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a french 37mm Hotchkiss Mle.16

Andre

That is a very nice section job. Can you tell me, is the firing pin plug made of brass? Most that I have seen the plug is made of wood and the firing pin itself is made of steel.

Ray
 
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The fuze with the wood plug is the Demarest usually found in black powder loaded shells. This shell is HE loaded and uses a more complex fuze with a gain, being a later development,
 
And, if I might add, having a main charge of Picric Acid. Nasty stuff. Cheers, Bruce.
 
Thanks guys. So, I assume the firing pin does not move rearward but the part with the primer moves foward upon impact??

Ray
 
Should the firing pin and spring be reversed? Flipped 180, as it were?

Rick
 
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The brass pellet

moves forward on impact into the firing pin which is stationary like the British 1 Pdr. There are two brass sleeves which offer resistance to any motion. But I suspect this design was a bit delicate as a safer version
was developed (Mle 1918) with centrifugal spring loaded safety bolts. These projectiles are not used in the French loaded 37x136 U.S. cases and in the 37x202 rounds, I suspect the fuze wasn't up to the stronger setback forces
and perhaps would malfunction, or not function.
 
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