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Pfm-1

spotter

UBIQUE
Staff member
Premium Member
The PFM-1 anti-personnel mine/bomblet is a Soviet air delivered, plastic mine filled with liquid explosive, usually green, sand, or white coloured. Any distortion of the body causes the mine to explode, including light pressure while handling. It does not self-destruct and cannot be neutralized,
Sadly children try to pick these up thinking they are toys :tinysmile_angry_t:
It is a back engineered copy of the USA Made BLU-43

Ive been after one of these for a long long time and yesterday was fortunate enough to get a nice INERT Instructional model
 

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Brings back happy memories Allan
MILTRA Engineering had their sales office not far from here in Watford , Lyn Haywood one of their directors and himself a de miner of many years standing was very knowlegable on AP and AT mines its nice to see a British model rather than the Russian with the Y in the wing .

Steve
 
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Nasy little things. Russia dropped them all over Afghanistan. The production models are made out of a cheap plastic that doesn't age well.
Leaves an even smaller metal cylinder behind with a live detonator, that still doesn't like being stepped on.
Not the smallest scatterable about- ever hear of the "gravel" mine?
 
PFM-1 Green Parrot

Interesting sub-munition extensively used by the Soviets from helicopters. The butterfly shape has a wing on one side and a chamber for the liquid explosive on the other. The clever engineering is using the liquid explosive to operate the fuse in the center. The operation uses pressure on the container to force liquid into the fuse and cause it to operate.
 

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The PFM-1 came in three colors for field use (others for development), difficult to make out in this photo, but they are green, brown and tan. They "y" indi9catres that it is inert fill for practice. Finding them without the "y" is very difficult in the west. (1st photo)

The BLU-43 - BLU-44s (2nd photo) were also in three colors, but quite a bit smaller. On the far right are a US dummy and an East German training dummy (bright green).
 

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missed one picture
 

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Nice , very nice photos US. Do you own all of that yourself? Amazing if you do.

I remember watching kids showing the mine up to cameras just so they could show the world how nasty that item was when the Russians invaded Afghanistan in !979. I was also told that they definately didn't like to be held up either and under certain conditions they would go off with a touch of your finger(s)!
 
I rember reading about these in SOF Magazine way back when.... I was in high school.:tinysmile_hmm_t:
 
I rember reading about these in SOF Magazine way back when.... I was in high school.:tinysmile_hmm_t:

Still the best mag out there for information around the world. I started reading it in the mid 70's and have the first three issues of it still in plastic.
 
Nice , very nice photos US. Do you own all of that yourself? Amazing if you do.

I remember watching kids showing the mine up to cameras just so they could show the world how nasty that item was when the Russians invaded Afghanistan in !979. I was also told that they definately didn't like to be held up either and under certain conditions they would go off with a touch of your finger(s)!

One of the dangers of the PFM-1 is that the hydraulic fuze operates with "cumulative pressure" - i.e. if it needs 4 lbs to set it off, I pick it up and squeeze with 1lb pressure, it now needs 3lbs to set it off. I hand it to you, you squeeze it - you get the idea. Ever play the game of "hot potato" (potatoe? where are you Dan?) when you were a kid?
 
Nasy little things. Russia dropped them all over Afghanistan. The production models are made out of a cheap plastic that doesn't age well.
Leaves an even smaller metal cylinder behind with a live detonator, that still doesn't like being stepped on.
Not the smallest scatterable about- ever hear of the "gravel" mine?

Yup, we've heard of the gravel mine. But the gravel mine wasn't the smallest. Do a search of previous posts and you should find the gravel mine-button bomb discussion, still pending. Picture 1 below shows a selection of gravel mines, the cloth packets in various shapes and sizes.

V40,
yes, these are mine, and then a few more. While I condsider myself a general collector - touching into several different areas lightly, I have a special affinity for submunitions, with a fair selection of US and foreign models, though I am always on the hunt for new/better pieces. I've attached some pictures of part of my submunition collection.
 

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hope you dont mind me gatecrashing.
found this image of an unarmed and armed mine.

hope its of some use.

Doug


scrap-just noticed image hasnt tranferred well.
you can see it better on wikipedia...sorry
 

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hope you dont mind me gatecrashing.
found this image of an unarmed and armed mine.

hope its of some use.

Doug


scrap-just noticed image hasnt tranferred well.
you can see it better on wikipedia...sorry


18pounder ref your picture perhaps you would like to take the time and re-read this thread from the beginning
 
18pounder ref your picture perhaps you would like to take the time and re-read this thread from the beginning

ha ha ha,thats why they call you spotter!
looks like i'm going blind!

slap my wrists
you can never have too many pictures!:tinysmile_tongue_t:
 
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Hi, My one has the "Y":tinysmile_angry_t:. Also attached is a photo of a young girl holding one up for the camera. Nasty things. Cheers
 
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Colin,

Just like the picture of the girl holding a live one was what you'd see on the evening news.

Mark
 
How difficult is it to make these nasty things safe? Or is it better to just shoot them to set them off?
Wicked, bastard horrible things.

Andy
 
Never tried it, but attempting to inert an armed one would seem like a poor career decision.
 
Seem's like the shock of a rifle bullet would set it off as it is many times the 4psi needed to make it function. Enough said on that though....
 
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