These guys could have been in big trouble!
Practice bombs have a small amount of explosive, usually black powder spotting charge.
Do I need to tell you do not move and certainly do not load an old bomb into your car!

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s...l#.VWMbkYCCOrV

__________________
NRA LIFE MEMBER

Jeez, and the scrapyards around here won't even take fired brass!

If you find something like that, aren't you supposed to beat on it with a hammer before you load it in your truck? Wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly good truck.

A few months ago--they found a live WWII Mortar round here. It was discovered by the wife of a recently deceased WWII vet--in a trunk under his uniforms.That trunk had been stored at the foot of their bed for decades. I hear ofgrenades being found quite often,but not live mortar rounds.

My wife likes to shop for antique glass and I tag along. looking for military items. At one shop we were in, I found a 3.5" rocket with a blue painted warhead, which indicated there were no explosives in the warhead. However, this is a practice round with a rocket motor which actually launches and gives the gunner the experience of launching the rocket.

I looked at the rear and the ignition wires were coming out the rocket nozzle, indicating that the rocket propellant was still in the round. I tried to tell the lady that she had a round with a live rocket motor but she just blew me off saying her husband had told her because it was painted blue it was inert and there was nothing to worry about. I grabbed my wife and we left the store. I guess you just can't help stupid people.

__________________
Bill

A couple of guys who were living in a trailer near Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea went into the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range and brought out a dud Mk82 500 lb bomb. The mensa candidates wanted the scrap metal and the tritonal separated. A cold chisel applied to the nose fuse with a hammer took care of that. The "smarter' of the two stood back 100 feet. Pieces of him were found.

__________________
No good deed goes unpunished.

I hope you notified the nearest bomb squad or EOD unit...(notice my avatar?)

__________________
No good deed goes unpunished.

Here on Lake Murray during WWII they used to practice bomb an island in the mid of the lake, called Bomb or Doolittle Island. At times you can still find shrapnel, internals or guidance fins there. A few have found full "live" bombs and thank goodness as far as I know they left them for the authorities.



Actually had a few B-25s go down in the lake as well.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/114359...7602415585919/

__________________
Isaiah 41:10

The MT Army Guard used to do gunnery out on a fairly large Range near Townsend that for years allowed access by civilians. The vast, vast majority of rds fired were practice rds, with very little HE being used.

I know a few guys out hunting on the Range who found an unexploded, HE 155mm rd. They notified the Guard and some EOD guys came in and detonated it with some C-4. The hole it left and the trees it destroyed was borderline amazing.

And scissors! Don't run with scissors!

(I thought that needed to be said)

__________________
James L. "Jim" Rhiner

MY son was bird hunting at ft bliss.When his dog came running up to him with a 40mm grenade in its mouth.It was painted blue.But he still used a lot of inapropiate language to get the dog to put it down.He did mark the spot and call EOD.Said it messed up his hunting that day.

Not to mention his undies!

During WW II there was a USAAF school for bombardiers at Deming, NM. Before they rearranged the museum at Deming, there was on display a map showing eight targets evenly spaced around Deming, about 30 miles out. The targets consisted of whitewashed rocks in the shape of a battleship. The school used AT 11 Beechcraft twin engined aircraft, which couldn't carry much besides the pilot and a bunch of bombardiers in training. They used 20 pound practice bombs, with a small bursting charge of black powder to show the impact. Anyone been out to one of these targets; there should be a couple not too far west of La Union, NM?

Local scrap yard had a 16" main gun projectile from a battleship. Every time they loaded it on a truck to go to the smelter it was on the next truck back. I had asked one of the guys if they ever got any atiliary projectiles. After walking some distance there it was. That area was bought and built up for a college. Wonder what became of the projectile?. Frank

I just read the training manual for arming the Mk82. No way I want to be in the same county as one of those things, armed or not. Just the warnings on un-packing those things is enough to encourage a career change.

God bless the ordnance armorers and EOD guys.

I grew up watching PSAs such as this,

Memories.


I wonder what happened to them all?

__________________
Dum vivo cano

Shot a ton of those 40 mm's. Light blue color = DUMMY round. Perfectly safe.

As a kid, me and my buddies used to regularly find these gray wooden boxes, a lttle bigger than a shoebox, washed up on the beach. Usually they had burned about half. We would dig into them and get the little brown sticks that made fire and smoke when you broke them. Also inside was a rod of some material (magnesium?) that burned super hot and arc light bright. Miracle we never blew ourselves up before we told one of the "Dads". Then the beatings began!!
Navy smoke bombs they were, and they did definately make smoke.

Many years later: a buddy in the British Army became a bomb squad guy. (EOD)
Spent several years in Northern Ireland (I met him on contract in Spain, defusing a collection of ETA bombs) he showed me those same "little brown sticks" that the basque bombmaker used to ignite the firebombs.
My Brit friend (we called him Felix, because he had that Felix the Cat holding a bomb tattoo) went to Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. ,came home, mustered out of the Army, but couldn't stand the quiet life in the Old Dart, and went back as a private contractor, defusing IEDs. He called it "the long walk".
He's now a recovering adreneline junkie safely back in England.

__________________
Halfway and one more step

Spent a number of years on a police department in a city surrounded by military bases. Always had ordnance turning up, everything from artillery simulators to live grenades, rockets, TNT, C4, Claymore mines, you name it. Also dealt with cases of dynamite found in garages or attics, left over from the old days when a lot of prospecting was going on (one had leaked nitroglycerine all over a wall of shelves, very dangerous stuff). Scrap metal seekers were always hauling in stuff from ranges, all of which were strictly off-limits and likely to result in federal charges for trespassing.

Identify it as best you can, secure and clear the area, no radio use in the vicinity, and wait for the EOD team.

noting exciting as the finds you gents have found but we have found a few cannon balls and grapeshot from some old wrecks from the 1700 s in shallow water

I know of a couple of housing developments that were built on former bombing ranges that weren't cleared completely. The two that I know of: a USN WW2 range in a Arlington, TX and the other is in Orlando, FL - former McCoy/Pinecastle AFB range. Homeowners were digging up stuff, some live, and sued the developer. There are probably others.

__________________
Thread Killer.

I have an inert British grenade my Dad stole when he was in the Canadian Army WII era. I say inert as he told me about taking the fuse and powder out of it in Grandma's basement as she and my Mother sat in the kitchen above.
Guess I'm lucky he pulled it off as I'd not be here if he didn't.

Long story made short. 1975/76, preteen found an inert 80 M/M mortar round, carried it were ever he went, for several weeks. One day he dropped it on a concrete slab in his backyard. Apparently it landed nose down, and to everyone’s horror, it turned out not to be inert.


We all know this, but I’ll say it anyway. DON”T mess with any abandoned/found ordinance.

A story I heard in the NYNG was a soldier found a LAW rocket, decided he would make a lamp out of it. Put it in his duffel bag, then someone threw the bag off the back of a deuce and a half....inside the armory.

Long ago, like early August 1988, we were out jeeping with friends. We'd gone up to Red mountain Pass in Colorado. Then over Black Bear and down the road. Part way down there is a really scenic lake. The road used to be open down to the lake, so we took it. And parked on the flat area just past the dam. There was a mine opening there. Right above the shaft was a drilled hole. Coming out of the hole were 2 wires, tamped in place by a few small rocks and some splits of wood. I wasn't interested enough to try to pull them out, or shoot some electricity to the wires. We've been down that road to Telluride several times, but with the road to the lake blocked off, it just isn't worth the hike. Anyone who plays in that region might want to go see.

__________________
Dick Burg

If the projectile has a plastic nosecone I would agree. The belt fed grenade launchers have a metal and aluminum projectile and I would worry about a spotting charge on those.

Attached Images

40mm.jpg (5.8 KB, 14 views)

my grandfather worked at the old Navy ammunition depot at Hastings. in some of his old stuff was a 20 mm bullet with some pliers marks on it. he or somebody else had unscrewed the point and dumped the powder from the bullet. they then unscrewed the fuse cap and dumped that powder as well. it makes for an interesting talking piece

I have a 20mm bullet. The primer is missing along with the powder. The nose tip us blue! Got it at an airplane museum in S. Florida years ago

Saw on the news this morning 20,000 were evacuated in Cologne Germany after construction workers found a 2,000 pound bomb.

I guess they will not blow it in place, someone gets to tickle the fuses to make it safe.

it is not that unusual to find unexploded bombs in Germany or England for that matter. there were a LOT of bombs dropped in both places during the war