Looking for the safety wire for US 60mm Mortar round

[Kilroy]

Hello All,
been quite a while since I posted here, lots to catch up on! Anyway, at the moment I am on a hunting expedition for a very disposable item that comes with most if not all American mortar rounds, at least in the 60 or 81mm HE type. I bought this very clean 60mm round a while ago, it came with the fiber tube and at the time the price was right, and the guy selling it made it seem like finding the wire that renders the round safe would be an easy thing to find, so I am going to start looking. Seek and ye shall find, right?

OK, I am going to let the photograph do most of the talking but the rolled markings on the body of the round I will do my best to describe. I am in the USA, should it matter to anyone here.New Jersey.

I will start from the beginning of the roll marking, and continue around till it ends.

Start: 60MM BW 1943 M49A2 LOT97-2314094

I do not see any other markings on the body ofthe shell,but there is an aluminum cover over the back of the round,that also hasa very fine stamp"1943" on it andthat's abbout all.
I will close now with the attached photo, if anyone wants another view of the piece, I will be glad to put it up.

Also, I have seen the safety wires ( or whatever they are called )before, there may be many different designs for them,wrapping in different directions or intended to be wrapped around mortar shells with slightly varying diameters as the profile of 60mm shells may have varied over the years, so any advice on how to find one likely to fit properly around the body ofthe shell would also be appreciated.

TIA!
Kilroy

 

[M8owner]

I have never seen the safety wire on the loose in the US. I have one bakelite and one steel mortar fuse, and the safety wire locations are different. Only my steel fuse has a wire. I do not think that making a wire would be hard. I will give it a try and let you know.

 

[917601]

Of no help to you, however pertinent to the topic. I bought this 81mm M374 mortar crate with fibre tubes ( the fibre tubes have the Vietnam jungle wrap) and to my surprise they had about a dozen M524 fuze wire safeties ( with grass) inside them. Plenty of fuzes to be found, but I have never seen the wire safeties by themselves. Safeties are an interesting touch in completing a mortar round.

 

[M8owner]

They are not hard to make. You do need the correct wire though. I bought 0.051 music wire. It has been heat treated so it will act as a spring. You need a 0.75 inch mandrel with a hole in it to wrap the wire around. After you wrap it around tightly, it springs back into the proper size and shape. I did have to heat the end to put the 180 degree bend, this tempers the steel. If I do not do this, the steel cracks during the tight bend. Only one of these springs is original.