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My collection.

917601

Well-Known Member
Thanks to all here for information, advice, comments and even merchandise over the past three years. Pictured is the bulk of my collection- containers, mortars, bombs, grenades and smaller ( < 37mm) items are not pictured. I took these out to inspect them for rust, corrosion, etc...oiled a few up and will decide if I want to strip off old varnish from some of the pieces. Looking forward to another interesting three years.
 

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TM 43-0001-28 doesn't list a Mech Time Fuze M564 or M565 for use on the Nerve Gas Projectile. Nice U.S. Collection!
 
TM 43-0001-28 doesn't list a Mech Time Fuze M564 or M565 for use on the Nerve Gas Projectile. Nice U.S. Collection!
Thank you. You are correct, however the M557 looks so boring on it. That clockwork M565 looks more " lethal", I will switch it out for shows. Question of rarity, I would rate the Army 3", Walker Bulldog, Skysweeper, and the 1945 dated 75mm RR as the most desirable, correct?
 
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Most desirable is an interesting question. Everyone is wired differently as to why they desire certain things. If your desire is to obtain the hardest rounds to find due to rarity, that is an admirable task. Equally admirable is obtaining a whole family of a rare type, such as Dave's magnificent display of Russian APFSDS-T projectiles in a current post:

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/98860-БM-APFSDS-darts-and-projectiles

Something like that requires resources, contacts, education, experience, and tenacity to say the least. Like yourself, I started out with U.S. Artillery type Ordnance because I have been a shooter my whole life, and because U.S. material is more plentiful in the U.S. After seeing photos of other collectors' collections, my tastes broadened and went in multiple directions. Now, I'm fascinated and attracted to what I call Higher Technology rounds, HEAT, Chemical, Biological, Gun fired missiles, GPS and Laser Guided, etc., But I digress.

Over my 40 years of collecting, I've observed the rarest U.S. Army rounds from WWII to the 60's to be:
1. The pre-42 yellow HE projectiles, all sizes, Mk. II grenade to 240mm H.
2. The chemical/chemical energy projectiles like HEAT,WP, H-Gas, Nerve agent, incapacitating, etc. both Gun and Howitzer
3. The larger AAA rounds, 75mm Skysweeper, 105mm, 120mm (easiest of the 3) and WWI 75mm and 76mm/3 inch shrapnel that carried over.
4. The HVAP tungsten core Tank/Antitank projectiles 76mm, 90mm.
5. The Rocket-Assisted HE howitzer projos 105mm, 155mm, 8 inch, 115mm USMC.
6. Flechette projos, 90mmRR, 90mmG both types, 105mmG,105mmH, 106mm, 152mm, 105H Canister.
7. The AP-Capped HE Tank/Antitank projos, 57mm, 3inch/76mm, 90mm, 155mm, 14 inch, 16 inch 57mm Nose fuzed HE.
8. Low production rounds like the 120mm USMC tank rounds, Walker Bulldog.
9. HEP-T (UK HESH) 75mm, 76mm, 90mm, 105mm, 106mm, 165mm
10. The submunition projectiles, 105mm, 155mm, 8 inch.
11. The current 120mm combustible case rounds
12. The HE nose-fuzed projectiles, 37mm, 40mm, 57mm, 75mm, 76mm/3 inch, 90mm, 105mm, 155mm, 8 inch, 240mm, 14 inch, 16 inch.
13. AP-SHOT-T projos, 37mm, 57mm, 75mm, 76mm, 90mm.

Not listed above are the Nuke Trainers, XM and Test numbered, proof, which are a crap shoot to find.

So, there you have my observations of rarity and to me desirability more or less. No Navy material listed. That's a whole different world.
 
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Thank you for the "collector's guide". I am unaware of any such existing guide. So when can you put together your book, " Collector's guide and values to US Ordnance"? Being fairly new to the field, I have seen a huge interest that has surfaced in the past 5 years or so in Ordnance, and growing. Information is scarce, even with the Internet. Hogg and others in the artillery field published and reprinted their " coffee table" picture books many times over....finding a publisher should be no problem, when do you start?
 
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Collecting isn't the same now as it was. The government turns everything into poker chip sized pieces now. If you can find scrap dealers that clean the ranges, that is a start. Meeting as many collectors as possible and befriending them helps. Search out copies of military ammo manuals like the one I listed. There are a huge number of electronic Foreign manuals, like German for instance. The manual I mentioned was the first one I obtained and I was told about it by a now deceased collector. That is the current U.S. "Bible", except the good ole U.S. Govt made all recent updates classified, for about the last 10-15 years.

Scour gunshows and look for manuals. Go to SLICS and talk to as many people as possible and ask to buy or trade for manuals and Ordnance.

As far as values go, it is "Whatever the Market Will Bear". Just like used cars, Sellers can sense desperation. Caveat Emptor! But, as U.S. SUBS said on the rocket thread, if its rare and you see it for sale, chances are you will never see it again, at least at the current price.
 
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Yeah, I'm thinking it came from Jack Tomlin's estate in Toole through Marshal Morgan and I think it was a simulant filled M121, sawcut below the fuzewell opening. It might not have been sawcut though.
 
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It looks a bit like the SETH projectiles, in which case it is likely a reworked M110 made to simulate an M121. There are a thousand of those for every actual M121/T77, and most cannot tell the difference. Many were marked (as this one, black on bronze) and may have the designation for the round it is simulating. I've talked to many people telling me that they had a CW projo that in fact had a SETH.
 
Jack had a quantity of the bronze ones that were stamped M121 or the T number. Some had been sawcut and others had two 1-1/2 inch holes torchcut in the ogive. He had M110 projos too. The torchcut ones had the nose seal unscrewed. There were also dummy bursters and supp charges.
 
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That is awesome, I am in the (slow) process of making one myself, but out of wood. I wonder if your method would have been easier however I have seen someone else make them from wood too, so I know it works.

Very nicely done!
 
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