How about a 20mm Bofors Corkscrew?

[ordnance]

I've had this piece for a couple years and have always wondered if it was an actual projectile converted to a corkscrew or just made up by the factory as a sales item and not an actual identifiable projectile type.

It was given to someone working in the War Department by a Bofors rep. during WWII. The tip seems to be an actual fuze body as it has internal steps and threads as well as an external set screw. The body is quite thick through the wall and the rear projection that looks like a tracer is turned steel and without a cavity in the bottom to actually hold tracer chemicals.

I'm primarily a collector of grenades and other ordnance and don't have much reference material on projectiles like this. I'm particularly unfamiliar with 20mm bullets with a forward copper obturation band like this one has. So what do our 20mm experts have to say? Is this a real projo? Is there an official model designation? Know what gun it might have been produced for? Thanks for any replies.

Rick

 

[SG500]

Hi, very nice item.
This about covers what you want to know.
Taken from the excellent reference book by W.D. de Hek "Military Cartridges part 3".
Dave.

 

[rottenfuhrer]

This nice corkscrew is somekind of gift and it is a real projectile.
Here are some pictures from swedish ammo registers from 1949 and 1942
it is called sprljussprnggranat m/40 (slsgr m/40)

 

[ordnance]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. That answers the question.

The steel surfaces on it appear to have a wash of silver plating, so that's a bit more fancy than the loaded rounds would have been. :tinysmile_shy_t: It's too nice an item as-is to think about restoring as a cartridge and will continue to open bottles of chianti in my kitchen. I have a number of other trench art items like L/60 Bofors shell and grenade lamps, etc., all of which provide light and spice up the decor in my den.

Does anyone know if this was a common salesman's sample gift or something unusual? Any in collections of other members?