Oddball American 1943 75mm M61 - never seen anything like it

[jeff w]

Here is a real oddball (currently up for auction). Marked 75mm M61 Bethlehem Steel 1943 on the bottom. The rest of the projectile looks completely normal.
No way you are going to screw an M66A1 BDF in that. Seller says it is threaded.
Anybody ever seen anything like it?
Must have been part of a special batch for experimentation I guess. Or a mistake.

 

[Kaptainssurplus]

Looks like just a ordinary M66A1 fuze hole to me. Why do you think it would fit?

It also could be just a M61 that used a steel plug with tracer, instead of the M66 fuze.

 

[wingsofwrath]

It does have traces of OD paint, which means HE filling and I agree the fuze hole looks rather small for an M66 fuze.
Besides, the unfilled M61s I've seen also have the wide hole and a wide plug to match.

 

[MINENAZ16]

Bump this thread

 

[HAZORD]

Did anyone from BOCN buy the projectile?

 

[jeff w]

Here is a good comparison photo next to a standard M61. I would bet that the buyer did not notice it was an abnormal experimental projectile.
What do you think of this theory -
The Germans reduced the cavity on their 88 projectiles to get better penetration results. When Ordnance noticed this, they might have thought the Germans were on to something and did a little experimenting...
I wonder if an M58 BDF from the 37mm M63 would screw in.

 

[jeff w]

Theory #2.
Because of the bottleneck in M66/M66A1 fuze production, maybe Ordnance experimented with using a different base fuze - one already in production and proven - maybe the M58 or something similar?