20mm Oerlikon

[browningautorifle]

You figure the tip is tungsten? I know my 20mm has an aluminum tip, you can see the dent in it. That's because it was fired. Yours may be harder material and the tungsten penetrators from .50 cal could lay out all winter and not take rust. The normal ball penetrators were mild steel and would be a ball of rust...

[henry r]

thanks for the informitave posts gents.

today i was in a customers house when i turned around and there was a no36 mills.

sometimes i wonder how i have gotten so stupid in my old age (the fact that i made it to 40 says i couldn't have always been this dumb). darwin's theory says you don't say "gee, i hope this thing isn't live" as you pick up a vintage grenade.

it has been a bone of contention in thier family if it was safe or not, so they were rather pleased when i told them it the whole firing mech had been removed. i couldn't tell if there was any explosive in it as i didn't take the filler cap out. for you geeky types the body has a casting mark possibly JP#? the bottom cap was a cast pale metal with a 1941 date and the fuse tube thingy was aluminium looking material. it had the remains of a tropical red x on it.

the husband came in, saw me looking at it and said "do you want it". of course i said "yes, but i couldn't take it, you know these are worth 3 to 500 dollars... so, do you still want to offer it" it is always fun to watch peoples faces when you do that. no it is still in thier house.

they were rather surprised that the blokes delivering thier washing machine, could name it as a no36 mills grenade (they didn't know), tell, explain why (me) and confirm (my colleague was in the reserves for 5 years) it wouldn't go bang if the pin was pulled. plus were so excited to see it.

[browningautorifle]

a no36

I had one of mine appear in a shoebox of mostly empty cartridges... Some live but mostly salvage. The collectings of a kid from somewhere and as a man he gave me two boxes to get rid of. Nice...now I have two with all the bits.

[CINDERS]

One odd ball the Brixa missed a complete (inert) one with the fuse in it the price just went past what I deemed reasonable, mine has the frag coils but no fuse all are inert, henryr hopefully the 36 you looked at appeared like the 2nd picture with nothing in there

[browningautorifle]

Here's the markings on mine, plus I have the dummy fuze set. Kind of had to find around here. First three pics are one, second three are the other.

[CINDERS]

Let me see the fuse would look good in mine and the spoon is better than mine hhhhmmmmm things are affoot Moriarty

[browningautorifle]

You're a hard put and desperate man "Josey Wales"... Yes, those are hard to find bits now.

[CINDERS]

You need a base plate then the discharge cup Jim, I found a cup at a good price but getting into Australia would be a nightmare in-fact it probably would be confiscated at the border so no go have to wait again till one comes up for sale here

---------- Post added at 10:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:00 AM ----------

"Josey Wales"...

Quite a character!

[henry r]

all good cinders, there was no plunger, spring or fuse.

i'm pretty sure that cup thingy you want is actually spare part for a vw generator set.



edit: or perhaps it is the factory tool for removing the guts of the governer and for aligning it during reassembly... ?

gearbox tools?