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3 inch U.S projectile 1944

Gspragge

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I picked this up today, I see lots of casing but never projectiles so I bought it.
No fuze or tracer unit but nice paint except on the aluminium nose where
it didn't hold. I paid $100 cdn = $74 U.S . I hope that wasn't too much.
 

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Nice find. You can sell it with great ease in the US for $300. You find lots of casings? You should buy every one you find.
 
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The casings are around up here usually for around 75-100. But nobody really wants them and they are too long
for easy shipping. Well if I can get that much for it, which would be very helpfull then perhaps I should list it on gunbroker.
 
Nice find, Gordon. Steve is right about the $300.00 down here and the casings go for around $150.00 to $200.00 as well.
 
Does it look like the entire projectile was green at one point. Ie is that green paint i can see in the piercing cap indentations?
Or was it actually painted with a thick green band at the bottom, and bare above it ?

Do the markings suggest Canadian manufacture?
 
There is green in the indents, so likely the whole was green at one time.
markings stamped in the band are;
ODGM - 2 - 31 - - 1944 - 3 INCH M 62 A1 Army Ordnance mark
Now does the Ordnance mark mean this is not a Navel projectile as I had thought and
is it for the 3" 50 cal case or something else ?
 
Gordon, it is the Army 3 inch projectile. It has the Army rotating band, and it is taller. The Navy projectile is shorter, and has a band like a 75mm Sherman projectile.

Your projectile would be used in the 76mm Gun on the Super Sherman, or the 3 inch Gun on the M10 Tank Destroyer. It could have also been fired by the newer 3 inch AAA mobile guns.
 
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That makes sense of course seeing the Army Ord mark on it. I have read that the base fuzes often went off on contact instead of a slight delay
which meant that the hit failed. On this account the fuzes and small charge were removed and these were used as a solid shot with better results.
So the inert marking would indicate this and is a proper wartime marking also. Am I correct ?
 
There were non-fuzed projectiles for projectiles 57mm - 90mm. Instead of a fuze, they would have just a tracer element, or a flat plate screwed into the base.

I had not heard the story about the contact detonations. The Navy used the same Army fuze in their projectiles.

There is a copy of TM 9-1901 Artillery Ammunition here on BOCN. You can find those rounds described and pictured there.
 
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Gordon, looking at it closer in the first picture, I do believe you are right that this is a re-work or late factory modification to the un-filled and tracer plugged rounds. The white over stenciling would be in keeping with the color codes for just AP and keeping the original green would be a time and materials savings step instead of going to the effort of re-painting the thousand (or much more) of them on the production line (when the new directive came down) all black THEN applying the white stenciling. Thanks, Bruce.
 
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I think I read about the base fuze not working well in a rather depressing book about the Sherman tank and the
slaughter of same and the stupidity that led to it.
 
Is it normal that they have an aluminium windshield? Have seen examples found in germany with steel windshield.
 
I have only seen three such examples with aluminum noses, and they all came out of Canada. I have one such green projectile with an aluminum nose, and it is marked "76G".
 
We might have gotten them with the up gunned Shermans we bought for the Korean war along with
Hyper velocity rounds, that would be my guess.
 
I know Canada was making 76mm ammunition during the war, I have a 1944 dated Dominion Bridge case. We're they just making cases or complete cartridges?
 
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