105 MM Smoke Base Ejecting Experimental.

[Chris 42 RQ]

Here is 105 MM GFD Base Ejecting Smoke shell recovered from a sand butts and repainted in what was the nearest colours I could get to its original condition.The Fuze however is not as original!
Can find out very little information about this item (it being American in origin), but maybe someone out there will have some input ?
Projectils is Stamped;-
TIN 135,69-XM314A2E

 

[bombmonki]

The standard M314A2 projectile was/is a illuminating projectile for the US 105mm How. I think the A2 designation may relate to the fuze which is an M501/M501A1 MTSQ fuze. I have attached a image with some more information. If you want some information on the fuze I can provide.

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

Many thanks bombmonkey, I would be interested to know more !:woohoo:

I wonder whether I got the "smoke" bit right then ?

Maybe I am wrong and it is in fact an illuminating round-if so, why fire it into a sandbutt ?

 

[bombmonki]

Good question. If it was at a proof range it could be to test design changes or strength of design performance or if gun configuration has been changed and chamber pressures need revalidation. An alternative could be that while it is an illum carrier shell originally the illum components could have been removed and replaced with something else. If there was some design change or experiment this would warrant the addition of the 'E'. It may be worth looking to see if the E has been added later than the other nomenclature. There is a M314A3 version that has mods that include a different fuze (M565, M577 or M582) and this could be part of the modification process. This is all just suposition of course and depends on where you found it etc. I will find you some more info on the generic design and the fuze options if you like. This will be from some US TMs and some Aust documents if I have them.

Leo

 

[weberoed]

was just going through old threads and read this one, can't see the base but if it is a base ejection and a smoke round it may be the M 84, use a standard MT fuze. The same projectile but under different desigantion also was a leaflet round.

Whether is it a smoke ejection or illumn, the colors used are wrong. If smoke it will be gray with a brown band, illumn white with black markings. If you still need them I can send better drawings and pics

 

[HAZORD]

It is definitely either the Illuminating or CS projectile. They have a shorter ogive. There should be some ID info stamped around the body, just above the rotating band.