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8 IN projectiles

S

steve1973

Member
Hi everyone,
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This is my first post here so here goes.
Picked these up the other day, well not so much lifted them though. They are bloody heavy, full of ball bearings in resin.
The base reads 8.IN V at the top, R L at the bottom, C on the left and S on the right.
They measure 8 inches across the base and approx. 24.5 inches high.
They have a plug half way up one side with a half inch square drive hole in it.
The tip is bronze and is threaded with a wooden plug.
The caps seem to held on with lead.
Driving bands are gone from the base.
They also have steel tubes going down through the centre of the ball bearings and resin.
What are they please?

Thanks Steve
 

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Hi Steve1973,
I think you have found a british B.L. 8in schrapnell (WW I).
In Belgium, we find only the HE models, never find schrapp or tox.


Yoda
 
Hi Steve, welcome to the forum. Always great to see a fellow NZ'er participating !!! I'm a complete novice when it comes to ordnance collecting, so this forum is always my first port of call whenever I need something identified. Bob (kahu1), another NZ'er, is very knowledgable and helpful (as are all the other members). Just wondering, if you don't mind me asking, where you found these beauties ? I would love to get hold of some large projectiles, but generally you only see smaller stuff on TradeMe, less than 100mm calibre. Cheers. Justin.
 
Very nice find, good to know there still these sorts of things about.s
The tube in the centre is to ignite the pusher magazine,in the bottom of the shell, that ejects/pushes the balls out.
Most likely the balls are lead, run a magnet over them.
Was just reading your post when Juzzy posted!
Charley777 is another local with lots of knowledge on the big stuff.

cheers
Bob
 
Steve1973,
another member let me known a warning !

Take care, under the lead balls, in the bottom of your projectile is a cavity with black powder : the expelling charge !

This can be always live ! You should must let control your projectile by EOD technicians ! Call up the police if that's the procedure in NZ !


Yoda
 
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your replys, the rounds are not live.
The balls are steel, not lead.
What would these be fired out of, Navy or Army?
Thanks
 
Curious, what makes you say that the rounds are not live? Yodamaster is correct, they have all of the features of live rounds. Had they been emptied the balls would have been removed and the pusher-plate/tube pulled. Even if replaced, the resin would not be there. Inert loaded rounds of this timeframe would be very unusual -
 
US-Subs and Yodamaster make a good point ,the usual rule is if you can't show its safe/inert ,treat it as live. Generally too ,the older the item, the more sensitive the filling.
Many people have been injured or worse by items that 'they were told was ok'.
 
A FFE marking os not neccicerily mean it is empty. Especially as today's standards for FFE may differ from 20, 30 or 60 years ago.
Regards, DJH
 
In Belgium, the most common accidents occur with old ammunition (especially WW I) that many said " it's ok, it's old and rusted, there is no danger !".
And, experience let me say that it's not because they are coming of an army camp that they are safe !!!!!!!!!!! Never forget that often "the cobbler is the worst shod" !!!


Yoda
 
Steve here is a link to show the action of the shrapnel shell........there is a good animation to the top right hand side showing the propullsion of the shrapnel balls.

However I would echo the words of others on here, get them checked out properly......believe me these guys know what they are talking about. I note also the lack of driving bands on the shells so there is no indication that they have been fired......but even this doesnt give any indication if an item is live or not.
Stay safe
Kev

oops...a link may help,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrapnel_shell
 
As Yoda has stated, coming from an Army camp means nothing. There have been EOD Techs injured by items that were in EOD reference collections. A few years back, a cleansing operation was performed in the U.S. and every item in EOD collections needed to be identified and documented that it was empty of any energetic material. If the items couldn't be identified or proved empty, they were destroyed, and this was due to the people being injured by EOD museum items.
 
Hi Hazord,
I know what you mean about coming from an Army camp, I heard of a live 105mm HE round being used as a door stop in the gunners barracks in Waiouru. Not that long ago either!
Steve
 
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