USPS flat rate boxes for shipping inexpensively. They also need to be unfired. The value I mentioned is for a complete round: fuze, projectile and casing.

 

[flak18]

The thing is, and always has been, that one man's trash is another man's treasure.
All US Army and tank shells left in Australia at the end of the war were just buried
in shallow pits and have gradually rotted away. If you were lucky enough to find one of
these pits there was a wealth of wonderful stuff waiting for you.
I was stationed in an old US Army camp in Queensland and every time we had heavy rain
all sorts of munitions ended up in the storm water drains. All rather exciting, but our Colonel
was not impressed for obvious reasons

 

[US-Subs]

If you put them up for auction on Gunbroker, then you might be surprised on what people are willing to pay. Better yet, email me photos of what you have to sell. They should fit nicely into USPS flat rate boxes for shipping inexpensively. They also need to be unfired. The value I mentioned is for a complete round: fuze, projectile and casing.

For that you need to come to the show. I know we have some folks coming from Nebraska, Wisconsin, Maryland and most of the bordering States, plus some folks from both east and west Canada. I personally get quite a few requests to sell ordnance before the show, but we want to draw people in and they should be able to find good things when they get here, so I generally decline to sell before hand. I am just trying to reduce my spares, both from years of collecting and from excess stuff when I buy small collections. A couple of us were complaining that we were not finding enough locally (Michigan), so we thought we'd try and start something good and if it took off, the items would come in to us - and others. While largely a cartridge show, it is slowly growing and ordnance folks are starting to see it as both a place to sell and a place to hunt for items. Much better than the internet in many ways, because it allows for networking and a tighter collecting community. While I can appreciate many of the advantages of the internet, I'm not a big fan of buying or selling on it. I sometimes think it has done more harm to the community than good.

 

[bacarnal]

I'll be there Friday, Jeff. See ya then.

 

[flak18]

Well done US Subs. What a good idea to try to get that going like that. I totally agree about internet selling but sometimes there is no choice.
We have some good shows here and they are very well attended but of late ammunition prices have rather increased.
Keep up the good work.

 

[M8owner]

I left Michigan for good in 2001 after living there for ten years. It will take more than that to get me to go back.

 

[Gspragge]

Well ; for all of that I never see these rounds in Canada as we never used them of course inter war. Aside from the 1st war left over production for the U.S. and the one I started this post with.
Most have been damaged by lamping and so on. The site that has the two rounds is 98% of the time triple real value and these two haven't shown up yet on it, though I have seen them.
The same site has two AA 3" HE ww1 projectile bodies without adaptors. We made these up here in 1918 on contract with the regular 75HE projectiles in Hamilton. Wether we also made the adaptors for the 3" AA is an open question ? Both types are in this image. I am just waiting for a 1918 75mm case to show up eventually. Russel Motor Car made Fuzes for the U.S., I had a steel head for a Russian pattern fuze once, used in 4"+ types that the U.S. had adopted if I recall correctly.

 

[US-Subs]

The US was late to the party for WWI, and by the time our industry got fully ramped up for the War effort things were nearly over. Once it started though, production was massive and the 75mm was churned out in the millions. That left us with a massive surplus of a design that was rapidly obsolete. 75mm shrapnel and to a lesser amount HE were then distributed for training across the country in massive amounts, which were trained with well into WWII at every possible range in nearly every State in the country. These quantities and distribution, combined with the remnants of items after firing are what make it the most commonly found item in the US. I work with every bomb squad in Michigan and the neighboring States and there is not a team that doesn't get called on one of these every month or so. Most are fired rounds that have been recovered and reassembled, but 3-4 a year are unfired live rounds. Keep in mind that this is one State out of 50.

 

[US-Subs]

Here are some of mine, 75mm and 3-inch, etc. I've passed far more on to others than I have kept.

 

[M8owner]

The one with original yellow paint and markings with an M46 fuze is quite the treasure.

 

[jeff w]

The one with original yellow paint and markings with an M46 fuze is quite the treasure.

Agreed. Any chance you could post the info the manufacturer stamped into that shell (manufacturer initials, lot number, date, model, etc...)?

 

[US-Subs]

Certainly a chance, but it won't be soon. I was working on small arms ammo all weekend and just seeing this now at work. I won't have an opportunity to get into the collection till this weekend at least.