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ID Needed 37mm

doppz92

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Hello, I m trying to identify this projectile, but so far, no luck. It's not mine and all I can say is it's 37mm and about 150mm long. Thanks
 

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It's similar to the Italian unfuzed 37 mm SAPHE projectile for their 40-calibre gun, but with a pronounced boat-tail.

Italian 37 mm 40-cal SAP (HEAP) - 1.png
Italian 37 mm 40-cal SAP (HEAP) - 2.jpg

The gun itself is hard to fathom out, other than the 37/40 bit. It's seen it referred to it as the Vickers-Terni 37/40, Canonne da "37/40" modello 18 and modello 15. As such I'm not entirely sure what its's called, but it is 37 mm and the barrel length 40-calibres (1.48 m).
 
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Thanks a lot Eggburt1969. Very interesting, I wouldn't never had thought it could be Italian. Yes, it does look very similar, may be a trial model? Do you know what the case looks like?
 
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Using the data for the length of the projectile (138 mm) and scaling its image, the distance between the base of the driving band is about 18.9 mm. This means that, of the total overall length of the round which is stated to be 322 mm, about 203 mm is the length of the case: 322 mm - (138 mm -18.9 mm) = 202.9 mm.

Going by Tony Williams website page covering cartridges, more specifically '31-37 mm Calibre Cartridges' (link), this most likely makes it a 37×201R cartridge.

Neil
 
It looks similiar but the drawing shows a copper band, the projectile shown seems to have a band that looks very US to me, and not the usual copper, is the band stamped as per US practice? Tig
 
Close, but COW round. I have both. The Italian looks newer when you see them side by side.

Any chance you could post some pictures of the 37 mm Coventry Ordnance Works projectiles you have? I ask as the ones I've seen posted here have very different driving band profiles to the one post here by doppz92.

I found an image, supposedly of the Italian rounds, here (link), I've posted it below.

Italian 37x201R for 37mm-40 Calibre Guns.jpg

They seem to have the same design driving bands as those shown in the diagrams from the two books I have, so unlike those on the image posted by doppz92, or those I've seen on COW gun rounds.

The same page has a single COW gun round shown. It's driving band arrangement is not like those posted in a separate forum thread (link) which seem to have two separate bands, Again both sets of COW projectile driving bands are unlike those on the image posted by doppz92?

COW Gun Round.jpg

I guess my questions is, do the ones you possess have the same driving bands as those shown in doppz92's image? If they do, I guess there were multiple versions which used different driving band profiles.

It looks similiar but the drawing shows a copper band, the projectile shown seems to have a band that looks very US to me, and not the usual copper, is the band stamped as per US practice? Tig

Looking at images and diagrams of US 37 mm ammo for most WWII guns the driving band profiles are completely different in dropp92's image. Then again, maybe I just looking at the wrong images?
 
So the mystery deepens.To me the driving band looks very French, similar to those found on the 25 x 163 Hotchkiss M1938 HE and Training rounds. Could it be for a trial?
 
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