Fun with Hand Grenades

[foolproofoak]

Yesterday, I was at my future brother in law's house which used to be his grandparents house, and the topic of his grandfather's colt 1911 from WWII came up. He has no idea where it is, but after showing him what it was worth he was inspired to look for it. So we went up into the attic and started digging through his grandfather's foot locker when he pulls out this little black canister and says, "what is this, it says 'frag' on it." And i said, "Uh, that's a pineapple grenade." Long story short, it was a WWII era MKII A1 Fragmentation grenade or "pineapple" grenade. We immediately called a friend of ours who is Captain of the local police dep't, and he sent the lieutenant of special investigations over to look at it because i don't think he believed us. The Lt.'s response upon seeing the grenade was "Oh S*** that's real, and he took it to a local military base for disposal. Anyways, sorry for such a long post but you guys have got to see this.

 

[Wheelgunner840]

In the words of Frank Barone (Peter Boyle), "Holy Crap!!!"

WG840

 

[pred]

WOW !
What else is lurking up there?
It is good you found it rather that someone with less respect! ! ! ! !
Peter

 

[Jeb Stonewall]

YOU GAVE IT TO THE COPS?!?!?!?!?!
There is alot of things I can think of on how to get rid of it!

 

[ditrina]

Obviously you don't live in New York..

See Shoo's Post..

You would be doing hard time..

 

[Muddyboot]

I always wanted to fish with one of those.

 

[s&wchad]

Grandpa was a very naughty boy! I can think of a lot of things I'd rather find than a 60+ year old hand grenade. Yikes!!

 

[Racegunner]

By the way it looks it that photo the pin isn't even bent to stay in...

 

[oliver507]

Foolproofoak,
I can't tell for sure about the pin. The grenade looks to be a Vietnam era model like the one's we trained with in basic and AIT in the 60's

 

[GatorFarmer]

Originally posted by oliver507:
Foolproofoak,
I can't tell for sure about the pin. The grenade looks to be a Vietnam era model like the one's we trained with in basic and AIT in the 60's

Should have been "lemon" shaped grenades in the 60s unless old stock was being used up. The "pineapples" were WW2 and Korean era. More modern U.S. ones look like baseballs.

 

[Gutpile Charlie]

That looks like a WWII/Korean War vintage grenade. I was in basic training summer of 59 and we threw the "lemon" shaped grenades. That is definitely earlier.

There are a lot of fake grenades that look like that floating around...in fact I have one.

Did that grenade have yellow paint around the neck? I think one of that era should be painted like that. Also, the pin not being "bent" has me wondering?

This is what the "real deal" should look like. Notice the spoon...it is curved yellow paint on the top of the body.

Now this one is a recent fake. It has a hole in the botton, the body is unpainted and the spoon is from a chemical or signal grenade. Notice that the spoon is "straight". Notice that the spoon is painted blue.

 

[Bob R]

I always wanted to fish with one of those.

Trust me, a concussion grenade works much better for fishing than a frag.

It was amazing what one could get for a bottle of Jack Daniel's or a few cases of San Miguel beer on Diego Garcia before it became a mainstream base.

And we always invited the SeaBees over for the resulting fish fry after one of our trades.

bob

 

[JayCeeNC]

So...did you guys find the 1911??

 

[morsecode]

Shoulda put it on ebay

 

[29aholic]

Originally posted by Muddyboot:
I always wanted to fish with one of those.

My thoughts exactly...I'da gone fishing

 

[NFrameFred]

Well, since the conventional wisdom was "5 second fuses are only 3 seconds", if I was inclined to pull that pin on one that old I'd have had a long string tied to the pin and I'd have been behind something solid . . . .

 

[truckermike]

Guys, theres still a lot of this stuff floating around. Those WWII & Korea vets brought back some wild things (we were a different country then). If you run across a U.S. frag. You can unscrew the striker(yes leave the pin in!)And remove it. Attached will be a blasting cap crimped onto a piece of time fuze. Warsaw Pact and ChiCom-your on your own.

 

[Careby]

I would have had to "de-mil" it and keep it. Maybe I'd have blown myself up trying but I couldn't have just given it away. Did you at least save the can?

 

[oldRoger]

It looks like the ones we used in the early 50's, I do not remember individual packaging, I think egg crate, but it has been a long time.
I think the 5 sec fuse was later, those were I believe, 8 sec, training was, pull pin, release lever, hold it for a count of three then throw, else it may come sailing back.
House to house training, throw two, one cooked off one not, after first bang they stick their heads up and second bang does the trick..

 

[jondar]

All you would have had to do is unscrew the top, if there is powder (or TVT) there pour it out. If you had, I'll bet someone already had done that and detonated the fuse. Simple.