Serious Safety Concern with 3 inch Shell

[Aragorn243]

I did send bombdoc a PM. Took a while to find him. I was not aware of how many people are registered here. Would appear that almost all of them no longer are active. I know each forum has it's own group but seems like only a couple hundred at most are posting.

[bombdoc]

Hi... you found me!

Ok.. firstly this is a shell, not a core.. cores do not have driving bands, which this clearly had.. the scouring could be as a result of corrosion and/or penetration into sand or other abrasive material.

I am "professionally twitchy" about base plugs.. there are a number of reasons for fitting base plugs, some concerning, others not! It is not a tracer as there is no vent, however there are several early base fuzes, particular those made by Armstrong which have no external markings. Even if it is a mid C19 projectile, a sealed gunpowder filling can be as good as the day it was made! A mate of mine blew some 1804 13" spherical mortar shells a few years back that had been lying on the Thames estuary sea bed and they "functioned as intended"!

This could be a sand filled practice projectile with a solid base plug.. but I would not risk it! My approach would be to have it X rayed, looking for an inner void and signs of mechanism in the plug. If I could not get positive ID, I would be taking it out to the back lot and introducing it to Mr PE and Ms Detonator...!

I would get this checked out by your local EOD..!

Hope this helps...!

[Aragorn243]

Thanks, that was what I was afraid of.

Does it present a hazard as is?

[CINDERS]

You know Aragorn I always err on the side of safety it may be just a sand filled projie then again as bombdoc explained base fuses or plugs make him twitchy, if it does not raise to many concerns I would just get the eod's to fix it for good who knows you may get a curious piece of shrapnel out of it for your collection.

[Flying10uk]

Someone once told me that they needed something small x-rayed so they asked a "tame" dentist to do it for them as a favour, that they happened to be friends with, but it wasn't anything like this that had any possibility of going bang. I forget what it was exactly, now. It would be handy for you if you knew someone very well who just happened to be a dentist who could help. Here in the U.K. you would need to be very careful who you asked; you certainly wouldn't wan't to just walk into your local dentist and ask "Could you x-ray this, please?" because quite literally all hell would break loose.

[bombdoc]

Thanks, that was what I was afraid of.

Does it present a hazard as is?

Difficult to say.. the filling is probably ok if GP, however you have no way of knowing the state of the initiation train, if it has one.. It seems to have survived so far, but I would be careful in handling it and not subject it to any heavy shocks.

Unless you can find a dentist with EOD qualifications, I would not recommend the "get a dentist to xray it" route. Even if you could find one with a powerful enough Xray to penetrate a steel shell, I doubt if he would know what he is looking at. The X ray is a means to an end after all...! I think you need to show this to a qualified EOD tech, which I believe you contact through your PD. In UK outside London, this is done by the Army, but in the States it is done by the Police.

Sorry to be so cautious, but you need to understand that what you are asking is the EOD equivalent of diagnosing a pregnancy by phone...!

[Aragorn243]

I contacted the seller to see if they are aware of it's history. The fellow who knows was not in today. I can't imagine a business, which this came from, would knowingly sell a live round and then ship it UPS. The plug looks like it's never been moved, tight fit.

I just don't want it blowing up while its sitting on my office floor or being transported to where ever it ends up going.

[Flying10uk]

bombdoc, if something of this nature was "presented" to the Army to checked over would it eventually be returned to the person who asked for it to be checked if it was found to be safe?

[Aragorn243]

I spoke with the seller this morning. He said that he did nothing to check it, that the people who brought it into him where the family members of a navy photographer and diver. He had it in his collection, he personally recovered it while diving and he returned it to the ship that he was currently stationed on. He assumed that the Navy diver would know what it was and whether it was safe or not. Not really a whole lot to go on.

[WarPig1976]

You've got yourself in a catch 22 situation here. Do nothing and worry or call your local police dept.
When you do call the cops they will call your County bomb squad. When they see what you have they're going to evacuate your neighborhood, you know it as well as I do. They're not going to take any risks, that shell is going into the bomb proof mixing vat and taken away to be detonated and you ain't getting any piece of shrapnel either.
There is a third option, take it into the deep woods and bury it nice and deep. Think long and hard my friend.........