British army dump - Finds over last few months - PIC HEAVY

[RRPG]

Hi All

Apologies for not posting since the middle of the year. With so many other forums, (or is it fori ...... ? ), on the go, I sometimes neglect one or two! I shall put this right now though.

Below are a couple of pictures of some of the items I've recovered from my British army dump site permission since the middle of this year. This place is still producing some incredible relics, and many very rare items. It is also still producing a few unidentifiable bits, but even those have now been tracked down.

On to the pictures....

Bakelite Lee-enfield spike bayonet scabbards

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Lee-Enfield butt plates, Long Lee butt plates and Lee-Enfield butt discs.

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Lee-Enfield and Bren oil bottles, brass, bakelite and early plastic. Note the WW1 pattern LE oiler.... Also found a few of the spouts off Vickers MG oil bottles.

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Bren 100 round magazine mount, Browning MG vehicle mount, Lewis spade grips

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Still a huge number of cloth belt starter tabs coming from the site. Vickers 303, (Mks 1, 2 and 3), Browning M1917 and even Vickers 50cal.

A few more of the vickers 303 tabs have been unit marked.

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Pull through cleaning rods, unidentified rear sites, (possibly early Mauser), muzzle cover from a Long Lee, PIAT rear sight, trigger gauges for LE and Vickers. The remains of two water jacket corks from Browning M1917, Vickers MG bottom pawl spring, split pin and t-bar from ammo crate.

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Now for the more unusual finds......

Grenade discharger cup adapter for fitting a Lee-enfield cup on a P14 rifle.

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Browning M1919 MG pistol grip

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Spouts from the leather funnels for filling a Browning M1917 MG water jacket, (along with another Vickers trigger gauge and oil can spout)

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A couple more of the solid die-cast Lee-Enfield training rifle trigger/mag housing parts.

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And last but by no means least, there little buggers. Initially thought to be cocking handles from an MG, it was soon realised they weren't and were more likely winding handles off some piece of equipment. After a little bit more lateral thinking, they were IDd as being winding handles from magazine or belt loading tools. It then boiled down to which MG, and a friend eventually got a match.

Winding handles from the Hotchkiss tray loading tool. (picture of an original also included).

What an unusual and rare little piece of history!

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You are now more or less up to speed, unless you really want to see the stuff recovered from other sites like RAF bases etc.....

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.

[Daan Kemp]

The plural is fora

[RRPG]

Thanks. Glad you liked the finds.

[browningautorifle]

Lots of interesting stuff...

[RRPG]

Thanks BAR

[Peter Laidler]

VERY interesting stuff I say........ Brilliant

[RRPG]

Glad you liked the finds And there are indeed some very interesting bits in there

[Eaglelord17]

I love seeing these types of threads, keep up the good work. It really helps with identifying the little things that generally get left out in peoples knowledge. For example there is tons of information on rifles, and some on bayonets, and a bit on magazines, but the little things tend to get neglected even though they were generally just as important in usage (as without most of this gear the rifles and such would have useless). Especially important is the MG odds and ends as unfortunately since in most countries you can't own them, most people are unable to acquire the knowledge as to what is needed to run them (or are less interested in what was needed as if you can't handle it, you lose a bit of the interest).

Once again thanks for these awesome finds!

[RRPG]

Thanks Eaglelord. Part of the joy of recovering these relics is identifying them. Some can be really obscure, like the Hotchkiss loading tool winding handle, and some not only obscure, but totally cool, like the P14 adapters.

[Flying10uk]

What do you eventually do with your finds, RRPG; do you sometimes sell items or do you keep everything? I have a M1919 pistol grip of a slightly different design which I recently purchased at a militaria fair and it is in reasonable condition. The label attached to it reads that it was found in the Ardennes in the 1980s but I am a bit sceptical of this because it looks in too good a condition to have come out of the ground. It is currently soaking in diesel but I will post pictures of it in due course. There seemed to still be remains of cosmolene on it which may have helped to preserve it.