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ID on 40mm projo

Pictured here is an unfired inert 40mm projectile. My question is what shell casing would be correct for this round? Which era? Identification in general would be most appreciated.......Dano
 

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Dano,

You have the projectile from a Practice round for the M75 helicopter weapon system, the Mk 19 machinegun or the XM 129 grenade launcher. It is a one piece solid aluminum projectile body, made to be a ballistic match for the M384 HE projectile. The correct case would be the M169, which is about 2 1/16" long. The shorter M118 case is only about 1 13/16" long. Any time you see a 40mm projectile with the heavy gilding metal rotating bands it is for the high velocity (795 fps) longer case. The short case lower velocity (250 fps) rounds have very small aluminum rotating bands which engaged the rifling easier and didn't slow down the projectile. The M385 series was in use during the Vietnam period.

Bob
 
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