Serious Safety Concern with 3 inch Shell

[Aragorn243]

I posted a few days ago in the productive Saturday thread about being the winner of a 3" 50 cal brass shell casing. The seller included a shell which they were not sure went with the casing but it was with it when they acquired it.

It arrived today. The shell appears to be correct size, fits in the casing. It is rusted badly, is missing the brass expansion ring but has a perfect condition brass screw cap in the bottom. I'm a bit concerned this thing may still be active. No fuse on the top, just a solid shot from what I can tell, feels heavy like it is solid but the brass plug suggests otherwise. There is writing on the bottom but I can 't make it out, most is too far gone from the rust, but this suggests it is a real shell, not something someone cast up like I initially thought. I honestly can't see a shell in this condition with a brass plug that shows no oxidation at all being original to the shell but weird things can happen.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.